Baby Proofing a Fireplace

We bought a beautiful chest from Peir one (to hold the toys) and the first year or so placed it in front of the screen instead of behind the couch where it still looks beautiful and holds an incredible amount of toys!

Lots of good advice here, but I want to add one thing. My concern was the sharp corner and edges of the bricks, so I put a thick blanket folded up over the hearth when he was playing in that room. I didn't have to worry if he fell against it. Good luck

KidCo makes a special baby gate that goes infront of the fireplace. Or call Family First in West LA.

We installed a gate/fence around the front of the fireplace. That way it was totally enclosed & more difficult to climb over. Ours even has a small swing door that you (the adults) can open to have easier access to the fireplace. Try looking at One Step Ahead (www.onestepahead.com (I think)) for some ideas. They have a pretty good selection, but once you've picked a style, I'd shop around a little - they're not always the best price. Good luck!

Hi K.,
Many of my friends have put cardboard over their fireplaces and removed the fireplace screen. You little ones will eventually need to know that the fireplace is not a safe place for little ones, but while they are learning to crawl/walk it is good to give them a space that they have freedom to move anywhere in the area.

My boys are 8 now but, when they were babies we got a fireplace gate from a place called Safer Baby.
It was easy for my husband to install and allowed me to relax when the boys were toddling around getting into everything.

We use the SUPER YARD GATE (I think thats what its called) from Babies R Us. It's a six sided gate that you can break down to sections or use all together.

In our case, we placed a large fireplace screen in front of the fireplace and then DH secured it to the wall on either side of the screen. Worked like a charm. We also ended up placing a chair in front of the secured screen but even without the chair, it was fine. Best of luck with it.

you can put a hook on the screen and a loop into the wall so that it can't fall over. we did this when my kids were little and never had a problem. (It was about $4.00 and took 20 minutes!)

What I did to babyproof the fireplace was move the coffee table in fornt of it. That also gave my daughters more rooom on the flooor to move around.

We were able to put up one of those old-fashioned tension mounted safety gates (the kind you use to block doorways), just inside the frame of the fireplace (it was a brick fireplace).

HI We put the tools away and this sounds bad but we let her pull it down. It fell on her and after 2 times she never touched it again. We let her do it in the summer before we had fires so she would advoid it in the winter.

Hi K., I'm not really ure there is a way to baby proof your fire place, so you are going to have to fire place proof your baby. like anything else, they need to earn don't touch. IU'm sure with this weather we have been having you are not using your fire place, so for now keep it clean, I know for us we only use ours Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning, I have a daycare, swo I am not allowed to use ours during business hours, which is fine with me, you are going to have to stay on top of your little girl and train her to stay away from the fire place. J. L.

maybe buy one of those play yards (that can open) and put it infront of the fireplace keeping her from getting to it all together. you will have to attatch it to the wall so your lil one can pull up on it. heres a link for the play yard.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8457890

Try www.babysafetyfoam.com they have a great product!

Hi K.,
We used a metal gate from KidCo. (see here for link).
http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?erube_fh=kidco&kidco.su...
They are expensive, but extremely durable, and will ensure 100% safety for kids and pets alike.
We kept ours up for 5 years! I just took it down last week because we cleaned our carpets and now I am ready to sell it. Let me know if you might be interested to buy it. (you can email me at ____@____.com. Thanks and good luck!

Hi, my name is C. Hix. I have 2 girls also, 3 years old and a 11 month old. We had our house baby proofed about 3 years ago. The company we hired attached a strong piece of plexi glass to the front with industrial strength velcro. It has been very successful in our house. We also live in the valley and never use the fireplace. I hope this helps.

C.

You are so smart to baby proof! My 2 older kids never needed it, but I wish I would have done it,my youngest fell and put put his teeth through his tongue when he hit the fireplace and we had the ambulance and emergency room and all that terror. He's all better now though and the fireplace is now baby proofed! I bought the edge gaurds from Babies R Us. Their foam and you just pull the sticky off the back and place them. The kids tried pulling them off, but have had no success. That's the least intrusive I have found. One idea I do like, if you don't mind it being very kids friendly, is to buy the foam floor mats that have the numbers and letters on them and place them on the "seat", sides and front of the fireplace. They fit together like puzzle pieces and the whole base is covered. I'd do it myself, but I already have the edge guards.

Dear K.,

Barracade the fireplace. I used to put chairs on their sides to make it hard for the baby to get through, then just keep putting foot stools and pillows and stuff there until she gets bored with the whole thing and ignores it for the rest of her life.

C. N.

I put a childproof lock on mine. But mine has glass doors. If yours is open you might want to cardboard it up till she learns not to play in that area. OOh, you can get two pieces of wood boards cut to the size of your fireplace and screw them together into an L shape. So the bottom part fits into the fireplace and the front piece you can paint a great color or draw sometype of art on it. I don't know if this makes sense, but the idea in my head looks great. Then you would have to weigh the bottom board down w/ something heavy so she couldn't pull it down. I think the bottom borad should be maybe half the size of the front board. It would help to know what type of fireplace you have. But thats what I would do. Good luck!!

Hi K.:
I have to agree with Julie L this time. lol Unless your willing to purchase glass doors, resistant to heat,or prepared to dry-wall over the entire fireplace, your going to have to train her to pull herself up somewhere else.The way I taught my kids, about (Hot) is i took my hand,and moved it toward something warm,such as dinner on my plate or a candle and said ouhhhh Hotttttttttt..and drew my hand in fast. When they would go near anything,the stove or oven,they would stand back and say...Ouhhhhh hot,and draw theirselves and their hands away.They understood,and knew what hot meant,because they could feel the warmth coming from the oven etc.best of luck to you and your darlin girl

We got a gate from KidCo (Babies R Us or Right Start). It is sold as either a fireplace gate or "configure" gate. It's the same gate, just a different color (the fireplace version is black). It solved the problem of the bricks and the fireplace. Plus we can still have a fire without worrying (we have a VERY busy 22 month old).