For those of you who don't go to the Christian area, I wanted to share this. KrisRV shared there about a little 2 year old boy who got out in the middle of the night on Thursday night and was hit by a tractor trailor and killed. This story hits too close to home for me being that I have 2 little ones myself. A few years ago a little girl was found wondering around the town I grew up in.. luckily she wasn't harmed. I knew as soon as I saw the kids even reacing for the door knobs that they needed child proofed! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! GO TO WALMART AND GET SOME KNOB COVERS!!!! THEY ARE CHEAP AND ARE EASY TO INSTALL AND USE!! JUST THINK A LITTLE PIECE OF PLASTIC COULD HAVE SAVED THIS LITTLE BOY'S LIFE!!! They are like 2 or 3 bucks for 2 of them.. please put them on all your exterior doors!!! If you really can't afford them please PM me and I will try to squeze the money to get you a pack and mail them to you.. but I'm sure each one of you can afford to buy them.. your babies lives are worth it!
My baby, who is 21 months, has already been able to take them off the knobs for the last 2 months. That's take them off. Not open them. We had to put a dead bolt way up high instead. This works well for the 3 & 5yo, too. But if you don't have a child as dexterous as mine, I agree with Sommer 100%!
Then use some super glue to put them on! My little ones can take them off too.. mine are glued on! Sorry, but you need to do what ever is necessary to keep your kids safe! Put a chain lock or something up on the top of the door where the children can't reach them!! Something like this is 100% preventable!
If your kids can take off the knob covers get a latch lock to put at the top of the door. My cousins son is autistic and he got out once. She tried everything. Wasn't until she put the latch at the top of the door where he couldn't reach it that the problem was solved. We never had knob covers. Never had a problem with dd trying to escape.
My 2 year got outside couple months ago, climbed into my car. Scary!!! I have thought about those but do have a question. My 73 year mil lives with us. Mentally she has a great mind but sometimes things confuse her. My question is for those who have the plastic covers, do you think she could open the door easily or does she have to squeeze and turn? Her upper body strength is weaker.
yep... all you have to do is squeeze them.. super easy, but not easy enough for a young child I should have been more clear.. yes you squeeze and turn them.. but they aren't hard to do. I will go take a pic of mine and post it..hang on
Ok.. here are 2 pics.. there are two rubberized grip areas that you squeeze.. they are on opposite sides. One side you get with your thumb, the other with your middle or ring finger.
I put a simple eye-and-hook up high on exterior doors- my monkeys figured out those knobs in 2 minutes! They are probably less than $2 for a set and easy to install. That story is so sad.
My Jeannie and Kevin never tried to get outside, either. I never let them out of my sight, though. Believe it or not, our dog used to try to mess with the doorknob, to open it! Had I not been there to see it with my own eyes, I'd never believe it. I was outside the window, looking in, and he wanted to come out. I swear to you all he used his claws to try and make the knob turn. I should have taken a picture.
We always just used a dead bolt and baby gates. I have a friend whose daughter (conniving thing she is) also figured out how to get the knobs off as well. Even with the dead bolt, if they are conniving enough, they will get a chair and try to turn that as well, so get a HEavy, hard to turn dead bolt, or an alarm system!
Becky, we had a cat who would stand on her hind legs and try to open the door! Sommer, I'm glad you mentiond these because this 22 mo old dgd of mine is something else!! I was a sleepwalker and my mom caught me trying to get out the front door one night when I was around 8. I had to miss out on my first year of Church summer camp for that reason. Our camp was located on a lake and my mom decided to wait a year and see if it eased off. Later on I became a sleep walker/screamer which wasn't fun for anyone involved!!
They also sell cheap alarms for your doors too. (Lowes or Homedepot)We put them on our doors and you flip the switch to on and if the door is opened its sounds an alarm really loud. Since we have a pool its one of many lines of defense we have to keep the kids out of harms way.
I won't glue those things on my doors. I perfer the deadbolt. I make sure my doors are locked while I am inside. My 2 year old tried once to walk out and thankfully I caught her. My other two never tried that. Anyway...she got a spanking and hasn't tried since. She wouldn't be able to get out anyway...but she hasn't attempted it. Be firm if you kid tries. It is not enough to just lock doors. You need to talk to the kid and punish a child for trying. I say this because other homes or places may not be as locked down as yours.
I don't live in the safest part of town so my doors are always locked (with 3 different locks) and my kids are very well trained not to touch any of the doors. Thanks for this reminder to help keep our kids safe! Amy
I used the doorknobby things, but now we have an alarm. Both my kids learned pretty early on how to manipulate the doorknob covers. We have a security screen door (this makes the front door difficult to open), and an alarm (that has a very loud chime and voice message should anyone open the door). I actually allowed the kids to 'set it off' and it scared the you know what outta them, too! It covers the windows too (thinking of the teenage years).:roll: That is so terrible about that little boy. I just can't imagine what his parents are going through.
