In Episode 254 of The Pulling Curls Podcast: Pregnancy & Parenting Untangled, Hilary Erickson is joined by Dani Morin, a car seat technician and influencer. They dive deep into baby safety, discussing essential tips for childproofing your home, the importance of proper car seat usage, and the dangers of Baltic amber teething necklaces. Dani opens up about her advocacy work following the tragic loss of her son, Deacon, and shares practical advice for new parents. Tune in for a heartfelt and informative conversation aimed at helping parents make safer choices for their little ones.
Find it here on Apple or Spotify Podcasts
Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines — to make room for important things like baby proofing, having the rest of your life in a routine totally helps!
Today’s guest is Dani Morin. She is a child safety advocate and CPST on social media. Helping parents make informed parenting decisions and providing product research to help moms make the perfect baby registry. Find her here: @Danimorin_ on IG and @danimorin13 on TikTok
Links for you:
Timestamps:
00:00 Necklace strangulation hazard led to tragedy.
03:27 Baltic amber teething necklaces: all risk, no benefit.
09:10 Struggles with safety advice for parent education.
11:24 Desiring family connection and appreciation for moms.
13:12 CPST instructor identified car seat errors.
18:02 Regularly check floor level for baby hazards.
22:01 Overprotective, balancing safety and learning experiences.
25:14 Anchor furniture to prevent tip-over incidents.
26:08 Millennials source furniture anywhere, anchoring optional.
32:11 Avoid outdated plastic; seek modern electrical options.
33:13 Avoid hazards: baby-proof, prevent falls, lock windows.
38:31 Keep detergent pods safe; store, don’t display.
41:21 Share safety tips; be open to feedback.
45:17 Balance mom worries with safety precautions.
48:44 Doctor advises against bedsharing; recommends separate sleeping arrangements.
51:33 AI prioritizes popular articles, not necessarily best.
53:43 Son’s low blood sugar led to NICU.
57:53 Dani moron 13 keeps humble TikTok presence.
59:12 Episode focused on friendship and parenting choices.
Keypoints:
- The episode is focused on baby safety and features Dani Morin, a car seat technician and TikTok influencer.
- Dani shares the tragic event of losing her son Deacon due to a Baltic amber teething necklace, which drives her advocacy.
- Baltic amber teething necklaces are shown to be ineffective and potentially dangerous, with some platforms banning their sale.
- The importance of anchoring furniture to prevent accidents is emphasized, as well as modern safety challenges with slim TVs and high-voltage cords.
- Dani discusses the concept of safe sleep practices and the risks involved with co-sleeping, advocating for strong safety standards.
- Baby-proofing is highlighted as a continuous, evolving process as children grow and develop new abilities.
- Both Hilary and Dani stress the importance of sourcing reliable, professional information over random online articles or AI-generated content.
- Dani uses the “shit sandwich” method to offer safety advice without coming across as judgmental or critical.
- The episode emphasizes creating supportive communities for new mothers to share information and provide emotional support.
- Safe storage of household items like laundry pods and electrical equipment is crucial to prevent accidents, with practical tips provided for parents.
Producer: Drew Erickson
Transcript
[00:00:00.000] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 254, we are talking about baby safety. Let’s untangle it.
[00:00:09.320] – Hilary Erickson
Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the Pregnancy Nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarls with Pregnancy and Parenting Untangled, the Pulling Curls Podcast.
[00:00:29.690] – Hilary Erickson
This episode is sponsored by Family Routines. If you are looking to do things like baby safety, having routines that help you update your baby safety protocols and really be in a routine, Family Routines is going to help you get there. Family Routines is the course for you. Come get on some great routines with me.
[00:00:54.190] – Hilary Erickson
Super excited for today’s guest. She is a CPST, that’s a car seat tech on TikTok. She is great at helping parents make informed choices, especially about their baby registry. I want to introduce my friend, Dani Morin.
[00:01:06.600] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, Dani. Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.
[00:01:08.760] – Dani Morin
Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here. I don’t know if people know how we know each other, but we got on TikTok, I think at the same exact time, in 2020, the Wild West of TikTok. But I sat next to you at a brand dinner with Aussie Bubs, and it was one of the funnest times. You are absolutely hilarious. I don’t know if people know how funny you actually are from your videos. You are so funny. It was one of the funnest nights that I had. So when you asked me to be on the podcast, I was like, automatically, we’re going to be talking about baby stuff, but I’m sure we could make it funny.
[00:01:44.090] – Hilary Erickson
And you were taking shots of infant formula, so you know it was a good time.
[00:01:48.230] – Dani Morin
No. That’s how you take shots these days as moms. Formula. It wasn’t bad.
[00:01:53.900] – Hilary Erickson
I could not do it.
[00:01:53.920] – Dani Morin
It wasn’t bad.
[00:01:55.610] – Dani Morin
It was the toddler formula. It wasn’t bad. Anything for the content.
[00:02:00.190] – Hilary Erickson
See, that’s why.
[00:02:02.080] – Dani Morin
Didn’t they bring out a shot ski?
[00:02:04.660] – Hilary Erickson
Yes, they had a flight. Yes. So, Dani, tell me a little bit about your history, why your heart is in children’s safety. I just want people to know just a snippet of why, because I think that’s really important as we go into this.
[00:02:20.930] – Dani Morin
Yeah. So this gets asked a lot, and I will do a little bit of a trigger warning if child loss is involved in here, but it is a huge part of my story. I could talk about the logistics, and I could talk about my son now. It’s been eight years, but my son, Deacon, my first child, he was strangled by a Baltic Amber teething necklace at his childcare.
[00:02:40.560] – Dani Morin
Logistically, I don’t know exactly how it happened. The childcare is watching too many people. Two things are true at the same time. The necklace was a strangulation hazard, and the daycare was not doing their job.
[00:02:52.700] – Dani Morin
And I lost him in October of 2016. Worst, I never thought I’d come out of it. And I decided maybe two years into it that I wanted to open up about my story. And this was a hard decision because I put a Baltic Amber teething necklace around his neck that I thought helped with teething. I was a very crunchy mom at the time. If you asked me what the AAP was, I would have shrugged and said I didn’t know. And these Baltic Amber teething necklaces, we do all these things to help our baby.
[00:03:27.970] – Dani Morin
We’re desperate to do anything to make our babies feel better. Not realizing that some of those things are just pure risk, which we know now. In 2008, a lot of people come to me and be like, Did you read all these studies? No, those studies came out in 2018 due to my son and other children that were strangled.
[00:03:45.240] – Dani Morin
Those studies came out and proved that Baltic Amber teething necklaces serve no purpose. The child’s temperature would have to be 392 degrees Fahrenheit for this acenic acid to even release. Your child would not be alive at 392 degrees Fahrenheit.
[00:04:00.130] – Dani Morin
It’s all risk and no benefit, and that’s where the messaging is. Those studies came out in 2018. These were very popular in 2014-2015. They’re still very popular now, believe it or not. You can’t get them on Etsy anymore. You can’t get them on Amazon anymore. They’re not sold in stores, but there are some boutique owners that will order them from Lithuania and so on.
[00:04:19.710] – Dani Morin
They’re still out there. They’re still being sold. So I try to do my best to warn parents, but I started going on the news. I started getting in parenting magazines and sharing my story, and it wasn’t getting me anywhere.
[00:04:33.740] – Dani Morin
And then TikTok came along, and I started just doing TikToks of my pregnancy. I was going to take it to the grave that I had ever lost a child because I was like, I don’t know. I saw how quickly some of these videos had taken off. And I had posted a video about how I had my son. So I DIYed my son. I ordered sperm from a sperm bank to my home and got pregnant. That’s a podcast on its own, if I’m I’m being honest.
[00:05:00.850] – Hilary Erickson
I really want to do a separate one about that. I really do. Yeah.
[00:05:04.590] – Dani Morin
Yeah. So that’s a podcast on its own. But I was met with three types of things, a bunch of people being like, this is wrong. I can’t believe you’re doing this, the American family. Everyone had so much to say. And I’m like, look, I’ve put so much thought into this.
