Do You Worry About Your Toddler Wandering Out of the House?

I'm wondering about this same thing with my 2.5 year old. But I don't think he'll wander when it's dark as he doesn't like being in the dark by himself.

Can you put a babygate at her bedroom door? Or maybe use a baby monitor so you'd hear her getting out of bed?

If you've toddler proofed your house she will not be likely to hurt herself. It sounds like you have some changes to make. You will not want to keep her confined to her crib for the next several years. :) Soon you will not be able to always have her within your sight. While you're in the bathroom she'll climb up on that step stool and reach the knife that you've left there because you weren't going to be gone long.

You do need to keep everything that is dangerous out of the reach of your daughter all of the time. This may mean putting "stoppers" on your drawers and door knob covers on your outside doors. You won't know what you need to do until you allow your daughter to explore the house and watch what she does. Some toddlers are more active than others.

You won't know if she'll leave her room and get into things until you give her the opportunity to do so. My grandchildren, now ages 6 and 9 never left their room to get into things during the night. But if they had, their mother would've put up a gate or tried other ways to keep them in their room.

They did climb up on the step stool. My daughter put the step stool on top of the refrigerator. Knifes and scissors were in a drawer that the kids never tried to open until they were tall enough to see into the drawer. Actually they can't open a drawer that is above their heads. Toxic products that we usually kept under the sinks went onto top shelves in the closets.

They did get into things that their mother would rather that they not get into but never into something dangerous because she thought about dangers and found ways to keep them out of the kids reach. My granddaughter, who has eczema, for which we used cream, smeared the cream all over the foot stool in her bedroom. After that the cream went on an upper shelf until she was old enough to have already learned to not smear cream on furniture. She was allowed to smear cream on herself and on one of her stuffed animals. She smeared cream on me. At 2 and 3 she learned where it was appropriate to smear cream. Because cream is not dangerous, only an inconvenience, the cream wasn't kept completely away from her as a knife would be.

Both kids have dumped powder and pulled most of the canned goods out of the cupboard. Yes, it makes a mess but we as parents cannot prevent all such inconveniences. Exploring is a very important part of learning and growing up. It's up to parents to set up ways that are acceptable to us and safe for our children as they expand their world.

As for climbing. Toddlers climb. Look at the places she might climb and change their configuration. Keep chairs pushed under the table. Remove furniture from under open windows. Put that step-stool out of sight. Know that she will climb up on the sofa. Perhaps move the coffee table away from the sofa.

And, teach her what she can do. If you don't want her onto a piece of furniture watch for when she gets up on it and remove her, telling her in whatever way you choose to use that she cannot climb on that piece. You'll have to repeat this lesson over and over.

You definitely do not want your daughter to go outside unsupervised, day or night. Once she learns how to operate that door handle she will go outside. You will not be able to have your eye on her all of the time. My granddaughter had never left the apartment until she was around 3 or 4. I was in the kitchen. She went out the front door. By the time I realized she wasn't still in her room,(perhaps 4-5 minutes) quietly playing, she had made her way down to the office. Fortunately she went to the office and not out the building's front door.

The apartment door is metal and there was no easy way to put a latch on it higher up and the handle was a lever and we couldn't find a device to stop it's use. Some how she didn't make it past the front door again. Keeping our children safe is a learning process for all of us. We try different things until we find one that works. And, often, in spite of our best efforts, things happen that scare us. That is just the way it is. We can never forsee everything our child will try or do but yet nearly every child whose parents were actively involved in providing for their safety grows to adulthood.

I strongly advise you to go thru your house and put up anything that is dangerous for your daughter. And try out the toddler bed. It may not work for a variety of reasons. However, keeping her in the crib so that she won't leave her room will only work until she learns how to climb out. Do you want to begin teaching her about being safe now or later?

Your DH is right to be concerned. Very REAL concern. (My nephew is a such a case in point, I won't even go into it... and from working in an ER, I can't even begin to count the number of cases of injury, although from being and talking with other mums & dads it's mostly finding all the pots on the kitchen floor, or the bathroom flooded, or smooshface asleep in the hallway). We didn't take the rail down until our kiddo was 3, in large part because of this. We couldn't trust him to listen/comprehend, so we didn't.

For when it's time though:

Step 1 (option a): Baby gate across bedroom door.
Step 1 (option b): Great Dane Dog gate across bedroom door, twice as high, 10x as sturdy
Step 2: Upper corner LATCH on all exterior doors (the very very upper corner), and to any door leading to a water supply (bathrooms, kitchen if possible)
Step 3: Alarm all exterior door. Preferably to a very very LOUD alarm, that you set before going to be. This doesn't protect against drowning or injury in the house, but it keeps them from getting more that a few feet out of the house without you knowing about it.

