# newborn safe from toddler?



## PancakeGoddess (Oct 8, 2004)

I imagine this question has been done to death here, so I will go check the archives, but in the meantime, here is something I just posted to my blog, and I wonder if anyone here has suggestions.

With the other boys, we didn't find much use for a porta-crib/pack-n-play thing. We did have one which we occasionally used on trips, but otherwise they were just space hogs with no good purpose for our parenting style.

This time, I looked ahead and thought baby4 might need a safe space to be put down now and then. It's difficult to know how R will react to him and whether he'll be consistently gentle. I have my reservations. So, when I saw a used pack-n-play for sale at a fair price, I decided to go for it. This type also had a built-in changing station type thing, which allows us to change diapers in the main living space instead of only in the bedroom. So, great. The thing arrives, R likes to play in it for a few minutes at a time but mostly ignores it.

Until this evening, at which point he's decided climbing it looks fun. And that he does, very easily. In and out, in and out. Bye-bye to the safe space for baby4. Up on the counter or table seems worst of all, as R could pull him down.

I can't hold the baby every second, but I'm starting to think that's the only way he'll truly be safe.


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## Christine&men (Jun 4, 2005)

:

I only have one toddler and a newborn but I need to find a way to keep them either separate or at least my daughter safe from the sometimes overzealous hugs of her two year old brother...

So far, I am in the same room with them, or put her in her crib (it's good to have a crib







). Otherwise I carry her in a bebetai...

Any other ideas?


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## PancakeGoddess (Oct 8, 2004)

Oy, a crib would do the job, but we haven't had a crib set up around here in 11 years, and it didn't get used much then, either. I don't know where I'd get one. I wish I could just put this pack-n-play up on risers. lol.


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## MOM2ANSLEY (May 19, 2003)

WE HAVE A PLAYYARD WITH AN ATTACHED NETTING CANOPY THAT RISES LIKE A TENT AND ZIPS...oops caps nak ddisn't a toddler...3 1/2, but she can't reach the zipper...kinda tall....I haven't used it yet, had it with dd and she hated it. But it could do the job....you would have to find a used b/c it was discontinued....fisher price bounce n plat activity yard....see on ebay occasionally.....
Also you could try to make a baby hammock and suspend out of other dc's reach


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## Honeybee'smama (Mar 26, 2005)

This is something we are still struggling with. Dd loves her brother, and is sometimes rather agressive in showing that







. At this point I carry ds a lot and have time with him on the floor where we practice being gentle. But pretty much he is not down without vary close supervision.

We have been at friends houses that had exersaucers and I loved it, so we are getting one used for cheap. It is a way for me to put him down to do things like cook where I can't carry him and know that dd will not try and pick him up or sit on him in the few seconds I have my head turned. She also likes it becuase she can play with him without me hovering so closely. He will of course only be in it for very short periods, not huge parts of the day.

Of course they can't do the exersaucer for awhile...so maybe that is not to helpfull. We baisically did a lot of holding and carrying and still do.


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## Sprucen (Oct 15, 2005)

I've got some of the same problem. Ds1 likes his brother but isn't much on the gentle side, so ds2 spends a lot of time being held. I can also put him in the swing, which he really seems to like (at least until now), which sits safely behind a gate in a different room. He can see out, we can see in, and he's still close to the action of the house, but ds1 can't overenthusiastically "help" swing him some more. Ds2 also naps really well in the swing.

Other than that, I have ds2 in a bouncy chair on the kitchen counter/half island thingy, but I don't leave the room or leave him unsupervised when he's in there and ds1 is loose b/c ds1 CAN climb up there from the dining chairs to the dining table to the counter, but it's handy when I'm cooking.

I am afraid that ds2 will never learn to do much of anything on his own b/c I can't put him on the floor like I did ds1. He only gets very closely supervised floor/tummy time, while I attempt to keep ds1 from trampling him...

(I do have a playpen/travel bed in the living room, too, but ds2 hates being in it, it takes up lots of space and ds1 is working like hell to attempt to climb into it, so it's not working for me either...)


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