Keeping your kids from wandering at night

I read somewhere today that a lot of people consider it's abuse to put a door knob cover on the inside of kids' bedroom doors so they can't get out. It's totally new to me... my kids are in cribs and can't get out either, but as soon as we put them in twin beds it will be abuse? They sleep with the door closed and always have.

So now I'm really in no rush to switch them... the stairs are very close to our bedroom doors, and the dog tends to sleep on top of it, and I KNOW that if we don't prevent them from going out they will wander in the house and/or fall down the stairs. We can't put a baby gate on top of the stairs (the railing is too low and goes to the edge of the wall), they sleep with the door closed so we can't put a baby gate at their door either (which would be pointless I guess by then anyway)... so what do we do?

Curious how people handle it, especially for the kids that have been out of cribs since 2...

 

My DS figured those doorknob covers out at like 18 months. We tried a variety of different locks, but eventually ended up turning his doorknob around and having it lock from the outside. He would come out in the night or early morning and get into things I was worried, he'd unlock the doorwall as well and get out. I know some think that is "abusive", but it kept him safe and I used a monitor until we stopped having to use the lock.

 

I just (as in three weeks ago) removed the door knob covers from the inside of their door. If the door knob covers didn't work, I would have used a latch lock on the outside of the door or flipped the doorknob around.

But I don't see how is it abusive? You're keeping them safe in their room when you can't supervise them, and it's not like you're keeping them in there all day and night (are you?? )

 

I turned the door knob around too. Mine figured out those covers by like 18 months! And as soon as they were tall enough to reach the doorknob, they were unlocking it.

BUT - you CAN put a baby gate on the door even if it's closed. I did to begin with. The gate should be able to fit on the doorframe/trim and still allow the door to close and latch completely. Take a second look at yours before you disgard that idea.

Do you have just an actual railing going up the stairs, or is there drywall and then the railing?? If it is drywall, could you maybe put the gate on the stairs themselves, like 1 or 2 stairs from the top? You'd still have the gate for security, and if they did fall it wouldn't be that far..

Just a few ideas. Good luck - we are STILL battling the wanderers 2.5 years after taking them out of cribs. If we forget to lock the door, they are in our bed! LOL

 

ditto on we will be locking their door when it comes to that time...

I heard someone say that basically now you're just creating their entire room as their "crib"... same thing, like you said.

we have a nice hallway outside their room so I actually have a tall gate on it which works out good b/c now they for some reason in the past month have wanted the hall light on... and their door open... before it was closed and dark in there.

 

I've always had some icky feelings about having the door knob cover on the inside (we have it covered in packing tape so they can't take it off), but I'm also unsure of a good alternative. My guys can easily climb over gates, so that would be useless.

But after staying at my parent's house last week and seeing them sleep in a room with the door wide open, my DH and I have decided to leave their door open. They do get up occasionally, but I live in a one story apartment, and the doors are bolted at a level they cannot reach. I also have a gate on the kitchen, which will deter (but not completely stop) them from getting into trouble.

 

Mine are almost 5 and they are still "locked" in their rooms at night. We have one of those door knob covers on the inside of their door, but it is plastered with about 50 pieces of packing tape. You can only get out if you find and press on the little pads. Their hands aren't big enough to get both pads at once, nor do they have the finger strength. They can't get the cover apart, nor can they get their little fingers inside it to the knob itself.

I think if my boys had their own room, we wouldn't have had to do this to begin with. However, two little ones seem to feed off each other and do things they wouldn't normally do on their own. I know my two have done some crazy things!!!!

I don't care what anyone thinks on this one. They aren't living in this house with these boys and have no idea what they've come up with and tried. My boys are far safer "locked" away in their rooms each night, than they are with a door they can get open and out of at any hour in the night. It is sub-zero right now and I shudder to think what could happen if they decided to go outside, "just for a minute", with us not having a clue.

And if we had a house fire? I'd know exactly where my boys were and wouldn't need to worry about them hiding somewhere, or trying some crazy way out of the house.

Every now and then I get the tape off and take the cover off to see if we can trust them to stay in their room for the night. We actually talked the other day and are going to give it a try again on their 5th birthday. This time might be the right time, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

I have never locked any of my kids in their rooms, but I have never had wanderers. All of my kids, if they got up, always came straight to my room & climbed in my bed. I never found one of them anywhere else. And I am a light sleeper & always hear their little feet the minute they hit the hardwood floor. But if I thought they might wander around the house, I would probably have gated their doorway or, if I had to, locked their doors (or used the knob covers). Safety is always first!

 

I don't think its abusive at all. Its keeping them safe! I've never used those covers, but when the girls were first in toddler beds (while we were doing major construction on a bathroom- with lots of unsafe things around), we put a gate on their doorway. Now they sleep with the door almost completely closed, and when they wake in the morning they know they can go play in the den or wake me up (if its after 7).

 

We moved into twin beds very early here, since I had mine kids climbing out of their cribs. So I put them in toddler beds with rails on the side and put their bed against the wall. This meant to get out of their bed they had to climb over the rail so they were much less inclined to get out of bed. Then, if they did climb over that, I would always hear their feet hit the floor. Now I know that they will make their way into my room and I don't even have to get out of bed! I have a gate at the top of my stairs but I don't even close it, since my kids only ever want to find me in the middle of the night and haven't once wandered anywhere else except to my bed.