Will ALL this be necessary with every child? Absolutely not. But with some kids, these would only be the very basics. DO NOT, whatever you do, install a lock on their bedroom door. It can be deadly in case of fire, and is grounds for CPS to get involved.

My daughter is the same way. She is very smart and VERY busy and 2 1/2. We put a chain lock high on our front door of our apartment. That way even when she unlocks all the locks she cannot get out or get to the lock, even with a chair or step stool. Our sliding door leads to our balcony so we don't have to worry about that so I don't have a solution for that.

As far as the kitchen goes, our knives are now located on the top of our fridge and all scissors, etc are located ridiculously high so she can't get to them. We also still have her baby monitor in her room so we can hear when she gets up in the morning, and one of us just gets up with her. It's not the most convenient solution I know but her safety is more important than sleep :)

Before I got to bed I also do a once over of all the rooms and make sure bathroom doors are shut and that anything breakable or dangerous are up high and out of reach. I also usually tuck her step stool away and push all chairs very close to the dining table and desk so she can't climb before we get up with her.

Good luck!!

When my son was 2.5 he decided to take himself for a walk down the street. My husband was in the office on a phone call and thought our son was asleep on the couch. My daughter and I were at church. Thankfully he found our son quickly in our neighbor's yard, but it scared my husband plenty. We have an alarm system that includes a chime for any door or window that is opened. So we turned it on. It's annoying to hear it all day any time someone goes in or out, but we feel a lot more secure knowing he won't slip out the door without the chime going off.

Can you gate your hallway or her door with a really, really good gate that is hard to open for her? Maybe with a 2-step latch? My son can climb out of his crib and has learned to come in by us but several times he did go downstairs and would cry when he could not find us. Get rid of the step stool in the kitchen if you can. My son is a little monkey and even pushes over toys to climb up. I have really worked with him on not touching the knives, scissors etc. However, the candy on the counter is "free loot" as far as he is concerned if my back is turned! Wanted to add one more thing, we have lever handle doors and I bought a 2-step safety latch for it. You have to push up a latch and then pull down the handle. My son figured them out the second day I put them on, maybe you will have better luck....

Gate her bedroom door entrance. Done.

In the future, you need to get safety locks on ALL your doors. This is non-negotiable. Better to be inconvenienced than have her halfway down the street while you are taking a shower. Lots of options, but please find one.

Try putting her bed in your bedroom for a while to get her used to it? it may be easier for you to hear her as well. Good Luck I have that fear as well

you can put a baby gate in her doorway at night so she can't get out of her room.

When we first moved my son into his Big Boy Bed at 16 months (he would climb to the top of the crib and JUMP out!), we put up a removable baby gate on his bedroom door. Just one of those cheap $15 ones from Walmart. That did the trick for us until he turned 2.5 and figured out how to knock down the gate :(. But by then we were able to train him to not wander in the house when he got up. We have a pool, so we put a masterlock on the pool gate and put up a babycover/lock thing on the front door since he could open the front and back doors by himself. He is now almost 5 (will turn 5 in 2 weeks) and no longer opens the front door to bolt outside. We are now training him to only open the front door when we are present, right beside him when the doorbell rings. Over time and constantly training him about safety and why we don't want him in the backyard or front yard by himself and Stranger Danger, he finally gets it MOSTLY.

My 2.5 yo daughter will be moved to her Big Girl Bed very soon. She likes to sleep with her bedroom door closed and during the 1 hr Quiet/Naptime for both kids in the afternoon, she is content to play in her room with the door closed (versus her brother who ALWAYS comes out even when he was just 16 months old since he was already tall enough to open the door himself). So I don't think I'll need to put up the gate for her.

FYI: We also keep our kitchen gated most of the time, so that helps reduce the danger. We put up another removable gate to block off our dining room/kitchen. And I still keep the baby monitor on so I can hear both kids. We just have one monitor in my daughters room, but the kids room are just across the hall from each other, so I can hear both kids.

Gate her into her own room.

Put a gate, the kind you have to push a peddle to open, on her door.

My middle child is still a climber. I know your worries. We installed a hotel type door lock on all our doors. We bought them at Home Depot. It really helped. the gate on the door way was a joke. I have a friend that put a lock on the outside of her sons door so he couldn't escape. I felt too guilty doing that. all scissors were kept on top of the fridge. good luck

This was a big fear I had as well when we moved to a big-boy bed. One night my son went into the kitchen, scaled the open trash compactor to the top of the counter where the fish tank was. By the time I heard him and woke up, he had managed to scoop all the fish out of the tank and put them in the dogs water bowl. I put a doorknob cover on the inside of my sons door. We also have an alarm system we arm at night so it will go off if anyone goes out the door.

Get an "above-the-door" lock for her room and lock her in her room at night. It might sound mean, but it is a very effective way to keep her safe if she climbs out of her bed at night. http://www.kidsafeinc.com/product/B2006

Good luck!