Over on Ohdeedoh today a reader posed an interesting question about how to babyproof your television. No, we're not talking about protecting your boob tube from the accidental crayon mishap, but rather, how to keep your 42-inch behemoth from toppling over and squashing your 10 lbs. child... or your childlike husband.
While mounting your television on the wall is one way to avoid teasing your rock climbing tot from using your LCD or plasma as a jungle gym, what options do those who place their TVs on stands have?
As one Ohdeedoh reader suggested, Safety 1st makes a product that lets you "lock" your flat screen directly to the wall behind it. Similar to latches that help you secure bookshelves from toppling over during earthquakes, the ProGrade Flat Screen TV Lock is a bar that extends out from your TV's existing VESA mount holes and attaches to the wall. A pivot lets you angle the TV so you're not locked into being parallel to the wall. This option will run you $30 from Baby R Us.
You can also use earthquake straps to secure your TV to the wall, but if your flat screen isn't near a wall, you can secure your TV to the actual stand using anti-top straps. Just be sure that your stand is heavy enough not to come toppling over with the TV.
Do you guys have any more suggestions for parents with overly curious kids
More on Securing TVs:
How to Choose the Right TV Mount
How To: Mount a Flat Panel TV in the Corner
Image: Sonia Zjawinski (photographer) Bruce McMoran (uninhibited model)
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Comments (17)
Did not need to see that.
That lead-in picture is a bit questionable.
My LG came with a hole in the stand designed for you to screw the set into whatever you were using for a tv stand. I screwed it down because of earthquake fear, being childless and all.
ha ha ha ha GREAT picture...i would've loved to have experienced the moment where someone said, "i have a brilliant idea! i'll wear on this diaper and..."
I like the mount you guys pictured. It's sturdy and minimalistic, my concern with mounts is always the damage they'll leave to the walls, which this seems to create less of. The earthquake straps are a good call too.
Man in diaper... not so much :p
That baby is screaming for a smacked bottom! Send him over here!!
ROFL! Honestly, I love the "questionable" pictures that you guys post sometimes, they definitely wake up the brain and show who's got a sense of humour <3d
So they just had the diaper available?
My samsung came with a string tether that I used for the two days before I put it on the wall. When I went to tie it, it withered away in my hand, It was not even taut, there was no stress on the string. I would not trust that string. These straps look better
Is it me, or can you almost see balls in that photo?
Dear Unpluggd,
Nothing is babyproof. Please don't use the word "babyproof," because every time you do, it suggests to readers that it is possible to make something completely safe for babies. It's not.
A false sense of security is more dangerous than an unstrapped teevee.
How big are babies getting these days???
Babies are neither strong enough or tall enough to pull down a flatscreen TV...
...and toddlers should never be left unattended long enough to climb furniture.
@mxjohnson: That's an interesting point, but I wonder, what term should we use? Is there one that expresses more that these are solutions to help make things more safe for kids, but aren't 100 percent?
If not, I find babyproof as an adequate term as I hope no parent would think that strapping your TV to the wall or installing safeties on outlets will guarantee that their child still can't get into trouble if unsupervised.
i don't have a flatscreen tv and am not in the market for one, but i had to click through because of that awesomely terrible photo.
in an ideal world, toddlers would be shadowed by a responsible adult every second of their waking lives, but let's be realistic...sometimes mom needs to hit the loo. kids are lightning-fast when there's trouble to get up to, and at least safety measures such as these will buy you a few seconds to race to the rescue.
As wife to a man-child AND mom to a toddler AND the owner of a flat, wall-mounted TV I can say: nothing is ever really toddler (or man-child) proof, but these are good solutions to help.
What I need a solution for is how to store/display the insane DVD collection we amassed before said toddler was born (we when had disposable income, hah). It's been relegated to the closet for a couple years now. :'(
And a hearty LOL at the childless AT readers who have some cute ideas about parenting! You guys made my morning.
I have a 2 1/2 year old boy. He has never tried to pull down the computer monitor, so I can't see him pulling down the TV, either. I'm with bepsf.
http://thesweetest3.com/
Awesome picture. Nothing hotter than a dude who's willing to act a fool. Hopefully it's an act. Being blissfully childless but an aunt TWELVE times over (soon to be thirteen!), I have to agree that nothing is really babyproof. I always thought that the point of splurging on the flatscreen was the ability to hang it on the wall. That seems to be the best baby-resistant idea to me.
Those anti-top straps only seem to stop the tv from falling on top of the baby(or diaper-clad manchild), which is great of course, but what's stopping it from falling in the other direction?
Our tv stand is positioned in front of a corner, so I'm not sure if either of those rig ups would work for us. Maybe we'll just train the kid not to climb it the same way we trained the cat not to. Just keep telling her "No! Bad. Don't touch." And if that doesn't work, squirt her with a water gun. lol
This wasn't a problem when we were kids with our giant wood-enclosed tube TV that sat on the ground. We don't have a flatscreen but this solution may work for our outdated TV too.