I have seen this question come up a number of times on the Yahoo parents groups: "Anyone know a babyproofer?"

Well, now I can say yes, and a good one at that.

Courtney and Fred, Brooklyn parents, recently founded a company called "Baby Bodyguards". After having their first son and trying to create a safe home environment to protect him they realized that had an interest and knack in helping others do the same thing.  They contacted me to see if I would be interested in having them do a "mock" baby proofing at our place. I said "sure", fairly confident that there wouldn’t be much for them to do. You see, handyman Papa Tree is really good at spotting safety concerns and finding ways to protect Birch from them. (Like the slippery stool I bought for Birch that looked cool and was a nice blue, or the book box that had super sharp edges…) So I thought we would pass with flying colors.

Fred called beforehand to confirm our appointment and came promptly. The first thing he did was hand me a onesie (for our new one) with their logo on it. Brownie points! Then we sat down and discussed the major safety issues and if we had dealt with them.  He asked if he had a fire plan (no) and fire egresses (only one which he pointed out was one too few), if we had carbon monoxide and fire detectors (yes, yes), were the fire detectors installed in each bedroom (no), did we have plants in the house (yes) and could they be potentially poisonous (well I didn’t know that for sure until he told me which ones were poisonous) . Hmmm….Papa Tree and I hadn’t thought about all of this at all!  Then Fred stood up and asked if he could go through our apartment. Armed with a clipboard with sheets of personalized forms, he noted his concerns and suggestions. He examined each niche of our place.  About ten minutes into his walk-through, I told him it felt intrusive to have our apartment inspected so closely. He acknowledged that that feeling was common and that he wasn’t there to be critical, but just to offer suggestions and help. I felt better revealing my thoughts to him and was doubly glad that it wasn’t surprising to him. He was right: he wasn’t critical, just honestly helpful as we walked through the apartment together.

Right away, he recognized that one outlet near the sink was not grounded properly and needed to be addressed immediately (I was aware of that actually and was pleased that he found that right away). He suggested tying up cables that seemed easy for a toddler to pull and thus their accompanying electronics with them.  He found an air conditioner plugged into a surge protector and advised against that for very technical reasons, which make a lot of sense, but too much for me to go into here. Fred suggested putting doorknob protectors on a couple of closets that seemed potentially hazardous (one closet that had cleaning materials and the other a large laundry bin that Birch could climb into).  He did suggest another baby gate besides the one that we had improperly installed.  He was neither overly alarmist nor too casual in his advice.

Lastly, he asked about our car seats. I pulled out our thirdhand infant seat that we will use again for our new baby. He looked at his recall list, then examined our seat thoroughly and concluded it was fine to use again (thank God!) He also checked to make sure Birch’s car seat was properly installed (it was not) and made strap adjustments to fit Birch better. He had very official car seat forms that I had to sign and that he sends in to the state (I think) to confirm that he had done the seat checks.  Not everyone who does seat checks ,by the way, is properly certified to do so.  He did tell me that Baby Bodyguards does do day-long free car seat checks every once in awhile. Check out their website to find out times and locations.

I thought we were done, but no! Then he went to his car and brought back an enormous tub of babyproofing devices. He installed cabinet locks with a cordless drill in about 5 minutes (honestly!), put doorknob locks on the appropriate closets, put outlet plugs in those that needed them and put surge protector guards where needed.  If I had wanted another babygate installed he would have selected the correct one and come back and installed it. I asked him which one he would suggest for our awkward layout and he knew the right one (I had already checked this out). He would have also installed window guards, but I hadn’t ordered them yet.

All in all, it took about 2.5 hours and I kindof rushed him off in the end, being tired and pregnant. When he left I felt much better knowing that some of the babyproofing had been done immediately and had I been a "real" customer all the specialty items would have been done in a timely manner too- as part of a package that they offer. I was so impressed that I asked him right there and then if he and his
wife would guest post about safety for this blog now and then.

The next day I got a PDF from Fred that gave me a breakdown of each room, his suggestions as to what to do and the best products for his suggestions.

I thought he was incredibly professional, knowledgeable, likeable, and nonjudgmental.  It seems there is finally a company out there who has taken the babyproofing business seriously and can do it with skill and great organization.

Baby Bodyguards offers package prices which include the cost of the products and installation. They have fun names for their packages: Granparent/Weekender package, One Level Living package, Duplex Living package and, of course, custom packages for all income levels. The prices are listed on their site. They also have a blog, http://babybodyguards.blogspot.com/ ,that has some helpful hints from "how to bathe a newborn" to recent recalls.

Related posts:

1. How To Prevent Scalding
2. Misconceptions About Child Safety
3. Window Guards in New York City
4. Baby Proofers