Baby-proofing your home is an ongoing effort for parents of mobile babies and curious toddlers. Between kitchen cabinets, bathroom drawers, storage cupboards, dressers, and pretty much anything else that you need to limit access to, baby-proofing can get expensive – and complicated.
In our home, even though we have a large play area blocked off for our 16-month-old son, he still likes to explore different parts of the house. That means we have blocked or limited access to furniture and cabinets in pretty much every room of the house. Or tried to – because as I mentioned above, it’s expensive and sometimes complicated. In those cases, Gabriel plays or explores as a hyper-aware parent looks on.
I recently had the chance to try a different kind of baby-proofing product: Baby Bands.
Baby Bands are made from 100 percent natural, parachute-strength rubber. They come in packs of 12 bands with three sizes: small, medium, and large. 
Baby bands are a basic brown color on purpose. Babies and toddlers are attracted to bright, colorful objects, not objects that blend in. The company recommends introducing Baby Bands when your child is still young. The earlier Baby Bands are used, the more of a deterrent they’ll be. If your child is older, stronger, and has more hand-eye coordination, Baby Bands may not be as effective.
Our Experience
I got to try Baby Bands after we already had experience with different baby-proofing products. We have traditional drawer and cabinet locking systems installed, plus some drawers with connecting pieces locking them together. We were still able to use Baby Bands in the dining room, kitchen, the bathrooms, and bedrooms.
The biggest benefit is that Baby Bands are easy to use. They’re quick to put on, easy to take off, and you can move them around as you need to. Bonus: when we visit the grandparents’ houses, which are not baby-proofed at all, we can bring a set of Baby Bands and quickly secure the most dangerous cabinets.
For some cabinets, it was easy to slip the Baby Bands on; nothing fancy, just slide them over the handles. For other cabinets, I had to secure one end of the band by tying it to a handle before stretching it to another handle. When I did that, I looped the band through itself, like in this picture. 
When we need to get in this dresser, we untie one end and leave the other end attached.
Results
Even though Baby Bands are designed to blend in, Gabriel still noticed them. He thought it was fun to pull on them to make them snap back. He also laughed at the sound they made when they snapped. He couldn’t remove them, but I have a feeling if he were determined enough, he could. The good news is that even when Gabriel pulled on the Baby Bands, they didn’t break or even show signs of stretching too thin. They are extremely durable.
Cabinets and drawers aren’t the only uses for Baby Bands. If you have a bottom drawer, pull-out freezer like we do, and your toddler learns how to open the freezer drawer (like ours did), you can use Baby Bands to secure your food! Then, when your little one pulls out bags of frozen food, he won’t spill the contents – and you don’t have to worry about the bands breaking and hurting your child.
Baby Bands won’t work on all cabinetry or drawers, just like traditional baby-proofing products don’t work for every situation. They’re a great addition to your baby-proofing arsenal, and they make great gifts for baby showers, first birthdays, or to give to relatives who don’t have the kids much but still need an easy solution to keep them safe when they visit.
We’ll be keeping some Baby Bands at both our parents’ houses and in the diaper bag, so we know that no matter where we go, we can protect our extremely curious and adventurous toddler. To buy Bands Bands for yourself or a friend, visit their website at www.babybands.shop.
