OK, maybe I am over-reacting, but recently I have been getting very nervous because my toddler is a climber, as I am sure most are. His playroom and bedroom are both upstairs and we have a large open balcony that overlooks the (hard tiled) foyer and dining area. He is still under age 2 and is already piling his toys up next to the railing and climbing up. Am I being silly to think there is a danger that he may one day decide to climb up on top or over it and fall? I can just picture a 5 year old deciding to try to propel over it with a rope around his waist or something. Heck, I know I'd have tried something like that when I was a kid! We have high ceilings and the way it is set up, there isn't a way to "childproof" this. I have seriously been considering moving to a single story home because it is scaring me so much. So, is this an actual valid fear or just me being crazy? Has anyone heard of or experienced serious injuries due to kids playing on stairs and more specifically open balconies? Of course we do have safety gates at the top and bottom of stairs prevent falling straight up and down, and he is never unsupervised at this age, but I am worried about what could happen in a few years when he gets out of bed at night and such. Our master is downstairs, so he could easily be upstairs without supervision once he is in a toddler bed and can get out of his room.
Thank you all. We are looking around at one story homes, but if we do decide to stay, we will call infant house. We used Jack for our "first round" of babyproofing, and were very pleased :) The balcony is very open with a super high ceiling, so I suppose plexiglass could work, but it would have to be a LOT. In addition, I am still worried about what happens in case of fire or tornadoes with us downstairs and the kids up, and no amount of childproofing can fix that worry. Thanks again, though. Ya;ll made me feel better about my worries.
Why not try something like this? One step ahead has tons of babyproofing stuff!
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...
J. -
In my opinion, it is a reasonable fear, but more for an unsupervised 2-3 year old than for a 5-year-old (unless the 5-year-old is extremely impulsive or an extreme risk-taker). Most kids understand by age 5 that falling that far could really hurt them...particularly if you explain it to them with emphasis and repetition. We have a couple of short "half-walls" in our house that overlook downstairs, and we specifically had them made as solid half-walls (instead of open railings) so that young children can't climb them easily and can't see down (what they don't see they aren't as interested in). I would be nervous buying a house with a balcony with open railings if I had young children.
That having been said, it may be possible to block access to the railing on the balcony somehow or otherwise make it unattractive to a child. Or perhaps you gate off the balcony (gate the child in their room instead of just gating the stairs).
The final call is yours, though. Your children are YOUR children, and those of us on Mamasource can't see your exact situation.
I wish you wisdom and peace in your decision.
B.
I'd get with a professional babyproofer. Also, make sure your upstairs windows are guarded. One of my daughter's friends fell out of a second story window almost as soon as they'd moved in at the beginning of this summer. Luckily there was an awning or something to break her fall, but she still was in the hospital a while with a cracked skull, brain swelling, broken shoulder blade, etc. The little girl is fine now, but it was a scary ordeal.
Hi J.,
A friend of mine had the same issue. She had my husband design and build a plexiglass barrier that ran the length of the balcony area. It was basically a track that the plexiglass sat in- when you looked it you could barely see it was there, it was removable for cleaning, and it was high enough that a child could not get over it! It was actually a big selling point when they sold there house.
Maybe your DH (or you!) can take the idea and run w/ it. If you want my dh to take a look and give you a quote let me know!
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D.
Hi J.!
I had the same fear when I moved into the house I'm in now. I have an upstairs gameroom that was open to my downstairs. The stair railings just continued through the whole area. It was so pretty and open but gave me nightmares. I didn't even like to be up there. I found someone to come in and build me a 3/4 wall because I still wanted it to be somewhat open but high enough to not have to worry. It actually looks really good and it gives the room more privacy and blocks out some of the sound. I may at some point knock the wall down but for now it was the perfect solution. I looked into some of the babyproofing ideas and none would work, very expensive and none of the ideas looked good or made me feel better about the situation. I can give you the name of the guy that did it for me, he only ended up charging me about 600 to put the wall up and texture. I painted it myself because I was in the process of repainting anyways. www.kidsinbloom.blogspot.com All my contact info is on there.
I know of a teenager who was at a party and fell over the edge of one of these balconies. He was not suppose to live, then never move again, but now, by the grace of God, he is out of his wheelchair. It was, and is still, a VERY tough road though! Also, I have a friend whose 5 year old propelled their new kitten over this type of balcony and killed the cat. You probably do want do something about this.
J.,
You are very smart to be concerned! I have a climber too and we have baby gates all over our house, including across her bedroom door so she cannot get out of her room at night. I am not sure exactly what you mean by your open balcony.
Our game room has a half wall, and our baby proofer installed a gate across the top of the half wall for us. Two days after he did so, she stood on a toy and was peaking over the half wall. Before we did that, we actually put up a gate across the doorway to our game room so she could not get in there at night if she managed to get out of her room.
