Conference moira::parenting_v3

    It sounds like a pain, but can you tape the oven shut with strong tape,
    like 3-inch wide electrical tape?
    
    My ovens are self-cleaning and have a latch to lock them, so I use that
    when I'm concerned.
    
    judy

    If there is nothing sold per se as an oven guard, (are we talking gas or
    electric here?) my first reaction would be those flat metal plates that you
    would use if you wanted to padlock something, and then find something
    that would fit through the metal loop to keep the thing locked, mount
    it on the side of the oven, hopefully out of site.  It will probably
    require you to drill 4 or 6 small holes, and buy some sheet metal
    screws, since these things come with wood screws usually.
    
    I sort of wonder if a plain old hook and eye might do the same
    technique?
    
    Does your oven have a cleaing cycle?  Sometimes by putting it on a
    cleaning cycle, but not turning the on switch, it will lock the door
    automatically.
    
    This may sound ignorant but if there's no pilot light, is he really
    small enough  to crawl inside??  Have you considered gates or playpen
    as an option??
    
    Just some thoughts.....
    Lyn

    RE:.2

    The oven is electric and even though the hole drilling idea sounds
    good, we are renting and I don't think we should do that.  

    Yes, he has climbed totally into the oven before.  What if the door
    closed on him or the oven was still warm.  I am sure I would know before 
    anything happened to him, but even still, that just really scares me to 
    think about it.

    He evens opens it when it is hot.  I have thought about a gate, but
    the way the kitchen is set up, there is just a big open space and not
    really a doorway or anything like that to put a gate up.  I have put him
    in the play pen and that worked, until this past Friday when he
    literally jumped out of it in a single bound.  I guess I will put that
    away.

    Our lease expires the end of this month, so we are looking for a new
    place to live.  The place we live in now is really not conducive to
    having children.  I might try to masking tape idea.  I will be glad
    when he is out of this stage of exploring EVERYTHING.
    
    Kathy

The "Perfectly Safe" catalog carries something that looks like wide, heavy 
duty velcro strips to use as a latch.

=ss

    Would it be possible to use a bunji cord?  Attach one end to the door
    handle and then the other end to one of the holes in the top of the
    stove.  He may still be able to open the door a bit, but having the
    cord there would cause the door to keep shutting.  (Does that make
    sense?)
    
    Lori B.

    From what I've seen of the velcro item used to keep refrigerators
    closed, wouldn't that work on an oven?
    
    -sandy
    

    Can the door be tightened? It sounds to me that the door is loose, most
    oven doors are not easily opened. Maybe the springs on the door need
    replacing. Also, your litte tyke seems to be a strong little guy!! My 14
    month old tries to open our oven door, but she can't.
    
    I second the velcro, my neighbor has this on her fridge, and it works
    like a charm.
    
    
    Sandy
    
    
    

    I'm not sure the velcro will work on an oven.  We used it on our fridge
    when my 2 year old insisted on opening the door and eating the butter.
    It worked great until summer when our [very old] fridge got hot on the
    outside.  Then, the adhesive holding the velcro in place let go.  Also,
    prior to this happening, the velcro got debris in it and my son could
    open the door by just pulling very hard.
    
    On the other hand, the velcro is inexpensive so you could try it
    without breaking the bank.

    How can I get a copy of the "Perfectly Safe" catalog?  I used
    to have my kitchen gated off, but now that James is using the bathroom
    (and you need to go through the kitchen to get to the bathroom),
    I don't know if that will work.  It'll be a while before Holly
    gets to the into-everything stage, but I would like to be prepared.
    TNX.

    Perfectly Safe  800.837.5437

i second the bungi cord suggestion.  i use them in several similar 
situations.  by pulling it pretty tight before it reaches the handle you can 
make it nearly impossible for a child to unhook yet still access your oven if 
you plan on eating in the next month.  -craig

    
    This is a great question.  I also have a 14 month old who does the
    exact same thing!  Alot of these suggestions are good, except he does
    this while things are in the oven cooking too!  I pretty much have to
    follow him around while the oven is on so the won't open it, and the 
    other night when my husband wasn't home, I
    had to put him in the bathroom with the door shut just so I could open the
    oven and turn something over...jeez!  He also open the dishwasher and
    climbs into that,then stands up on the door, and pulls the top rack
    open and shut.
    My first one was never like this!  We call him Tanner "stuntman"
    

    Many of these suggestions would no doubt work. But do you really think
    he would climb into a hot oven?  Even the scenario of getting into a
    cold oven and somehow pulling the door shut seems unlikely.
    
