4 Ways to Baby Safe Your Coffee Table Tips for Parents and Newlyweds

When our daughter had her fight with the coffee table last Friday, we also ended up almost having a fight with the hospital when we took her to the emergency room.

Probably no one is surprised by that!

Doctors and Hospitals Apparently Do Not Play Well Together!

In fact, I’ve realized that it must be common for doctors and hospitals to have issues working together. I have a whole separate story about the only other time I’ve ever been in the hospital … for my daughter’s birth. You can read about that one in our Facebook community, which, by the way, has gone nuts over a tip we shared this week:

(Click through to read more)

But back to the more recent experience last week, the ER staff did their best to try to get us to have their doctor treat our daughter. They even apparently told the plastic surgeon that the wound looked like it could be glued, something our pediatrician, whom I trust wholeheartedly, was very much against.

His words were: “It’s her face, and she’s a girl. I’m giving up something I could do because I think this is best for her,” referring us to the plastic surgeon, who would meet us at the hospital later for the procedure. We love our pediatrician!

So when the ER staff came to let us know the time the plastic surgeon expected to be on the way when he finished up with patients at his office, they said he told them, “If I’m coming there to do it, it’s going to be stitches… it’s going to be perfect.”

Well … we had the stitches out Monday and then just last night (Wednesday), a friend at church actually said, “You can’t even really tell she had stitches. It looks perfect.” And it really does, at this point, just look like a “regular cut” to the skin not that there was any deep wound!

Parents, Grandparents, etc ~ Baby Safe Your Coffee Table … Please!

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, right? We’ve seen coffee table edge protectors. I’d put a towel over our hearth because I always envisioned if there was going to be a head injury it would be from one of them falling into the heart, which is brick, so a very rough edge. The coffee table really has not been an issue.

Wouldn’t you know, though, that while we were in the plastic surgeon’s office getting the stitches removed, I said, “I guess you see a lot of kids, huh?”

Top Reasons for Stitches for Kids

To which they replied that one of the top reasons for stitches with kids is … coffee tables! And right up there with coffee tables? Dog bites. They said, “They love the mouth area, for some reason, too.”

Since the stitches ordeal, I decided to give our coffee table a cheap makeover.

But there are a number of other options available to baby safe your coffee table for those who don’t prefer cheap or maybe you have a nicer sitting area in your home and cheap isn’t an option there! The first is the edge protectors I mentioned above. There are different types and colors. Amazon has a good selection:

Then there are covers with kid friendly designs that go over the entire top of the table if you don’t like the look and feel of the edge protectors:

And then, of course, if you haven’t bought a coffee table yet or perhaps you’re ready to replace whatever you have, there are soft-top ottoman-style options like these:

While waiting in the plastic surgeon’s office to have the stitches removed, I noticed they use an ottoman style table in their office:

I recommend that all parents, grandparents or anyone who has young children around in their home at any time take measures to baby safe your coffee table, whatever option you prefer.

No one wants to see a child have to be put through medical procedures, but especially those that can possibly be avoided!

DISCLAIMER: We have not personally tried and thus are not endorsing any of these products, but rather, seeking to provide options for your information and consideration. Decisions about making your home “baby safe” should be made with great care and lots of careful consideration about the products you as a parent feel are best do achieve that. We always thoroughly check customer reviews and with the recent problem with babies dying in nap nannies, you may also want to double check on safety recall history for any of the brands you’re considering.

If you’re a newlywed, it’s worth some time to consider what type of coffee table will best serve you as you begin thinking about having a family, even if you plan to wait a few years. Invest in furniture initially with family-friendliness in mind … hint: children have a way of ruining plenty of things in their environment. It’s just a fact of life so if you have a strict budget you may want to not invest too much at this stage of life in nicer, more expensive furniture.

According to Dr. Susanne Bennett, you also don’t want to do super cheap furniture as some of those can be problematic for those with allergies, but she also recommends looking at antique stores for solid wood furniture.

Have you known anyone to need stitches from a coffee table fall?

Disclosure: Affiliate links are contained in this post. Full disclosure policy here.

About the Author

Adopted at age 2, grew up in the Charlotte, NC area. Obtained Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Appalachian State University. Loves being a Mom of two and taste-testing Chef John's culinary creations and sharing them with readers.

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