[00:05:20.310] – Dani Morin
But I also didn’t think that people realized I was a single mom prior. I had been a mom before. And then I also had moms coming out and being like, I am 40 years old. I’m a lawyer. I thought I was going to have to go spend $40,000 on IVF. I didn’t know this was even an option. So I think I opened up a window of opportunity for moms that were… I had messages like, I was literally going to settle for the wrong guy because I wanted to have a baby. I broke up with him. I think I’m going to do this.
[00:05:45.020] – Dani Morin
And I made it very clear in that video, make sure you have the finances, make sure you have the means. I made it very clear.
[00:05:49.940] – Dani Morin
But I was met with a lot of criticism, and I was like, imagine if I come out and tell people that, hey, I was a mom before, I lost… And then the criticism that I would be met with.
[00:05:59.560] – Dani Morin
And I… Actually, there was a little bit of criticism.
[00:06:02.660] – Dani Morin
And now I post things for a certain reason. But there’s a lot of criticism when it comes to, I can’t believe that you put that around your child’s neck. Didn’t you read the studies?
[00:06:15.520] – Dani Morin
Or I got met with, I use this on my child and it’s perfectly fine. All three of my kids have used this and they’re fine. These actually really were. But then I was met with the most comments of, Thank you so much. This is getting removed right now. I would not have known this. How do you not share your story?
[00:06:32.180] – Dani Morin
And I realized then, I will continue to share my story for that third mom. You know what I mean? For those comments of, Thank you so much.
[00:06:41.510] – Dani Morin
Then it got into, well, if I’m talking about child safety and necklaces, what else should I be talking about? So I started sharing more baby proofing tips. I started sharing more on safe sleep, which is also controversial, which I did not realize was controversial.
[00:06:55.320] – Hilary Erickson
You get flamed for the safe sleep.
[00:06:56.740] – Dani Morin
Yeah, the safe sleep. And I think I was going to a TikTok actually this week. I think where it gets dangerous is there’s a lot of providers or sleep consultants and these experts where they do the meet the mom where they’re at mentality.
[00:07:11.390] – Dani Morin
So at some point in their motherhood journey, they have been told, I understand that you’re doing it. Let’s try to do it better. Whereas I would rather a provider come to me and be like, this is the statistic. If you sleep with your baby, this is the risk that you’re putting out there.
[00:07:27.390] – Dani Morin
There will never be a day that I’m going to tell you what doing is okay. I can feel for the lack of sleep. This has to be so difficult for you, and I could feel for that.
[00:07:36.780] – Dani Morin
But there will never be a day that I say this is okay because I’ve seen too many things. I think some providers are coming out and being like, well, let’s just try. They’re like, Okay, I’m being valid. It has to be okay, right? Because they’re like… So the meet the mom mentality, sometimes I… Even with the baby proofing and stuff like, Oh, okay.
[00:07:55.110] – Dani Morin
Well, just watch your kid then around that one if you don’t want to put the hole in the wall. It’s We can’t be doing that. I think the meeting the mom mentality for lactation consultants of really being like, I want you to breastfeed. I want this to be successful for you. We’re having some difficulty and your baby needs to be fed. So let’s meet in the middle here and come up with maybe a solution.
[00:08:15.780] – Dani Morin
But maybe that’s a situation. I’ve breastfed my kids for two years and almost three years, so it worked for me. But sometimes I think with the baby proofing and some of these other topics in the sleep where it’s like, we can’t just give you a couple of options and they’re all okay in some way.
[00:08:32.730] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, it’s tricky.
[00:08:34.510] – Dani Morin
It gets tricky. But I think validating a mom’s feeling of, yeah, I don’t want to put a hole in my wall either to put up a baby gate. This sucks. Or like, yeah, no, it sucks not sleeping. This stage of parenting sucks. Oh, my gosh. I totally understand where you’re at. You’re doing everything right now to feed your baby. I think validating them, but also giving out facts is also another thing.
[00:08:57.130] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, and there’s a big difference between how I share information on TikTok and how I talk to my singular patient that had a singular problem, right? Yeah. So it’s tricky. But TikTok is for everyone.
[00:09:10.960] – Dani Morin
And it’s so hard for me to remember that because sometimes I think that I will talk singular on some of my TikToks. When I became a CPST, so then I became a CPST, and I started working with moms in their car seats, we practice a good, better best. It’s what’s taught.
[00:09:28.790] – Dani Morin
And that is not on TikTok. I am like, this is how it is. So I asked them, how would you address this with a safe sleep thing? Like the good, better, best? They’re like, if someone says, oh, I’m doing the safe sleep seven, you could say, yeah, I guess that’s a safer way, but I will never say that it’s safe. It’s never going to be something that I say is safe.
[00:09:49.190] – Dani Morin
But yeah, is it safer than you sleeping on top of your baby? I guess. But I could never say that that is safe.
[00:09:55.150] – Dani Morin
So I’m like, okay, because how do you word that? But with car seats, you have a mom come in and she has her two-year-old forward-facing. And okay, so that’s good, right? And maybe the latches were a little loose, so we tighten those up. Okay, so that’s better.
[00:10:13.160] – Dani Morin
But then maybe the mom decides like, Okay, I heard what you have to say about rear-facing. I’m going to flip my car seat. Okay, that’s the best. But legally, she left maybe forward-facing with a tighter install. So that’s better than how she came.
[00:10:25.850] – Dani Morin
But by doing that, I’ve changed how I talk on TikTok. I think I was coming out like, there’s nothing you could say about teething necklaces that I’m ever going to be okay with. I still feel that way. But I changed. There’s nothing a mom could say to me that I’m not going to be able to have a comeback, especially on the teething necklaces. But I changed the approach, I feel like, or I’m putting in the effort.
[00:10:48.300] – Hilary Erickson
Well, I mean, we are not supporting parents enough in this world, right? I went back to work at six weeks with every single kid. First kid, I went back at five weeks. I was tired, and then I would go be a nurse somewhere. God bless those patients. Yeah.
[00:11:01.500] – Dani Morin
I mean, it’s so crazy.
[00:11:03.580] – Hilary Erickson
So we got to support mothers more. We have to be the village, including new moms. I see a lot of new moms who are like, well, I can’t support other new moms. I’m like, well, that is our village, is we’re all supporting each other. I’m not saying you’re two weeks postpartum taking a meal. I’m saying you have a one year old, you’re now part of the village that’s helping all these new moms. And I am old, so I’m definitely part of the village.
[00:11:24.520] – Dani Morin
Yeah, it’s crazy we don’t really have that. I’ve been blessed to have my mom in my life, but I know a lot of people live so far away from their families? You know what I mean? And I could not imagine that, but maybe it’s a military situation. So they have this great group of women that act as that.
[00:11:43.790] – Dani Morin
So I’ve seen different things like that. But I think really validating to moms, sometimes I just want my fiance to come home and be like, I realize you had a busy day. You did so much today. And I’m like, you know? You just want to be seen.
[00:11:55.560] – Dani Morin
So I understand that moms are like, I just want someone to notice that sleeping is really hard for me right now. And just say, I understand this sucks. You know what I mean? Or the breastfeeding, that is hard. Or just the sleep, and I miss my body. I’m in this awkward phase. And people just want to be validated and like, hey, me too. I’ve been there. You’re going to get through this. Today is hard. Even with grief, when people open up about their grief journeys or child loss and they’re like, hey, I’m having a day.
[00:12:28.810] – Dani Morin
I’m like, today is hard. I’m going to validate you. This has to be so hard. This is a hard day because it’s like, sometimes I think people just want to be validated. Yeah.
[00:12:38.280] – Hilary Erickson
Well, we should definitely say that upfront. There are things Dani is going to say on here that Hilary did not do as a parent because everybody knows my oldest is 24.