    In any case, 14 months is not too early to teach him not to mess with
    things you don't want him to -- explaining that the oven could hurt
    him, and removing him from the area whenever he tries to open it.
    
    Kit

    RE: .12

    My son also gets into the dishwasher, the refrigerator, the fireplace,
    the toilet, the tub, the trash, the phone etc...  He is like lightning when
    he gets an idea to "get into" something.  He is also a climber and will
    climb from one thing to another to reach whatever he is after.  

    He is a good kid, just very curious and inquisitive.  It is driving me
    nuts though.  I am home with him alone most of the time.  All I do when
    I am home is follow him around to make sure he doesn't get into things.
    It wears me out and I get nothing else done.  I get very frustrated
    sometimes.  I just keep telling myself that this to shall pass.  The
    big question is ... WHEN?.  

    I appreciate all of your suggestions.  I think I am going to try the
    bungi cord one first.  Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

    Thanks.
    
    Kathy

    
    Kathy,
    
    Christopher is 14 months old too. He tries to open the over door, but
    it needs a good pull to get all the way open. You may need to tighten
    the door.
    
    Now would definitely be a good time to teach him the word "NO!". When
    Chris gets near the stove when I am cooking something, I say "NO, it's
    hot!" He touches the side and pulls his hand away  (It just feels warm,
    but he's learning what the word hot means.). With one touch, his 
    curiosity is cured and he goes on to other things.
    
    I can relate to having to chase him around all day long. Fortunately,
    Chris isn't a climber, he just grabs everything in reach and sight.
    But we've been telling him No for quite some time now, and most of
    the time he listens. Other times he tests us, and that's when he 
    either gets pulled away for the object we are saying no for, or he
    gets a timeout, where he goes in his crib for 1 minute. (Which is
    a lifetime to him, and me!)
    
    Good luck with the bungi cord.
    
    Sheila
    

    Reply to .13 - a young child will try anything that looks interesting
    to them.  Of course s/he wouldn't climb all the way into a hot oven but
    they sure might try, and get badly burned in the process.
    
    When my middle son was 21 months he grabbed an iron that my niece had
    just unplugged.  He only had hold of it for a split second and ended up
    with 2nd and 3rd degree burns, the rest of the day in a strange
    emergency room (we were visting my parents at the time), and several
    painful visits to a plastic surgeon.
    
    The bungi cord idea sounds good.  
    
    And, to the basenoter - life can be CRAZY with a toddler - my third son
    gets into things the other two didn't know existed!  But, they do learn
    and in retrospect, the time goes by very quickly!
    
    Good luck!

    Sheila (.15)
    
    I do tell him "No" for what seems like all the time lately.  It just
    seems to make him more interested in getting into whatever it was he
    wanted.  I use timeouts and they don't do anything.  He screams the
    entire time and then goes right back to where he left off afterwards.
    
    The only thing has has worked is distraction.  If I can get him
    interested in something else, he will forget about it.
    
    For still being so young, he sure has a sense of himself.
    
    Kathy

This comment in .17:

>    I do tell him "No" for what seems like all the time lately.  

brings to mind our experiences.  At around one year, our principle was that 
"NO" was absolutely reserved for fundamental safety issues.  In our case 
that meant:

	Electric cords
	The oven
	Going near the street

We didn't use it for "social" infractions (gentle persuasion there), or for
messing with the stereo (it was our job to make sure it was inaccessible).
That meant that we used NO relatively rarely; and when we did use it, it was
almost always sufficient to reduce Elspeth directly to tears, and immediately
end the activity we were concerned about.

Back then, it worked so well that I though we had found the key to baby 
discipline.  Reading these notes over the many years since, I have come
to suspect that we just happen to have found the technique that worked
with our baby (or maybe we were just lucky enough to have a baby that
our technique worked with).  Still, I offer the suggestion for what it
may be worth to all of you.

	-Neil

   re: .16
   
   >  When my middle son was 21 months he grabbed an iron that my niece had
   
   This was really my point -- a child could definitely hurt him or herself
   with an iron, because the child has no way of knowing it is hot until
   touching it. The same is not true for an open oven.
   
   I don't mean to belittle danger. On the other hand, I think we sometimes
   tend to underestimate the knowledge of children with respect to what is
   dangerous for them -- things that can burn them, or places from which
   they can fall, for example.  We must be very watchful, but we must not
   be so protective that we override the judgement of a child when that
   judgement can be expected to be valid (from instinct or from learning).
   
   Kit