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We baby proofed. We did block off our kitchen and a hallway, but the entire living area/dining room was open. Baby proofing was much easier than trying to contain.

Honestly, the only thing we did was put plug covers on our outlets. Everything else is the same as before.

Combo. Early on it was much easier to contain, but that only lasts so long before they are climbing the gate and pulling it down. We have the kitchen / living room area closed off by closed doors and one baby gate. Then the room is pretty much C- proofed-- so there are things other babies might try to get at but she isn't interested in, but all the things she tries to get into are baby proofed. For us that's outlet covers, lower cabinets locked (but not drawers), and dangerous things taken off low shelves or tables. But we can have things plugged in and she doesn't mess with them, she points to the wires and says No no no!

We did a combo but having a playpen was awesome for when I needed to contain LO while I cooked dinner, hung out washing etc. she didn't spend a tonne of time in it but it kept her safe when I couldn't be 100% focussed on her.

Agree w/ Kemma! DD is only 6 mo but I'm trying to find used gates to make a play pen for her to contain her, Just baby proofing, for us, won't be that much cheaper b/c we would need multiple gates to block off stairs/kitchen, etc.

We do both. We have PnP in our room which is where she can be contained safely while we do things in our upstairs. We will have gates on the top and bottom of our stairs. Our downstairs is fairly open. Outlet covers and cabinet locks are all we do, aside from putting certain things out of reach. We have overhead lighting so floor lighting isn't an issue for us. But we do have two fireplaces in this space.

We've also secured our blinds (strings are shortened and out of reach. And on windows that are accessible, we just have the blinds raised up half way out of reach as well. We will add door knob covers to room doors (bathroom) when she can reach handles as well.

We do a little bit of both. You got a lot of great advise! I just wanted to say ... don't worry too much. We basically figured it out as we went... oh he got into that drawer... I guess we will baby proof that drawer and so on. We only have 4 drawers baby proof drawers because they either dangerous or heavy items in them. I think you can just figure it out as they grow and do what's best for your family. I just wanted to say don't stress out about it!

@gingerbebe: I heart this!

@gingerbebe: looks so fun! did you make this yourself? it doesn't seem like any conventional ones I've seen for sale!

@snowjewelz: Yes I made it with PVC piping, T joints, and foam pipe insulation cinched on with zip-ties. It's 6x8 but we can make it bigger or smaller by adding/subtracting pipe slats. We also pipe insulated his crib slats so he would stop slamming his noggin in there!

We put in outlet covers and cabinet locks, but otherwise just kept an eye on him. I think people tend to go a little overboard on the baby proofing.

We did baby proofing. I had a playpen, but my son hated it! He's always been very curious and wants to be wherever I am, so anytime I put him in there, he would scream. I put all knickknacks away, installed cabinet and drawer locks in the kitchen, put covers over the stove knobs, put bumpers on the corners of our furniture, used outlet covers, and put up a gate at the top and bottom of the stairs. He has free reign of the house, and now that he's a toddler, I know he would not tolerate being in a pen at all!

@MsMini: Good advice.

My LO will turn 3 soon and looking back, there has been various stages of baby proofing (a lot of adjustments along the way). Keep in mind the length of usefulness of those baby playpens, because once they learn to walk, they want to explore. There's some gates that convert into playpens that can detach to section off a room. I think you'd get a lot more use from having one of those.

We could only contain for so long. When LO was crawling we contained her somewhat but when she started walking at 10 months she didn't want to be contained and let us know! We did pretty minimal baby proofing. We just watch her.

We only did outlet covers and put rubberbands around a few of the kitchen cabinet handles (the ones with cleaning supplies). Super classy!

I never used toilet covers, oven knob covers, baby gates, baby pens any of that stuff--LO has been fine. We would go through periods where I would have to teach her not to do certain stuff (like touch the toiler), but she learned and got over it

We're mostly #teambabyproof. I do have a gate in the playroom to keep him inside or keep the dog out of it, but I don't really leave DS in there like it's a play pen.

We have a gate at the bottom of the stairs that's for both DS and the dog. But mostly the whole downstairs is childproofed enough that I don't feel like I have to chase after him all the time or put him in a baby container. We close the doors to the office and have a baby lock on those, and we baby-proofed all the kitchen cabinets. We have nothing on any drawers because he hasn't tried to go in them yet. We have a few outlet covers and a few of the outlets that are the newer style that doesn't need covers.