[00:12:46.030] – Hilary Erickson
So a lot of these things we didn’t even have or think about. So I’m not shaming you. There is no shame in this episode. This is like, you’re doing a good job. I think everyone that is listening to this podcast is doing a good job. Could we do a little bit better? That’s what we’re finding out today. This isn’t like, oh, I’m never going to make it. Yeah, you can make small changes.
[00:13:03.480] – Dani Morin
Small changes. And also, these are not things even that I’ve done. When I got my CPST certification, I had a CPST instructor check my own car seat and found mistakes.
[00:13:17.120] – Dani Morin
So I could go in here and find things that I didn’t do with my first that now I know better. So I totally… There’s just things that you’re not even going to know. I did a TikTok, yes, a couple of days ago about the kid in Utah that had the kernel that was playing in the pumpkin patch, and he got the kernel. I’m like, okay, here’s two videos of my son also playing in those year after year. I had no idea yet. I’ve made videos about why kids shouldn’t have popcorn. It’s just like, sometimes it takes other people’s stories to realize like, oh, my gosh.
[00:13:50.880] – Dani Morin
And I feel like the best form of parenting is listening to other stories and sometimes mistakes. And I shout out to moms that are willing to admit when they’ve made a mistake to help others because I wouldn’t be the parent I am today if it wasn’t for you guys and sharing your stories. Yeah.
[00:14:05.150] – Hilary Erickson
And shout out to Dani, because I’m sure it was extremely vulnerable to share that you bought the necklace.
[00:14:11.110] – Dani Morin
It was gifted to me, but it was on my registry. It’s something that I wanted. So it was the stamp of approval for the Crunchy Moms. If you didn’t have one, then you were science-based. That was not going to be me back then. Now-
[00:14:24.060] – Hilary Erickson
All my friends know I’m science-based, so they would just…
[00:14:27.000] – Dani Morin
It’s so funny, and I’ve made plenty of TikToks. The drastic change I went from making my own wipes in 2015 with, I think I was using like, grapeseed oil and like, lavender. I mean, I cloth-diapered.
[00:14:43.420] – Dani Morin
People like to throw in the breastfeeding as crunchy. I don’t. You know what I mean? But I did the barefoot thing, the cloth diapering, I did the essential oils. I did all of the the hand-making of everything. And it was so stressful to live that lifestyle, too. But that Baltic Amber teething necklace, that was a stamp of approval where you go in to Target and the other moms are like, yeah, I’m not toxic, too.
[00:15:11.090] – Dani Morin
But no, it’s just to look back. And now I’m so evidence-based, science-based. I follow people like you. I follow people like Dr. Frijes. I follow all the pediatricians, just thank God for them, right?
[00:15:25.680] – Dani Morin
So yeah, no shame here because I was that mom. I’ve done things right and I’ve done things wrong, and I continue to sometimes do things wrong, and I have to learn. So no shame.
[00:15:34.410] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, and I was the one shoving Highland’s teething tablets, which are no longer high.
[00:15:37.870] – Dani Morin
Yeah, I had no- So we…
[00:15:40.200] – Hilary Erickson
Shout out to everybody that’s just giving it a whirl. Yeah.
[00:15:42.440] – Dani Morin
Someone just did a video on teething and the science behind how teething happens and the discomfort and what it really is for babies. And it was pretty interesting. I’ll have to send it to you. But yeah, it was just-
[00:15:54.990] – Hilary Erickson
I am not sad. Not sad to not have teethers in my house.
[00:15:58.430] – Dani Morin
Yeah. I think the best thing I gave to Brett was a rolled up cloth. I would freeze a rolled up cloth. And that was the best thing. And I had the teethers and that was the best thing, I swear. People did the frozen-
[00:16:11.300] – Hilary Erickson
We did frozen waffles because it would catch the drool.
[00:16:14.360] – Dani Morin
I attempted the frozen waffle. The cloth seemed to work best, but the cloth also gets the drool, right?
[00:16:20.890] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, that’s true. Okay, so today we’re talking baby proofing. No shame out there if you don’t have these things done. And Dani and I were quickly talking about this before. And even if you have a teenager, there are different things I’m thinking when she was talking, I was like, I need a teen proof, my medicine cabinet, right? There’s a reason I probably shouldn’t have any Oxy anywhere near, right? Because you just never know. Liquor, things like that. So it’s a long range game. So let’s talk baby proofing or kid proofing.
[00:16:50.510] – Dani Morin
Well, I love that you started off with baby proofing for your teens. And the reason I like that is the one thing that I live by is baby proofing is ongoing. Now, I am not baby proofing certified. I work with them, but I’m not baby proofing certified. In order to do that, you actually have to own a baby proofing business.
[00:17:09.860] – Dani Morin
And in California, you have to have a contractor’s license to do that. So I’ll work with them on campaigns, they do like tip over awareness and stuff like that. And I’m involved with the baby proofers, but I’m not a certified baby proofer. I don’t go into people’s homes and baby proof them, but I can provide the information online. That’s what we’ll do today. But I love that you talked about your teens and baby proofing, because the funniest thing is it’s always ongoing.
[00:17:32.100] – Dani Morin
A perfect example of this is things that you would do before you come home from the hospital and things that you would do when your child steps up to that couch and does a little couch surfing for the first time is going to be completely different. A great example of this is you come home with your baby, you’re maybe six weeks in.
[00:17:52.610] – Dani Morin
All baby does is lay there in the bassinet and put baby to bed, mom and dad, grab a glass of wine and some popcorn. And have some time to themselves. But a couple months later, baby starts scooting around. So the best thing you could do is get down to the baby’s level. And what you might find under that couch where your little baby’s hand could fit is a popcorn kernel or something else that got under there that you couldn’t see, you couldn’t really reach. But when you get to their level, you could see that and you could reach that.
[00:18:22.360] – Dani Morin
So it’s one of those things to constantly do. And before you’re a parent, you’re like, maybe you vacuum under that couch when you move. That would be me. Or maybe it’s something you do twice a year. But when you have a scooter and a Crawler, that’s going to be something that you’re constantly doing is putting that vacuum device under there and really making sure that nothing got under there.
[00:18:43.340] – Dani Morin
But with an infant who’s just laying there, that’s probably something that you hadn’t really thought of before. When we get those babies who are couch surfing, if they could surf your couch, they could surf a toilet.
[00:18:55.600] – Dani Morin
And although we promote putting the toilet locks on the before you come home from the hospital, they’re a pain. You got to run to the bathroom. You don’t want to open it, but you want to make sure that those are on at that time. So I just put them on, get used to it. But if they could surf that couch, they could certainly surf your toilet.
[00:19:17.280] – Dani Morin
So it’s constantly ongoing. When they’re getting on their hands and knees, you should also get on their hands and knees. When they’re standing up, you should also stand up. And what are they reaching? What could they get into?
[00:19:27.400] – Dani Morin
Do you need to protect any corners at this time? Because now they’re hitting the tables or whatever it is. It’s constantly ongoing. So that’s my biggest thing.
[00:19:37.790] – Dani Morin
My second biggest thing is that every mom thinks we can’t fathom something bad happening to our kids. We see things on the news and it’s like, Hey, that could never be me. A kid gets hit on his bike without a helmet or something like that. Oh, my gosh.
[00:19:52.370] – Hilary Erickson
I’m the opposite of that mom.
[00:19:53.750] – Dani Morin
And I’m the opposite.
[00:19:55.450] – Hilary Erickson
I envisioned every single thing I saw bad in the hospital.
[00:19:58.520] – Dani Morin
I’m like, well- Because you have this personal tie to it, right? So for me, I’m like, I was the mom sitting in the comfort of my own home watching the news and being like, that could never happen to me. I feel so bad for that family.
[00:20:08.990] – Dani Morin
And until I was the girl on the news. You know what I mean? And then it’s like, wow. And I just did the Stop the Bleed class, and it was all nurses and doctors in there. It was so funny how desensitized… How- not desensitized, but that, Oh, yeah, we see this all the time. Like, oh, yeah, this happens. Oh, yeah. Then you’ll want to check a bullet wound, and I’m like, Oh, have you seen this before?
