Babyproofing for a 2 year old: the year they climb, open doors and beat your latches

What changed at two

Nothing in the house changed. Three things about the child did, and they move the whole hazard list up the wall and out the door.

They climb on purpose, and they bring a ladder. A one-year-old pulls up on things. A two-year-old drags a stool across the kitchen, opens a drawer and uses it as a step, or climbs onto the arm of the sofa to get the thing you put out of reach. Everything you solved by putting it high is now unsolved, and the furniture that was safe because the child was too small to pull it over is now carrying a climbing load. This is the age band the tip-over data is loudest about: the CPSC found 55 percent of tip-over fatalities involved children aged one to three.

They open doors. Round knobs fall first, then levers. Once the front door, the garage door or the gate to the pool deck is openable, the hazard is no longer in the house at all - it is the road, the water, or the shelf of chemicals in the garage. The CPSC's own list of twelve childproofing devices puts doorknob covers and door locks on it for exactly this reason.

They remember. This is the one that catches people out. A two-year-old has watched an adult open the magnetic cabinet lock forty times, and understands that there is a trick rather than a wall. Anything that works by being obscure - a decoy button, a hidden release, a latch you open with one finger - has a shelf life now. Things that work by being physically hard, like a screwed-in guard or a two-handed release, do not.

Window falls move with all three of these at once. The CPSC counted about 5,600 children aged 12 and under treated for window falls in 2024, with one in three admitted to hospital, and the falls cluster in the warm months when windows are open. A two-year-old is tall enough to get over a low sill and resourceful enough to move something over to stand on.

The four jobs, in order

One: the windows. If you did one thing this year, do this. A guard that states ASTM F2090 with an emergency escape release is the only product in the house with a fall-prevention standard behind it; a window stop that limits the opening to four inches is the cheap, no-drill version and is not a guard. The decision is in window guards vs window stops, the ranking in best window guards and locks, and the fitting job in how to install window guards. While you are in the room, move the bed, the toy box and the chair away from under the window: that is free, and it turns a 36-inch sill back into a 36-inch sill.

Two: re-check the anchors. You probably anchored the dresser at one. Go and pull hard on the top of each piece now, because the load has changed: a climbing two-year-old applies force at the top of the furniture in the direction that tips it. Check the wall end is in a stud and not a plastic plug, check the strap is taut rather than looping, and add a second anchor to anything wider than about 30 inches so the piece cannot pivot around a single fixing. The walkthroughs are how to anchor a dresser and how to anchor a bookshelf, and the bookcase is the one to worry about, because the federal stability rule does not cover it.

Three: the doors that lead somewhere. Not every door - the ones where the other side is a hazard. The garage, the basement stairs, the pool deck, the front door. A knob cover works on a round knob and a lever lock on a lever, and both are ranked in best door locks and knob covers. For a door to water, a lock is not enough on its own and an alarm belongs on it too: how to childproof a pool explains the layered version, and how to childproof the garage covers the other room full of poisons.

Four: the oven and the stove front. At one, the stove was a reach problem. At two it is a height problem solved by a stool. Front-mounted knobs get covers, the oven door gets a lock, and the pan handles turn inward every time you cook. The rankings are best stove knob covers and best oven and dishwasher locks, and the whole room is in babyproofing the kitchen.

The latches they have now beaten

This is the section nobody writes, and it is the most useful one at this age. Go around the house and test the things you installed a year ago as though you were a determined two-year-old who has watched you.

Plug inserts. The little plastic blanks that push into an outlet. A two-year-old with a working pinch grip can get them out, and then there is a small plastic object in a mouth as well as an open outlet. This is the age to switch to a sliding cover plate, or to replace the outlet itself with a tamper-resistant one - see plug inserts vs sliding outlet covers and tamper-resistant outlets vs outlet covers.