I am not sure of the configuration at the top of your stairs, but a superyard gate may work. I have used mine in so many different ways it has been amazing. It wouldn't provide a barrier that is as secure as a gate attached to the wall, but it may provide enough of a barrier to deter them away from going down the stairs.

 

I guess I'm abusive. We use a door knob cover. I would rather be mean than to have kids get hurt.

 

I have one who is not a wanderer and one who is. We put latch locks outside their rooms but only DS's room gets locked. I feel he is safer because I don't want him walking around the house in the middle of the night.

 

My boys started climbing out around 1 1/2. We used a baby gate until they could easily climb that or knock it over. I personanally didn't want to do the doorknob covers but we also live in a one story home so stairs were't an issue for us. We did eventually get this http://www.amazon.com/Driveway-Patrol-Sensor-Receiver-Kit/dp/B0000645RH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293892282&sr=8-1 after a flooded bathroom and a few "breakfasts" the boys made before we even woke up. We loved it b/c even if they were quite we knew when they got up and we used it much like a baby monitor taking it outside with us in the summer and down the driveway to get the mail. It is in the top of their bedrom door.

 

We have a dog and cat though, I don't think alarms would work... plus their room is so close to the stairs, that would give them enough time to fall down.

I guess we could leave the downstairs light on all night but what a pain.

 

It's abusive to make sure they are safe? I don't get that... My guys had a gate at their doorway. Yes, they could climb it, but most of the time they were more interested in playing with their toys than escaping. We cannot switch the doorknobs due to having handles and not knobs. After my boys started opening the dishwasher and playing with the knives, we made sure that they could not get downstairs by themselves.

I was always leary of putting a gate at the top of the stairs. I knew they would try to climb it and fall. There was no question in my mind. So we had an extra tall gate at the bottom of the stairs along with the one at their door. We still have to lock all the doors to the rooms where we don't want them. It's been multiple times where they have gotten to medicine or cleaning supplies. So locking them out or in where appropriate is really the only safe way for them to exist right now. Our outer doors also have locks so they can't get out. Three out of four of my guys escaped the house without supervision. Talk about freaky!!! It's not so nice to have your neighbor bring your child back to you because they discovered him standing in front of a car in the middle of the street.

Locks work! Whether it's at their own door or the main house doors, it's for their safety. And since they are used to cribs, it's just expanding their territory really.

 

I don't think it's abusive... We have doorknob covers on the inside of their bedroom but both of the twins know how to open them and have for awhile, so it's mainly for the little one.
Mine don't wander.. Since moving them to toddler beds we keep the door open a crack so we can make sure they are staying in bed and they have never left. Even in the morning we hear the door slam shut and it's them playing.

 

I have never had any wanderers, in fact my twins still do not get out of their rooms (even in the morning they call me) unless they need to use the bathroom. But when they first went to beds, I did have the door knob covers on the inside of their doors. I don't think it's abusive to do that, it keeps them safe. We took them off around 3.5 years old.

 

I have knob covers on the inside of their door, and the outside of any doors I don't want them to open. I don't think it's abusive at all, just sanity saving.

 

I've never had wanderers...but I've never given them the chance! They have the locks on the inside of their door. My boys sleep upstairs. We sleep downstairs. I am not about to have them getting out of their room and going down the stairs. All I need is for one of them to fall. EVERYONE hates our stairs(I see no problem with them). They say they are way too steep, and they are actually thin in the sense your foot doesn't fit on the stair-at all. The house is from the 50's, so it's part of the style. Whatever.

So-safety rules. I didn't want a gate in the doorway either-even though they are not climbers. I did not want to chance it, if they did knock over the gate, the doorway is pretty close to the stairwell. I'm taking no chances. And someone made a good point about fires-I will know where they are, and that they are not scared and hiding somewhere else.

 

I can honestly say its NICE to see all the other like minded people who turn their kids door knob around and LOCK them in. We do the same thing. Like others, our kids figured out real fast how to pull doorknob covers off.
The last time I forgot to lock them in was on baby K's birthday. I woke up at 8am when I heard Everett unwrapping presents. But that was just the start of it. He had the fridge wide open, the lemonade out. He had taken scissors and cut up a whole pack of straws. He had pulled the granola & quinoa out of our pantry and spread it around the living room, and the list goes on. and this was all by 8 AM!!!!

The only thing Im not so sure about (but we've never had a problem) is I have to put a little potty chair in their bedroom for them. they've been potty trained for 7 months and they cant exactly come out to go potty if they are locked in their room. They dont mess with it but I cant wait to get rid of that thing! I hate cleaning it. even if it is just pee.

 

mine are afriad of the dark (at this point), so they don't wander. if they awaken at night they call us and we come. at some point we'll make it so the only open door they can reach (if they do venture out) is to our room, which is fine.

~~jl

 

Door knob covers here...and if they figure those out I will flip the knobs. It is safer than my kids wandering the house. In the crazy case of a fire..the kids would be the first thing I grabbed...and I do not think they could safely get themselves out anyway.