[00:20:32.510] – Dani Morin
Because as a normal mom, I can’t fathom. But our nurses and our doctors, when they see this stuff all the time, it is an automatic no-no, or it is an automatic pool gate, or is it automatic no trampoline roll? For our first responders that see this all the time, they understand. So I think for me as also a regular mom, but now I have the same mentality as you is actually, no, these things could happen because something happened to me before it could happen to me again.
[00:20:57.810] – Dani Morin
I try to put that mentality on the moms in TikTok. Please understand that this could happen to you. There are not rules. There’s no ASTM boards. There’s no CPSC for no reason. These things are in place because things have happened bad. Yeah.
[00:21:13.660] – Hilary Erickson
And a quick shout out for the fact that you literally can’t keep every accident from happening.
[00:21:18.500] – Dani Morin
You can’t. Exactly.
[00:21:19.460] – Hilary Erickson
Forever. You have to give your kid a driver’s license and let them drive. There’s parts of parenting where you have to let them try the bars, right?
[00:21:26.330] – Dani Morin
Well, it was funny because I think with my son, Deacon, And I was really this hippie mom and just free. And I think with my son, Rut, I was opposite, where I’ve almost sheltered him too much.
[00:21:41.400] – Dani Morin
I actually had a friend, her son jumped off the sink into a ball pit, and I about had a heart attack. And this is something that happens all the time. And she looked at me and she was like, has he ever in his life worn a bandaid?
[00:21:55.220] – Dani Morin
And I was like, he’s four years old, right? He’s never had a bandaid? I’ve never allowed him to get hurt. I’ve been scared for him to fall off his bike. And I’m like, a little bit, I have to let him inch out a little bit. And I have to let my paranoia like, oh, if my brother wanted to put him up on his shoulders, absolutely not.
[00:22:13.640] – Dani Morin
Because I just foresee all these things happening. So I’m getting myself to a place where I’m like, not let me let him get hurt, but it’s okay so that he can learn to ride a bike that he might get a couple of scrapes.
[00:22:27.850] – Dani Morin
I’m going to prevent it as much as I can, but I like to tell parents that think in my comments a lot of times, oh, just supervise your kid. You can do a teething necklace as long as you supervise your kid. You have to go to the bathroom. You have to. You have to fill up your water bottle. You’re going to have to mix that mac and cheese on the stove top. You have to change out your laundry. All of these things take 15, 20, maybe 1 to 2 to 3 to 5 minutes. And not saying that you’re a bad mom for doing those, you have to do those things.
[00:23:04.390] – Dani Morin
But that is just enough time for a strangulation to occur from a blind string. That’s just enough time for the baby to push over a baby gate because you didn’t want to bolt it into the wall. It’s just enough time for a TV to fall on a kid.
[00:23:19.660] – Dani Morin
So yes, we’re not saying you’re not supervising your kids, but nobody can supervise their child 100 % of the time 24/7. And these kids, they’re quick. They’re quick. So that’s just.. Understand that it’s like, no, we know you’re supervising your kid, but there’s the 15 seconds to a minute of time when you run out and you’re not. Not leaving the house, but run to the laundry room or turn around.
[00:23:51.910] – Hilary Erickson
Well, and I think there’s a lot of joy in parenting to know that you’ve created a safe space for your kids where they can explore every single DVD that I own, because back in the day, my kids wanted to pull out all the DVDs, all the books, right? They can explore that area and you know that you’ve baby proofed it as good as you could, and they can explore and do stuff. And you’re not constantly like, Oh, not that book. Oh, not that DVD.
[00:24:13.370] – Dani Morin
I love that, too. So We had done something in our house that a baby proofer had recommended, where I’m like, he constantly wants to be in the kitchen when I’m in the kitchen and play with the drawers. And she was like, find the furthest cabinet that’s not by the stove or anything and put his plastic plates in there. Let him organize those.
[00:24:31.520] – Dani Morin
So we did that where it’s like we moved up all the cleaning supplies, and that’s the one drawer that’s not locked because it’s baby proofed. He could pull it out. He could help mom put the dishes, his own things away. But Everything else I lock. And then I do like the magnet locks for the alcohol, for the medications and the vitamins, and those should be higher up.
[00:24:56.820] – Dani Morin
I do like the thought of pantry locks, and everyone will find one that they like. They really push those magnet ones, but I have lost the magnet key more times than I can count. No drinking in our house because you can’t even find the magnet key.
[00:25:13.250] – Hilary Erickson
Safety first.
[00:25:14.370] – Dani Morin
Yeah. So there’s little things that you could do in the kitchen. I think a big one that I think we should talk about is tipovers.
[00:25:23.700] – Dani Morin
I mean, the statistics on these tipover deaths and incidences is insane to me. I think it was America’s… It was part of the baby proofing group. They were running a campaign for Furniture of America or something like that.
[00:25:41.810] – Dani Morin
And the one rule, I think this is easy for moms to take with them is if it has a drawer, a door, or a shelf, it should be anchored to the wall. And it took them… So I was on a meeting with the baby proofing group a couple of weeks ago, and they were talking about that it took 20 years for the furniture to get in through, I think, ASTM to have the anchor things on the back of furniture sold.
[00:26:08.800] – Dani Morin
But with that said, a lot of us, if you’re like me, Hey, I didn’t have all this money to be getting new furniture. I got some from my mom. I got some from grandma. I got some from Facebook marketplace, where you’re not going to have those anchor things on there to remind you to anchor that to the wall. I did get a dresser recently that did include that. Now it’s in law, but a lot of us millennials, we’re getting our furniture wherever we can.
[00:26:32.480] – Dani Morin
So it’s still something that… And there’s a ton of different anchoring systems that you could use, you go on Amazon or whatever, that you could use to anchor.
[00:26:41.590] – Dani Morin
Even at Walmart, they have a whole baby proofing section to anchor anything. And this could be your night stand that weighs 20 pounds. 20 pounds and a 10, 11, 12 pound infant, that’s nothing to mess around with.
[00:26:58.110] – Hilary Erickson
Is there a height? Because I didn’t do anything that was below waist height.
[00:27:02.400] – Dani Morin
So they actually do. That was one of my questions, and they actually recommend if it lands with a drawer, door, or shelf that it’s anchored. Now, I was just thinking like, oh, these tall shelves that I have in my room. Like, oh, yeah, I’ll just anchor those.
[00:27:16.290] – Dani Morin
They’re saying there are some incidences with a night stand.
[00:27:22.370] – Hilary Erickson
Kids are crazy out there.
[00:27:25.070] – Dani Morin
So just anchoring them. And people will say, it’s a rental or it’s my new house. I don’t want to put it. You could fix a hole in your wall, but you cannot fix the hole in your heart if something were to happen, especially on your watch. So just anchor them.
[00:27:41.200] – Dani Morin
These anchoring systems are really not that bad in your walls. And they have them for the mirrors. A lot of us girlies on the internet love our mirrors for our selfies. They have them for the mirrors. The TVs are a big one. I know in California, I think last year there was four deaths just from TV tipovers, at least in my state.
[00:27:58.320] – Dani Morin
So I’m a big fan of anchoring your TV to a wall, pay the professional $120. That’s typically what it costs.
[00:28:05.560] – Dani Morin
Get that anchored to your wall if possible. If not, you have to have it stand on some shelving system or whatever, make sure that you anchor that to a wall. There’s different rope anchors and stuff like that.
[00:28:18.450] – Dani Morin
They actually come with the TVs, typically. If you have to do that type of thing, I’m a big fan of anchoring it to the wall or mounting it to the wall if possible. But I believe anchor systems come in the packaging now for people that are going to stand it on a piece of furniture.
[00:28:35.970] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. I will say that even with teens, they just love to roughouse, just anchor it to the wall. It’s never going to get better. For sure.
