Half Baby Half Beaver

My little Cubbie has been teething since he was 4 months old. He has been getting his teeth in order, bottom front, top front, and the two on the side of the top front so far. Now we are waiting for the two on the bottom next to the front two, which should be anytime now. While he's been pretty good about not letting his mouth upset him too much, he hasn't been sick with a cold because of it, and he doesn't really cry too much about it what he has done is chew on everything! Now I know that every baby teethes and a lot of babies bite when they are teething, but my son seems to have taken it to a new level. 

It's common for babies to use their crib as a chew toy, as it tends to be at just the right height when they wake up or when they sleep for them to pull up to when they are ready to stand. What I don't think is common (as I have yet to come across someone who isn't as shocked as I was when I saw it) is taking bits of wood out of the crib railing. Many mom's were suggesting the crib railing protectors that you can get at Babies-R-Us, but the plastic ones only cover the top of the rail (he was also chewing on the underside of the rails) and the sides of his crib are a bit thicker and not straight across so I'd need something that could curve. The fleece ones are nice, and they tend to wrap around the railings and you can attach toys to them but they are around $25 (did find one for $20 but it was only a long one) a piece (one piece is either one large one for the front of the crib, or 2 small pieces for each of the sides). While they are nice, I don't have $50 to protect a hand-me-down crib that only cost me that much, at the same time it's a very nice cherry wood 3-in-1 crib that can grow with him so I would like it to stay nice. So that comes to my less expensive solution and how I cam about it.

When I found the gnaw marks I was getting ready to put my Lil' Man to bed and as he wakes up about an hr before he cries to get let out I didn't want him chewing on the crib when he woke up. My husbands quick solution was to grab one of his shirts and wrap it around where Cubbie was chewing. The next day I knew that wouldn't hold up for too long as any smart baby would figure out he just needs to chew on a different section of the crib. So I made it my mission that day to try and find something to use. I asked for help on FB, but other than the rail guards I only recieved my mom's suggestion of using the stuff you put on fingernails to stop nailbiting or thumb sucking, and my dad's suggestion of rubbing onions on the crib. ?:s The later of which I was not about to consider trying. Then I remembered a very long piece of fabric which my mom had given me for something else and it didn't work. I thought why not just wrap the crib with it. While I still need to take it off and cut the fabric in half to make it all the way around, my quick fix of finnishing it off with recieving blankets seems to have worked. Cubbie can chew on the fabric to his hearts delight, and I can save whats left of the rails, and hope that when he's done with the teething stage I can get the crib refinished.

These two pictures are from the front railing of the crib. On this part he was mostly chewing on the top of the rail.

These two pictures are from the right side of the crib looking out. It's the side that's closest to the door so he will stand there waiting for someone to come to the door. Since the bottom is more at his mouth level at the moment he chews on the bottom of the rail here.

All four pictures are from different sections he has chewed on.

 And here is the crib after I have wrapped it (I do plan on wrapping the whole thing with the one kind of fabric just haven't gotten around to it yet) 

So if you are looking for a less expensive way to protect your crib railing I would say this is a pretty effective solution. The fabric is about 7yds long before I cut it (I believe but that's only a guess as I haven't actually measured it) but if you get about 6yds and cut it in half that should be more than plenty to get around two sides and the front of the crib. If you have a crib which is the same level all the way around I'd go with a little more like 9yds as you'll want to go all the way around and then cut it down the middle long ways. And there are plenty of different kinds of fabrics and designs I just used what I had on hand which was just printed cotton fabric. Right now it's a bit sloppy, but if you fold it nice and wrap it tight and over top of each other it can still look nice. :)