An idea to sink your teeth into

The other day, I was working in my office when I heard Chip stirring from him nap.  When I walked into his nursery, he was standing up in his crib, and squeeled happily when he saw me open the door.  I went to change his diaper, and noticed tiny white flecks on his pudgy little lips and cheeks. Thinking it was probably dried milk, I quickly forgot about it... until I went to put him down for bed later in the evening and saw the little teeth marks my darling son had gnawed into the railing of his crib.

I immediately consulted my friend Google on the subject and found that, short of installing a mouth guard on my son (okay, not really an option), the second best alternative was probably a crib rail guard.  There were lots of options in various materials but, being the perpetual cheapskate that I am, I decided to do-it-yourself.

If you have a little woodpecker of your own, and want to protect both their budding teeth and your furniture, you can easily make your own teething rail guard for their crib.  I made this one for Chip's room in about 45 minutes, at a cost of less than $10.

Here's what you'll need to do to make this simple, no-sew rail guard:

1. Measure the length of your crib.  You'll also want to measure the circumference of the rail you want to cover; this will be the height of the fabric you purchase.  To create the ties, you'll want to add an additional 12-16 inches of fabric to the height.
2. For this rail guard, I used two complimentary colors of fleece to match Chip's room.  The double layer of fleece adds a nice amount of padding, and prevents those really determined little ones from chewing through just one layer.  Once you've got your crib dimensions, you'll want to purchase two pieces of fleece that are the length and height you measured in Step 1.
3. In order to prevent your crib guard from being pulled or from slipping off, you'll need to create ties to firmly anchor the guard to the crib.  How often or how wide to make the ties simply depends on how many and how wide apart the slats on your crib are.  Cut two vertical slits on each side of the guard for each tie you want to create, then tie the ends together firmly to finish the look.
4. If necessary, go back and trim off the ends of the ties to a safe length for your baby's crib.