[00:28:43.760] – Dani Morin
Yeah. So the furniture, working with the-
[00:28:47.130] – Hilary Erickson
And we lived in California, so we were always like, earthquake, too. It’s not just a kid climbing on it. They can tip over in an earthquake, too, like those two ones. So we’ve always been anchor-
[00:28:57.390] – Dani Morin
Yeah, big fan of that. And I think more people are doing that. I think back in the day we had, and this is just why baby proofing is constantly changing, is back in the day, it was those big, bulky TVs.
[00:29:08.990] – Dani Morin
Now we have these skinny, tall TVs that just fall over on top of our babies. And I see it all the time on TikTok and people making jokes about like, Oh, this almost fell on my baby. And I’m like, No, that’s really serious. That could have been really bad. People have died that way. So I’m a big fan of anchoring. I was not a fan of anchoring.
[00:29:30.930] – Hilary Erickson
And if you guys are big question mark over your brain, especially new parents, go to Home Depot and look at these options or Walmart, apparently. We always went to Home Depot.
[00:29:39.980] – Hilary Erickson
Look at the options, see which will work if you’re in a rental or if you’re in a home and you’re planning on being there for a long time, then anchor the heck to the stud, right? Just look at your different options because there are different options out there for anchoring these different things. It’s not just like… I just like to feel them with my hands and see exactly what the hole is going to be or whatever. Yeah.
[00:29:57.850] – Dani Morin
And there’s plenty of options They’re getting more innovative as they come. Another one that I wanted to talk about when we’re talking about how baby proofing has changed is our… Let me pull this out of another computer. Is our cords from our phones… So our phones and our computers, the amount of voltage that is going through these things, right? Think about having to put this into your computer or your phone. The amount of voltage is insane.
[00:30:28.430] – Dani Morin
We’ve never talked about this before. I don’t know if you follow Getty’s mom, but she’s a dentist. And they’ve been seeing, the dentists have been seeing all these kids and babies coming in because they’re chewing on these things. And the voltage, even if it’s unplugged, the voltage is still… shoots through there. So they’re burning the inside of their mouths and stuff. So she actually, she came up with this product called Watch Your Mouth.
[00:30:52.810] – Dani Morin
But it’s basically a product that goes… I have videos on this, but it’s a product that goes over the top of it. So whether it’s unplugged or not, they put this in their mouth, they’re fine.
[00:31:03.860] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So people that are just listening, it just looks like the top of a travel to fresh cover.
[00:31:06.840] – Dani Morin
It looks like a travel to fresh cover. That’s probably how she figured this out. And it locks over your phone charger. And then when you’re using it, it still stays on. It still stays on there. But then you could put it in. So it’s just a reminder, hey, lock it up. But I guess they were seeing all these injuries. And it’s like, this is one of those things where it’s like, I would have never thought.
[00:31:29.280] – Dani Morin
Because I’ve grown up in this digital age, but this digital age compared to our parents or even 10, 20 years ago, and even the phones now, like the new iPhone 15 takes the same voltage, or whatever one it is, takes the new… I don’t know. Takes the same voltage as a computer.
[00:31:46.830] – Dani Morin
And that’s just one of those things. It could be really dangerous, and we just don’t think about it. Another thing to think about when we’re thinking about baby proofing and the new age is a lot of the new homes are being built with pre existing safety things for the electrical outlets. So they’re built like that, where you have to jiggle the plug in there and it opens it up. But your kid can’t get hurt. They’re built like that.
[00:32:11.990] – Dani Morin
So I’m in a new home build. But with that being said, if I didn’t know that and I went to shove in one of those plastic things, they’re not recommended at all anymore, that could harm me. You know what I mean? So there’s all these new types of electrical options out there that are not the plastic ones. We’re trying to stay away from that.
[00:32:33.010] – Dani Morin
I wouldn’t even know how to explain this one, so I’m not going to try. But there’s a lot of new ones out there that aren’t the plastic ones that are safety covers for outlets just because of things that we’ve learned, how our electricity is set up, what’s safe and what’s not.
[00:32:49.610] – Dani Morin
Something to ask your contractor or when you buy a new home, hey, what outlets are these? What baby proofing electrical things can I use? They should be be able to help you with that if you’re getting a new home, which I think a lot of pregnant moms, what do we get? New cars and new homes when a baby comes? Yeah.
[00:33:09.300] – Hilary Erickson
And your realtor also might have an idea. They know a lot about electricity that I’m always like, I didn’t know about them.
[00:33:14.330] – Dani Morin
So when I got my home, they’re like, make sure with your baby, you do not put in the plastic things. This is already baby proofed. And then I guess another big one is falls. So this is anything from falling downstairs, falling out windows. A couple of things that parents can do to avoid this, even outside of the baby proofing, is don’t put furniture where your kid can climb on it and fall off a banister. Don’t make it easy for them.
[00:33:43.520] – Dani Morin
So think about what would be a fun jungle gym for your kid and avoid that away from places that they could fall or away from the windows where they could climb out windows. I’m always a big fan of the… I don’t have one over here, but the window locks where you could lock the window from above so they can’t open it.
[00:34:01.620] – Dani Morin
But if you quickly needed to get out in a fire or something, that you could push it and slide it open, but your kid wouldn’t be able to do that. There’s a ton of window options, but that’s something we just do not think about. There’s window barriers. That’s a big one where it’s these bar things that they put up so that they can’t…
[00:34:21.390] – Dani Morin
Only you could open the window. You don’t think about window falls, but these things happen. I would say the biggest nuance and the hardest thing where you would almost need a baby proofer to come in, and every single household, for every listener right now, every single person listening, would need a different baby gate for their stairs.
[00:34:39.140] – Dani Morin
Every single house is designed differently. So there is a baby gate for everyone. It is not a one-size-fits-all. I’ll tell you one business I would not want to be in, the baby gate business.
[00:34:50.540] – Dani Morin
Because there’s no universal baby gate. It is so different by houses, by the width of your stairs, by what’s on the other side. It’s so different. But I would say the biggest thing is you really want to bolt those in. Those kids can push them down. So the suction ones, I know people love that, the tension ones, but you really want to get the gates that are bolted into the walls. That’s going to be, I would say, just do that. But this may be a situation you may want to call out a baby proofer or someone that specializes in those gates.
[00:35:27.190] – Dani Morin
If you have a weird house where you’re not going to fit the universal safety first ones at Target. And don’t feel like if you go bring one home and you’re like, wait, this isn’t working for me, don’t call it quits and say, okay, we’re going to have to be careful.
[00:35:39.810] – Dani Morin
There’s one out there for you. You just need to find it. And sometimes it’s, ordering and returning 15 from Amazon. I had to do that. So that’s the hardest part of baby proofing, I would say, is finding the gate, finding the gate that’s right for your home. It is the hardest part, but you’ll figure it out.
[00:35:59.160] – Hilary Erickson
Or maybe just finding a single story home.
[00:36:01.460] – Dani Morin
That’s where I’m at. We’re trying to move right now. I’m like, let’s just single story. That’s where it’s at, right? Yeah. And look, as moms, my hips at the end of the night hurt so bad that I don’t want to be walking upstairs. I’m 37, but I’m acting these days like I’m 67. Yeah, we’re in the market right now for a new house, and I’m like, let’s do this single story. That is where it’s at for a multitude of reasons. Yeah.
[00:36:28.060] – Hilary Erickson
I think a lot of people just don’t think about stairs when you’re purchasing the home, how that’s going to end up. Because we had a single story 1,100 square foot house with three kids in California, and then we moved to the double story. But luckily, my kid was old enough that I just supervised.
[00:36:42.770] – Dani Morin
Yeah. No, I supervised. I love when I get the comments on TikTok of like, Yeah, so we do that, but we supervise. And I’m like, Okay. As if I was telling everybody else that they’re a horrible parent. They don’t supervise.