He did not think he wanted to put a gate across the half wall at first, that it would not be sturdy enough, but we agreed to not hold him responsible if it failed somehow. He installed brackets at the bottom of it into the half wall to help hold it sturdy and he, too, was pleased with the results. If you have railings on the balcony, he can also put some sort of material on the front of the posts so that your child cannot climb up the rails. He does great work and I highly recommend him!
Rod Johnson, http://www.smallworldbabyproofing.com/
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Well-- I just tried the link and it was not working-- I hope that means it is a server issue and not that he has closed his business. Hmmm... Rod has come out to our home on 3 seperate occassions and I cannot recommend him highly enough.
We have our family room/kitchen area gated off from the rest of the home so we can contain the girls in one safe play area during the day, too.
If you do call him, tell him that A. Guthrie referred you from Mamasource. Good luck!
A.
We have lived in a similiar situation now for 2 years and this is what has worked for us and our 3 little boys--I made a rule at the very beginning that any toy that was thrown over the balconey or used to climb in the balconey area would be confiscated FOREVER. Then when it happened I sweetly explained our rule and that the toy was now mine and they never saw that toy again. I tried to never yell or cause a big reaction when they were near the balconey and toys involved in infractions were quietly removed. I also have cleared the area of any furniture that could be scooted over and climbed on. I only had to do it three times over the first few months and now the boys just totally avoid the area because it is a boring place where toys get confiscated. I do take special notice when we have friends over because they don't know the rule, but I have overheard my boys frantically informing visitors not to throw anything over or mommy will take it away! I don't worry about the middle of the night thing because I have found with our boys that they are usually on a mission to find mom and dad instead of planning elaborate trouble making episodes. I totally understand your worry and can encourage you that if you take a stand and are really consistent (and watchful over the area) it will become a non-issue pretty quickly. If you want to take that extra step and baby-proof the area then I have had really good experience with InfantHouse.com.
Dear J.,
I don't think you're wrong to worry. I have 4 kids. Only the last one was a climber/explorer/jumper/risk taker. If someone doesn't have one of these kids, they can't even imaging what that child can think of to do. We had a house like yours...upstairs balcony with long rail overlooking foyer with tile floor. We actually had a contractor come in and wall it up. But, at the top, we had him leave 2 large "windows" (just cased openings) so we'd continue to get light. I was worried how it would look, but it looked really great and the openings were so high that even with a sofa next to that new wall, a child could not climb over. Also, it gave us another wall to use in that room. But, and this is the most important thing, when the contract removed the rail, he found that the entire thing was attached to the wall with just 3 finishing nails. Unbelievable! A running toddler could have just knocked the whole thing down and then fallen a very long way. So, if nothing else, please reinforce the rail with some large nails. Sorry this is so long...
P.
No, you're not overreacting and are you 100% sure there is no way to childproof the balcony? I used to work (meaning I no longer do and I don't get paid to consult) with a local babyproofer, I bet if you send me a picture of the area you are talking about I could try and help you figure out a way to tackle the hazards. It could save you the money from having to move or worse, the hospital bills if indeed he did fall.
Just let me know! I'll send you my private email.
The little boy next door fell off his balcony onto the hard wood floors beneath. He was also a climber and pretty fearless. He wasn't hurt, but it scared his mother to death. My house has a similar layout, but my kids have never contemplated crawling up there. I had never even considered the danger before this child fell. I think some kids are predisposed to being dare-devils. You aren't crazy to be concerned.
I had a balcony over-looking the marble entry and had it changed to a wall. It wasn't that expensive and REALLY helped later with the noise from the play area. Now it's the office, so the change really worked for us.
I remember in our old neighborhood a 5 year old fell out the 2nd story window as she was pressing her face on the screen talking to the puppy in the backyard. She was fine but she hit the patio and had a concussion, and was in the hospital for a week, so these things do happen!
J.,
It sounds like our homes are similar as our gameroom only has a half wall that overlooks our stairs and our foyer down below(with marble floors). It was a huge fear of mine when we first moved in with our 3 1/2 yr. old and 8mos.old. I second what Holly says-we are VERY calm yet VERY firm. We don't have anything near the wall first of all and if anything is scooted towards the wall or used as a step we immediately take it away, never to be seen again. I believe that if you are firm about it and consistent your kids will understand the severity of the danger and not mess with it. We now have a third child(2y.o) and he recently tried to scale the wall with his sisters drum stool we immediately dealt with him, put the drum stool back in her room(we can't do away with that forever!) showed him where it belong and told him not to touch it or the wall. That's been two weeks ago and he hasn't gone near the wall since. HTH.
