Best Advice: Wait to Baby-Proof Your Toilets

I baby proofed my toilets with safety latches as soon as my baby showed interest in the toilet lid. I guess I was scared of valuables getting flushed or a stuffed animal causing a clog. I wish I had waited before applying the latches! Here's why...

Blue Toilet Seat Damaged by Latch

I used stick on latches. The stick on latch adhesive is hard to remove. When I got the adhesive and latch off (like on our blue toilet), it damaged the toilet lid!

If you have white toilets, replacement white toilet seats are readily available at home improvement stores. Our old blue and green toilet seats are harder to come by and toilet seats are pretty expensive these days.....like $20-$40 depending on the type and brand.

Master Bath Toilet Baby-Proof Latch Today

Here is our master bathroom toilet (green) with an old safety latch stuck right on top to this day. My kids are now 5 and 7, so this latch has been stuck on for years! I don't want to force the latch off because I'm scared it will damage the lid like the blue toilet.

Honestly, I wish I had waited to baby proof the toilets. Messing with the toilet is a short-lived baby phase and probably not worth the trouble of an adhesive latch.

If your baby is showing a lot of interest in the toilet, try closing the bathroom door or attaching a kid's safety knob cover over the door knob. That way the door knob is child proofed and not the toilet. Wait and see if your baby continues to mess with the toilet and consider the pro's and con's of an adhesive toilet latch for your family.

Looking back, I supervised my young kids in the bathroom due to other safety concerns, so they wouldn't have had much of a chance to mess around with the toilet without me watching them.