[00:36:59.950] – Dani Morin
Yeah, these things could happen so quick. Another thing is, and this is the American Cleaning Institute. They are doing a lot of work undoing a trend right now, which is very interesting. So On TikTok in the past couple of years, so they are doing a lot…
[00:37:18.950] – Dani Morin
They’re doing like an anti-influenced campaign because of a trend that happened on TikTok. And you might know what I’m talking about, but it’s filling up the glass jars with the pods and filling up the glass jars with all of the laundry detergent things.
[00:37:34.420] – Dani Morin
Those look like candy to kids. And from that trend happening on TikTok… Look at TikTok, we could do TikTok for good all day long. The work that you and I do on TikTok is it’s great. But the work that the fancy influencers with the nice homes in Utah, what they’re doing in their laundry rooms, apparently it caused a little bit of an uptick in calls to the poison control.
[00:37:57.430] – Dani Morin
So it looks great. And I’m one of those moms where I’m like, oh, but it looks so cute to have this esthetically pleasing laundry room. I don’t believe in esthetically pleasing laundry rooms.
[00:38:08.040] – Dani Morin
I believe in… Those are the rooms where everything gets thrown into, right? When you shut the door. But no. So apparently it caused all this uptick and calls to the poison control because these kids were babies, where they look like candy.
[00:38:21.470] – Hilary Erickson
Right. And the Tide Pod thing at the store anymore has a baby proof. Well, and that’s the thing. If my dishwasher detergent, it’s hard to get into. It’s Hilary-proof at this point.
[00:38:30.870] – Dani Morin
Tide and Cascade. They did a lot of work on their own to try to undo this issue, where the pods now, the Tide Pods, if you really were to… It’s hard to break those things. Even if you were to bite on them, it’s pretty hard to break those things, but you never know.
[00:38:48.260] – Dani Morin
And they make safety locks on these products for a reason. And it’s so that you use them, not take the pods out and put them in a nice open glass container where they look like Halloween candy.
[00:39:00.880] – Dani Morin
So they’re trying to undo this issue that our fellow moms caused through a trend that became a thing. So a couple of things is put those pods, store them high. Don’t store them in glass. Store not decor, okay? Store not decor. So store them not in glass. Put them high up. If your kid wants to help with the laundry, take the wet clothes out and let the kid put the wet clothes in the dryer, right? Let them fold the towels. Let them participate. I’m all about letting kids participate in what you’re doing. I think that’s great for growth, but in a safe way.
[00:39:41.640] – Dani Morin
We don’t want them to see those pods either. So keep them stored high. When you get home from the grocery store, so a lot of incidents were happening where mom gets home from the grocery store and leaves everything out for a little bit on the sink and the kids were getting to them and things like that. Just storing them.
[00:39:59.420] – Dani Morin
A dad came came through our county and I was working a car seat event, and he came in with his kids, and he had maybe two and four in his car. And in the middle, he had just gotten some fabric fresheners, some Tide pods, and they were just in the car, and the kids were trying to play with them.
[00:40:22.340] – Dani Morin
So I was just saying, hey, this isn’t something you think of. I throw all this stuff in my car, too. I’m like, hey, these things, don’t put them around the kids. It’s like, they’re so easy. They look fun for them. They want to pop them. They want to eat them. So it’s just I had to do a little education for him, which he’s like, I didn’t even think about that. And I’m like, no, I wouldn’t have thought about it either.
[00:40:40.870] – Dani Morin
But American Cleaning Institute is running a big campaign right now, trying to get the word out that we are no longer storing our pods in glass jars. Yeah.
[00:40:49.120] – Hilary Erickson
And I’m here to say that that doesn’t last forever, right? Because I need my kids to get in and do their laundry. So we don’t make them… If you love that look, there is going to come a point in time where you can then again do that look until you have grandkids, and then you’re totally screwed again. So I don’t know.
[00:41:03.500] – Dani Morin
And if you do have teens and you want them to do their own laundry, just make sure they’re not doing the trends where they eat Tide pods. That was a thing, I think, in 2021. Yeah, that was crazy. But that’s It’s just these little things that we just don’t think. We think, oh, this is cute. We just don’t think about. Yeah.
[00:41:21.850] – Hilary Erickson
And I think the other thing we can think about as moms, when we’re at each other’s houses and we see something, I think we should not be afraid to be like, hey, I just saw on TikTok that they’re encouraging us not to put them in jars because kids are so attracted to that.
[00:41:36.390] – Hilary Erickson
And your friend might not have had zero clue. And hopefully you have friends that are willing to say that, and you’re willing to take that criticism and then decide if that’s something you want to do in your house. But if we share with each other, oh, I just saw that that’s unsafe, maybe we can save a life.
[00:41:51.560] – Dani Morin
So I’m so glad you brought up this topic, and tell me if I’m rambling, because I could stop talking. But how do we talk to our friends about things about safety? This is a question I get all the time. One of my best friends is using a teething necklace, so to speak.
[00:42:05.750] – Dani Morin
How do we talk to our friends? Because as moms, you say one thing that’s opposite than what I’m doing, I’m feeling attacked. Or, Hey, I just wanted to… That voice, even like, I’m feeling I’m attacked. I’m a bad mom. I don’t like that. This is uncomfortable for me. So I tell people to do something called the Shit Sandwich, where you go in and let’s say it’s the Tide pods, right? Oh, my gosh, girl, your laundry room. This is a dream laundry room. This is literally so cute. I cannot believe it. I want to copy everything and then go up to the pods and be like, Oh my gosh, I just saw this video actually of these babies or toddlers, climbed up and ate one. One ended up in the hospital. They’re trying to warn moms about this. And I’ll send it to you because I don’t know if you’ve seen it.
[00:42:53.190] – Dani Morin
Where the mom’s like, you’re kind of just, and oh my God, I didn’t even think about that. That’s what you want to hear, right? Sometimes they’ll be like, Yeah, I supervise. And then you just got to let it go. And then you finish up and being like, where did you get these towels? Are these Nordstrom? These are so cute. Walk away.
[00:43:10.970] – Dani Morin
So the teething necklace, I always tell parents to be like, your kid is so cute. Is her hair naturally that curly? Oh, my gosh, I dream. That’s so cute. I love that. And then, Hey, one of my friends, I always tell people to say, I’m your friend. One of my friends lost her son in one of those teething necklaces. I don’t know if you heard that story? And then, no, what happened? Oh my gosh, I’m going to take this off right now. Or it’s like, I heard it, but it’s like one or two babies died. It’s not… It was probably something else. It was the daycare.
[00:43:39.740] – Dani Morin
You got to move on from there. They know the story, they know the dangers. They’re going to do it anyways. But that’s one way to do it where you’re not coming in and being like, oh, this is your new laundry. Oh, girl. Those are bad. There’s a way to come about it. So you complement, right? So the shit sandwich, complement, criticize, compliment.
[00:43:59.290] – Hilary Erickson
Right. Like in HR, like when you’re a manager.
[00:44:02.300] – Dani Morin
Yeah. Yeah. It’s the same thing. So that has seemed to, I feel, work really well. Is that way of providing information.
[00:44:11.230] – Hilary Erickson
Well, and I always just come at… This is the paranoid nurse in me talking. That’s usually how I start the thing, and then just be like, I think you’re a great mom. I made so many mistakes as a mom.
[00:44:20.580] – Dani Morin
I had a mom with Rhett. She… On TikTok. I was pushing him in the stroller. He was buckled into his car seat, but it was very loose. And she reached out to me. This was the best thing she could have done. She was a CPST, and she was like, Hey, I’m a CPST. I have this little PowerPoint. I just wanted to send it to you and just see if maybe… Go through it and just see if you’re… It’s like a checklist, just like if it’s all the things that you’re doing when you’re putting him into the car seat.
[00:44:48.930] – Dani Morin
I was like, Sure, send it. But in my mind, I’m like, Oh, she’s trying to call me out on something. Send your little PowerPoint, right? I will go through. This is so dumb. People on TikTok are just criticizing me for every little thing. So I’m going through and I get to slide number nine. And I remember one through eight. I’m like, Do that. Do that. This is so stupid. I get to slide number nine, and it’s something called the pinch test, which is what CPSTs check. And if you could pinch that strap, it’s too loose.
