How Do You Keep The Baby Away From The Tree?

My Youngest - The baby, 11 months old, is enchanted by the tree
United States
December 8, 2008 7:34am CST
So we decorated our tree yesterday, and now the baby won't stop touching it. It's very pretty with all the lights. So he's mesmerized by it. He has pulled off countless ornaments already. I've spent the morning trying to keep him away from it by placing him in his high chair, his bouncer, etc etc. But anytime I let him down, he heads straight for the tree. I might just have to find a way to keep him out of that room until we take the tree down. What do you do to keep your little ones from touching the tree?
13 responses
@Barb42 (4214)
• United States
8 Dec 08
I never had any problem with my kids messing with the tree. It was the gifts they loved. But my daughter had one of hers to tumble their tree over once. He was just small, probably a little over a year. He loved the bottom ornaments. He would pull them off every time he went in the living room. So, when he pulled the tree over, she decided to take all the bottom ones off that he could reach and put them higher on the tree and she didn't have any more problems with him. I think the kids just go after what is pretty to them. Hopefully yours are plastic. I always worried about the glass ones. I break enough of them! Broke one at church last night when we were putting up our tree in the vestibule.
• United States
8 Dec 08
Most of our ornaments are glass, because that seems to be all they sell anymore. We've been dealing with the kids messing with the tree for the past 5 years. The twins were difficult, actually I think they still don't quite know how to leave it alone. They were always the biggest problem. They broke many ornaments, and did pull the tree down one year. Because of that we had to replace the tree because they broke the stand (it was artificle). I hope my tree and my ornaments can with stand the baby.
@gemini_rose (16264)
8 Dec 08
Do you know I have always been lucky in that mine have never bothered when we put the tree up. That may be because their dad would tell them off if they went near it and they always do as they are told when he tells them! I dont really know how you could stop him from going near it though!
• United States
8 Dec 08
He's a bit young yet to just listen when he's told, he's not even a year. My toddler is doing fairly well. He's touched it a few times, but I'd tell him not to, so he'd stop. I thought he'd give me just as much trouble as the baby. I know it took years before the twins would stop touching it. I think they still do.
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
8 Dec 08
Luckily for me this year the baby is old enough to understand he isn't supposed to touch it. He is almost 17 months old. It took a few times of telling him no and a few smacks to the fingers but now he understands. Just in case I didn't put any of the glass balls on the tree this year lol. And anything that is close to breakable is up higher than any of them can reach. He has been doing really well. Once in awhile he'll take one off and bring it to me though. Is it possible to baby gate that room off? Or some sort of gate.
• United States
8 Dec 08
Baby gates don't hold this kid. I have the kitchen gated off and he breaks through that anytime he wants. I even have a heavy chair pushing against the gate, so not only does he have to break the gate down, he also as to push through the chair, and he does easily. Hubby even nailed the gate to the wall, and he managed to break through that too! Besides, the archway to my living room is about 5 feet wide. No way to gate that off.
@lilybug (21107)
• United States
8 Dec 08
That is the exact reason why I have not put up our tree yet. My daughter was 11 months old last Christmas and she was constantly trying to take the ornaments or the candy canes off the tree. Hopefully someone can give you some advice because I would like to know too.
• United States
8 Dec 08
Well my toddler is being good. So far he hasn't messed with it too much. He was the problem last year because he was only 18 months old. Now the baby is 11 months, and won't leave it alone. Right now he's playing in the kitchen. Normally I don't let him in there because of the cat food on the floor, but I'm not sure which I'd rather he play with, the cat food or the tree, lol.
@Sillychick (3275)
• United States
9 Dec 08
What I did was put all the breakable ornaments up high, and let my son touch and play with the safer ones near the bottom. I also used a piece of fishing line to anchor the tree to the wall so he couldn't pull it down. You could barely see it and it worked well. The tree looked a little uneven with most of the ornaments near the top and a few at the bottom that were constantly being moved around by my son. But I didn't mind because that's how a tree looks when you have a young child. This year, now that he's two, it's a little better, and he does listen for the most part when I tell him don't touch, but the breakable ornaments are all up high, just in case. Your baby wants to touch the tree because it is different, and it's beautiful. That's what babies and toddlers do, they touch things. It's how they learn about the world around them. Keeping him confined or in a different room is not fair to him because he should be able to enjoy the tree just like the rest of the family does, but in his own way.
