
This is one of those parenting situations – like clipping a baby’s nails, sucking snot with a nasal aspirator, or storing breast milk – where you’ll be happy to have the right tools for the job.īaby safety fences are the best solution for creating a strong and reliable barrier between your kiddo and the fireplace. However, you also want to keep them away from the actual combustion, as the process gives of Carbon Monoxide, which isn’t good news from a health and safety perspective. If you have a working fireplace, that you intend to turn on and actually use, you need to create space between the heat and danger of the fire and your crawling, climbing, running, boundary-pushing little one.įor one, you want to prevent them from getting a burn, by getting too close to the fire or touching the fireplace doors. Use a Baby Safety Fence as a Childproof Fireplace Screen Optional: DIY or purchased fireplace blocker.What you Need to Babyproof a Non-Functioning Fireplace (or a Fireplace you don’t Intend to Use) Hearth protection, such as baby edge protectors or a padded hearth bench.A baby safety fence that you can set up in front of the fireplace, creating a childproof fireplace screen your baby won’t be able to pull down.What you Need to Babyproof a Functioning Fireplace (That You Intend to Use) What you need to childproof a fireplace depends on whether you have a working fireplace or not (and whether you intend to use your working fireplace, or simply let it lie dormant during your childrens’ early years).
#Babyproof a fireplace how to#
If you’re the parent or caregiver to a tiny explorer, here’s how to babyproof a fireplace – including some ideas that aren’t completely hideous. And while it’s a bit like going to the dentist – slightly painful, and not exactly enjoyable – once you do it, you’ll feel much better letting your little one loose in the living room.

They’re like stairs and bathrooms – obviously dangerous, presenting hazards in the form of heat and open flames, sharp edges and hard surfaces, pokey tools, and carbon monoxide.Īnd just as you put a baby gate at the top of the stairs and child proof the bathroom, you also need to babyproof your fireplace.Ĭhild proofing a fireplace is something that need’s to be taken seriously – ideally before your baby starts crawling. If you live in one of the many US households that has a fireplace in the living room or wood stove in the kitchen, there will come a day when you need to babyproof it.įireplaces aren’t exactly a sneaky danger for kids.

In the US, more than 50% of all new homes have at least one fireplace.