[00:45:17.280] – Dani Morin
So I am like, oh, my gosh, I never tighten his straps that tight because I’m worried about his chest. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I was like, you know what? I was rude. I didn’t thank you for that PowerPoint, but I She was not doing the pinching. She’s like, oh, I was hoping you’d see slide number nine. So you know what I mean?
[00:45:34.070] – Dani Morin
But I’m like, oh, my gosh, we get so worried about doing something wrong, that we’re a bad mom. But I’m like, there’s mom shaming and there’s life saving, and we need to make sure that we could differentiate the two. So you want to go shame a mom because she can’t breastfeed or she’s choosing not… That is shaming. You are shaming a mom. You want to tell a mom, Hey, I notice that you’re maybe not tightening your car seat much, here’s a PowerPoint, oh, my God, you may have just saved my baby’s life.
[00:46:03.980] – Dani Morin
Those are two different things. You shame a mom for going to work or not going to work, that is shaming. So as long as we know the difference between two, and I think when child safety is in a parenting choice, as it should be a parenting mandate for a lot of these things, especially when it comes to car seats.
[00:46:23.060] – Dani Morin
And that’s my personal opinion of what’s a parenting choice. Yeah, a parenting choice is whether we’re going to homeschool or not. That’s a parenting choice.
[00:46:33.510] – Dani Morin
A parenting mandate is like, we’re going to follow the law and make sure that our kid is rear facing till at least two years old. These are things that should be pretty black and white. But I think sometimes we just put into this bucket of, you’re mom shaming. And it’s like, no, we’re just warning because this could be a life saving situation.
[00:46:51.900] – Hilary Erickson
You just never know. And we all got to put down our hackles when people are like, oh, maybe you could do it this way. I get it. You’re You’re already overwhelmed as a parent. You have so much stuff on your plate. Sleep is a huge issue for new moms. You’re just like, I’m just trying to make it work for us, right?
[00:47:09.140] – Hilary Erickson
And just put it into like, okay, that’s some good information. Same for your pediatrician. Pediatricians are not out there to shame parents. They’re just giving information, and then you take it and you use it in your life however you’re going to see it. Because it does look different for everybody, right? Everybody’s baby gate’s different. Everyone, how you’re going to cover your electrical outlets is different. Everyone, how you’re going to tell your kids you shouldn’t do that is different.
[00:47:32.810] – Dani Morin
For sure. And I think with the pediatricians, too. I was thinking about it one day. I was so worried. My son, Brett, was in the lower… He was a nine pound, two ouncer when he was born. Both of my kids were. And I was so worried about… But he lost weight.
[00:47:47.490] – Dani Morin
So he’s always been in… At one point, he was in the third percentile. But I was like, it’s not that she’s shaming me, right? This is his weight. She’s not shaming me. And I I would go and even now I go to his birthday checkups, right? And I’m like, oh, what is she going to say about his weight? And it’s just like, okay, am I feeding him? Am I doing my best to feed him? And I’m giving him the vitamins that I’m being told and I’m doing all the things. I’m doing my best. Whatever his weight is, his weight is.
[00:48:16.010] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, and maybe she has some great tips that would work.
[00:48:18.900] – Dani Morin
And that’s the thing. So it was like, let me just be open to the cottage cheese and more olive oil. She’s always like, cottage cheese, man. I’m like, we don’t even have dairy in our house because I have a weird dairy allergy.
[00:48:31.620] – Dani Morin
But it’s just things like that where I’m like, I became more open. So the pediatrician is not shaming me as she’s giving me suggestions. But it is hard as a mom.
[00:48:40.960] – Dani Morin
With my first, I had started off co-sleeping because why not. And didn’t know… That’s the natural way. And the doctor was like, there’s never going to be a day I’m going to tell you that that’s safe. And I have a lot of moms that are like, how do I unco-sleep? And I’m like, that is one of the hardest things to do. But the fact that it’s in your mind, you’re going to get this. I had a mom reach out and she’s like, I just came across one of your videos about bed sharing. I was talking about one of my friends who had lost a baby. And she’s like, I don’t even know where to start. I don’t even have a pack and play.
[00:49:14.880] – Dani Morin
I sent her a pack and play. I’m like, Start with a pack and play. Put it by the bed. You don’t need a $500 crib. It’s just one of those things is it’s something like it’s unlearning some of these things where it’s just like you didn’t know. And I was in… The Facebook Mom groups that I was in, the best option was bed sharing. We’re saying co-sleeping, but we mean bed sharing. But the Facebook Mom groups that I’m in, that’s the best option.
[00:49:40.400] – Hilary Erickson
Because people that are safety-minded just don’t hang out there. We’d lose our minds. Yeah.
[00:49:43.940] – Dani Morin
And that’s the I think we have to understand that I could find an article to validate… You could find an article out there to validate anything that you believe in. You want to do meth and breastfeed? There’s an article out there to support that. I am sure of it. And that’s why… That was extreme.
[00:50:00.920] – Dani Morin
But that is why… But I swear, I’ve seen some crazy stuff. And that is why we stick to our pediatricians, the AAP recommendations, we stick to the professionals that are doing the work. You know what I mean? And that are doing the studies, the studies and the numbers. We stick to those people, not we googled, hey, is it okay for me to take four shots of tequila and breastfeed my baby?
[00:50:26.480] – Dani Morin
Because you will find Emily Oyster, she’ll say that’s okay. But you will find somebody out there to say that that’s totally fine. You will find people say, hey, how you feel is how your baby feels. I mean, you probably know more on that than I do. I don’t drink alcohol, so it’s nothing that I’ve come across. But I see this stuff and I’m like, what is the AAP and the professionals saying?
[00:50:48.000] – Hilary Erickson
Well, and the big problem is sometimes I have AI write an article for fun. Drinking in pregnancy, they were like, do it, get in there, drink during pregnancy. So it created the article. I just had it write it for fun. Not the article I used in case it happens on my website. But yeah, it was just like, Drinking is going to be great. It’ll help relax you during your pregnancy.
[00:51:10.510] – Hilary Erickson
And I was like, There is not a single institution, the ACOG, AAP, any of those people that say any amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy. So AI just was like, sure. And then one time I was like, is sour cream safe in pregnancy? He had it write, and he was like, it will cause miscarriage and your baby will die. Well, and that- The problem is, those articles are getting written out there because that’s how people write articles anymore, is using AI.
[00:51:33.580] – Dani Morin
And AI, I think, is going off of some of these bigger, more searched or read articles. So it’s saying like, oh, these are more viewed. This must be the appropriate information.
[00:51:43.940] – Dani Morin
Where I did a TikTok to show people, if you type in AAP, it’s 10 down on the list on Google. They’re not running ads so that they’re the first thing to pop up.
[00:51:54.920] – Dani Morin
So if we were to type in, I would wish if people were to type in like, baby proofing that the baby proofers of America would pop up. But what’s going to happen is someone that’s coming up with some product that they’re trying to sell that’s maybe not the best.
[00:52:10.170] – Dani Morin
It’s just you really got to know, I think, and you should probably do an article on that, who are the people that I would follow or articles that I would read when it comes to breastfeeding? Where are the articles I would read when it comes to baby proofing? That would be a great article for you to write.
[00:52:25.280] – Hilary Erickson
Trusted people to follow because you really have to find a source that is not going to give you just pure-
[00:52:30.750] – Dani Morin
Yeah, for certain topics. Right now, and maybe I’m just landing on the side of TikTok is the home birth of it all. And I saw a video. I saw a video yesterday, and this was a dead serious video, and everybody agreed with her in the comments. The video was, what happens if my baby is born not breathing? And the doula, big time doula on TikTok was like, we do a meditation over the bait.