@qianbei (39)
• China
9 Dec 08
hehe your boy so lovely ,maybe you can give him something to take his attention, children likes to do whatever he looks strange, and we told them can't do something ,but they will do it , so ,take care of a boy needs patience,but most of us can't do that .
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
9 Dec 08
When my little girl was 1,1/2 she went for the tree all the time. i was exhaustd with trying to keep her away from it. The next year it occured to me - christmas is for hte kids and all mine heard last year was "no-no". I wanted her to have fun with the holiday so I bought a 3 foot flocked artificial tree and wooden or plastic ornaments and a small string of mini lights. I put the lights on and then let her decorate the tree with the ornaments - anyway she wanted to! It was the first thing she did when she got up in the morning and the last thing she did before going to bed! She loved it! She loved it so much that I couldn't take the tree down as every time I said we'd do it she cried to keep it! So the tree stayed up till February and that was when she started to get bored with it. The next year I did the same thing and so did she! A great memory for me, lot of fun for her and a wonderful christmas without a single "no-no" or exhaustion! Christmas is for kids - make it so they can enjoy it. SO what if you don't have a huge gorgous tree - that beautiful little artifical one with cheap wooden ornaments was one of the happiest times in my daughters life and it meant more to me than any other tree We've ever had and my daughter is now 30. DO it for the kids!
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
8 Dec 08
Put the tree in a playpen.
@redkathy (3374)
• United States
9 Dec 08
Good question LOL It's a big bright flashing amazing thing Mom and I just love it. I just have to touch it. Boy do I remember those days. I did block off the room when we lived in our first house. By the time we left the boys were old enough not to pull it down on themselves, which was the thing I worried most about.
@busyB4 (874)
• United States
9 Dec 08
When mine were little , I put the Christmas tree in the playpen! It keep them from pulling it over on them and things ON the tree. Nowdays I don't even know if they still sell playpens! I always put ornaments on the bottom that were unbreakable and with pipe cleaners for the hangers. I would put a few in reach but teach them to put them back, so it became a game for them. Just make sure your tree is VERY stable and the lights are not too hot! Good luck~
@camomom (7535)
• United States
8 Dec 08
We put ours up behind our love seat and blocked it off with other furniture. Our 2 year old can still climb up on the love seat but we just watch her and tell her "No" a lot.
@Raven7317 (691)
• United States
8 Dec 08
Do you have a large expandable gate? You know, the kind that you can add pieces to and make it any shape you need? If your tree is in a corner, or against a wall, maybe you could use the gate to create a barrier around it. The first year I put up a tree, my son was already 2 so he was starting to understand and obey when I said "No No" so it wasn't a horror show. But being 2, I knew it would be too much to expect he'd never touch so I made sure that all ornaments close to the floor were plastic/unbreakable and that they were hung with ribbons or yarn or something, not hooks. Or maybe you could just give in! Take him over to the tree, sit with him, let him touch it, talk to him about it, let him pull stuff off and help him put it back on, let him get it out of his system! Maybe once he gets the chance to satisfy his curiosity, it won't be the first thing on his mind when he's mobile. This year, my little guy is 3 and I let him help decorate the tree and told him he could pick 2 or 3 ornaments that would be his and only his. Not alot of problems this year so far, but now because those ornaments "are his" he walks around the house with them and won't let me put them back on the tree! LOL Good luck!
@faizi1 (157)
• Pakistan
9 Dec 08
my dear katsmeow well i am muslim and vish you happy chirstmas in our religion we can't make any kind of tree for babies , well you told that how do we keep them from trees so i just say that we never ever keep them from any kind of things either it is a tree or a toy or anything you can't keep them from any way, ;babies are babies; Thank you