Decoy releases. Any lock whose security is that the real button is not the obvious one. They buy you a year and they are honest about it; once a child has seen the trick, it is spent. Keep them on the cabinets that hold tea towels and move the chemicals behind something that needs two hands or a magnet key, per best magnetic cabinet locks.

Adhesive anything, after a year on a warm wall. Adhesive cabinet straps, corner guards and oven locks all lose grip over time, faster above a radiator or near a stove. Press on every one of them; the ones that move get re-taped or replaced. The honest comparison is in magnetic vs adhesive cabinet locks.

Pressure-mounted gates in a doorway a child leans on. A pressure gate holds against a push, not a climb, and a two-year-old does both. It was never allowed at the top of stairs and now it is marginal in a doorway too: pressure-mounted vs hardware-mounted sets out which openings still take one.

The things that are still fine. Screwed-in gates, screwed-in window guards, anchored furniture, magnetic locks with the key kept high, and the covers on the stove knobs. Anything that works by being physically hard rather than clever survives this birthday.

Room by room, at this height

The bedroom. Two things arrive at once: the window, covered above, and the toddler bed. A child who can climb out of a crib is a child who will fall out of a bed, and a rail is the usual answer - the ranked ones are in best toddler bed rails, where the thing to check is what your bed base is, because the anchor system needs something flat to pull against. Keep the dresser anchored and keep the top of it boring, because a tempting object on a high surface is what starts the climb.

The bathroom. The door is the lock that matters, from the outside. Inside, the toilet lid gets a lock per best toilet locks for toddlers, the water heater stays at 120 F, and the spout keeps its cover - best bath spout covers covers both halves of that. The whole room is in babyproofing the bathroom.

The kitchen. Chemicals out of the under-sink cabinet entirely and up high, not just behind a latch - see best under-sink cabinet locks for why that cabinet is the one that matters. Dishwasher door locked, because the detergent and the knives are both in there. Drawers that can be used as a step ladder get a lock whether or not there is anything dangerous in them.

The living room. The TV and its stand, the fireplace, and the corners of a coffee table at head height for a running toddler: babyproofing the living room and best corner guards. Interior doors get the other hazard nobody plans for at this age - fingers in the gap as the door closes, which is best door pinch guards, where the hinge side is the one that causes the serious injuries.

Outside. If there is a pool, this is the age the data is about: drowning is the leading cause of death for children aged one to four. Layers, not one barrier - pool fence vs alarm vs net is the honest comparison, and best removable pool fences the ranking.

What to buy at this stage

Four products for the four jobs above, each one chosen because the hazard it addresses is new or newly worse at two rather than because it is a general babyproofing item. The whole-house list is in best babyproofing products.

What to retire

Babyproofing accumulates, and a house full of latches nobody opens properly is a house where adults stop using them. Two things can come off around now.

Low-value latches on harmless cabinets. The cabinet with the saucepans and the one with the linen do not need locks. Taking those off makes the remaining locks meaningful, and means an adult actually re-latches the one over the bleach.

Corner guards on furniture the child has outgrown. At two, a steady walker stops colliding with the coffee table at head height. If the foam is peeling and nobody has bumped it in six months, take it off.

What does not come off yet: the stair gates, the window guards, the anchors and the pool barrier. The gates typically go between two and three once a child can use stairs reliably with a handrail, and that judgment is in when to stop using baby gates. The anchors and the window guards stay for years, because the climbing does not stop at three and neither does the drop out of the window.

What is coming next

Between two and three the child gets taller, faster and better at reasoning with you, and the balance shifts from barriers to teaching. The hazards that remain are the ones where teaching is not enough: water, heights, heat and poisons. Those four keep their hardware for years.

The stage before this one is babyproofing for a 1 year old, and the whole-house, room-ordered version of all of it is the babyproofing checklist. If you have a visitor rather than a resident toddler, the portable version is best babyproofing products for grandparents.

Next year the balance tips again: the latches start losing to imitation and the windows, exterior doors and water take over. Babyproofing for a 3 year old picks up from here.