[00:52:57.720] – Hilary Erickson
You didn’t watch the whole thing, Dani. I saw your comment because she said, just kidding. She said, just kidding.
[00:53:02.360] – Dani Morin
They do use. Oh my gosh, stop. Okay, you can’t… Okay. Oh my God. Literally, I was going to stitch the video because I was like, no, immediately blocked her. Okay. Why are they doing that?
[00:53:16.470] – Hilary Erickson
She did say that they do different things. But then some of the stuff she was saying, I was like, okay, I’ve never seen a baby come in with a UBC from home.
[00:53:24.490] – Dani Morin
Well, I scrolled through a little bit to see if there was a joke. And then I saw she said meditation, and then we have the mom just talk to the baby. And I was like, wait, no, could it never be me?
[00:53:35.590] – Hilary Erickson
Well, let me like, look at it. Let’s talk about trying to get a secure seal on the baby while the mom is like, if the baby’s on, don’t. You can’t.
[00:53:42.920] – Dani Morin
Yeah. Well, I had my son, Deacon, was born with the low blood sugar. At that time, I wanted to do a home… That was going to be the vibe, is a home birth or something. But he was born with a low blood sugar. And I remember the nurse being popping a bottle of formula in his mouth.
[00:54:00.470] – Dani Morin
And I was like, I’m breastfeeding! The pitchforks came out. I have an epidural, and I’m like, I want to fight this lady. And she was like, if we do not give this to him, he will die. Well, he gets taken to the NICU.
[00:54:12.020] – Dani Morin
And I asked the doctor who was stitching me up. I said, what would have happened had I had a home birth? Because how did they test for the blood sugar? He just like stitching me up. He’s like, yeah, I would have probably done.
[00:54:23.970] – Hilary Erickson
There is stuff you can tell. They get jittery and stuff.
[00:54:27.170] – Dani Morin
Yeah. Okay. So I was like, wait, what? Anyways, after that, I was like, I guess there’s just things you wouldn’t know. I have a friend that had the shoulder dystocia thing. I never heard of that before, actually.
[00:54:38.670] – Dani Morin
And so I’m like, wait, what? And there was five nurses pouncing on her or something. Obviously, I wasn’t there. So I was like, what happens if you have one person in the house? How do they get the baby out? So these fears have been instilled in me. And for that reason, I will have the closest room to the NICU. And as many doctors that want to in there as possible.
[00:55:02.180] – Hilary Erickson
That might not be the best room for you. You just never know. What’s the angle trying to get out of that room into the NICU? Sometimes you want a nice large angle.
[00:55:08.860] – Dani Morin
Yeah. I’m going to go and just really, God willing, I’m getting married in a week or so, and then the baby making is happening. So send me all the baby dust. But I’ll have to go to the hospital and just see what’s the quickest route.
[00:55:24.910] – Hilary Erickson
Ask the NICU nurses, which is the easiest one for you to get to?
[00:55:28.100] – Dani Morin
Yeah. I’m going to request. I’m going to put in a request.
[00:55:30.590] – Hilary Erickson
The thing is, most people don’t need that. No. That’s how baby proofing works. That’s how the hospital works. Most patients don’t need this. It’s just when we do need it, that’s why you need all the things. That’s why you need the baby proofing, because you literally cannot watch that baby. You can’t supervise them 24/7.
[00:55:48.450] – Dani Morin
I like to tell people these things are an insurance policy, right? We’d probably be perfectly fine. And not every baby that bed shares dies, right? It’s an insurance policy to to do these things. And maybe you don’t need to use it. We don’t hope to get in a crash. We don’t hope to be in a situation where something bad would happen or our kid would climb on the TV. We don’t hope to get ourselves in those situations.
[00:56:11.890] – Dani Morin
But in the chance we get in a car accident, we have car insurance. And by chance, our baby walks up the TV, like, it was mounted. So it’s just these things are just all insurance policies that we invest into and just in case. That’s how I like to describe it.
[00:56:31.760] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. And somehow we all made it to adulthood, and I was laying on the bottom of the car as a kid. So I have no idea.
[00:56:38.040] – Dani Morin
Oh, yeah. My mom was like, we had these milk boxes and we just put the… My mom had one of eight. She’s like, we had the babies were put in the milk boxes with a little blanket right there, and we put them in the back of the Wagoneer. And we just put all the babies back there in the Wagoneer.
[00:56:54.820] – Dani Morin
And I’m like, okay, we have come a long way. So when people say, well, we’ve been doing this for ages. And I’m like, yeah, and for ages, people were dying. So for ages, we have been improving these things. But yeah, when my mom tells me the ways of how she grew up, I’m like, oh my God, this is crazy to me.
[00:57:15.850] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, that’s why we put them in the car seat, just in case. All of this car seat is such a normal thing now. I wonder what things were like when they just started using car seats. But yeah, car seat is just one of the baby proofing things we do. Yeah.
[00:57:30.060] – Hilary Erickson
Thank you for coming on, Dani. I think this is going to be super helpful for new parents, pre-existing parents, because a lot of times when you have that baby, that toddler suddenly has access to a lot of stuff because you’re so busy. So it’s a great time to think about, oh, what can the other one get into now that I can’t supervise as well, right?
[00:57:47.810] – Dani Morin
Exactly.
[00:57:48.700] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah.
[00:57:49.060] – Dani Morin
Exactly.
[00:57:49.980] – Hilary Erickson
So find Dani. It’s @DaniMorin, right?
[00:57:52.960] – Dani Morin
Yeah. If you just type in @DaniMorin on TikTok or Instagram, I’ll pop up. You always know when someone started TikTok, not trying to be an influencer, when they got numbers behind their names. So I’m @DaniMorin13, just regular schmegular, whatever TikTok gave me at the time. And I just never changed it because I think it keeps me humble.
[00:58:13.670] – Dani Morin
I’ve come up with all these names that I wanted to name myself, the child advocate and stuff like that. And I’m like, you know what, DaniMorin13, that’s the name TikTok gave me. I’m sticking with it.
[00:58:24.690] – Hilary Erickson
You’re sticking with it.
[00:58:26.390] – Dani Morin
Yeah. So you could find me on the IG. If you have If you have questions, DM me on the IG. I don’t know what’s going on with TikTok. You know this, actually. I am not getting DMs there. So if you have a specific question, you want to send me a link to a baby proofing thing that you’re thinking of using, just shoot it over to me. Via a DM.
[00:58:46.050] – Hilary Erickson
On Instagram, not TikTok.
[00:58:47.300] – Dani Morin
On Instagram. Yes.
[00:58:49.150] – Hilary Erickson
All right. Good luck with your wedding. Good luck keeping us all informed. This doesn’t come out till the spring, so maybe you’ll already be pregnant by then and people can find you stressing out about pregnancy on social media.
[00:59:00.100] – Dani Morin
Yeah, I’ll have you do an update. Yeah.
[00:59:04.120] – Hilary Erickson
All right. Thanks, Dani.
[00:59:05.440] – Dani Morin
Awesome. Thank you so much for letting me come on and do what I do. In my son, Deacon’s name, it means a lot.
[00:59:12.750] – Hilary Erickson
Okay. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. It was a little longer than our usual one, but since Dani and I are friends, hopefully you guys enjoyed the banter because I hope you’re just thinking, I’m just sitting there with a friend and we’re trying to make good choices for our babies.
[00:59:24.670] – Hilary Erickson
And sometimes we don’t have all the information, but maybe a friend has some of the information. Again, not here to shame anybody. You’re looking at a mom who had baby bumpers, mobile right over the crib, probably cords. Who knows? I’m saying that we can do better than we’re doing today, hopefully, and hopefully that inspired you to do just that.
[00:59:43.120] – Hilary Erickson
Stay tuned. We are talking about taking a hospital tour next week, and then the week after that, we are talking about your smelly fridge, and I’m going to have some tips on making it smell better. So stay tuned.
[00:59:53.800] – Hilary Erickson
Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls Podcast today. If you liked today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow.
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