Hi mamas-
We have a rather large brick fireplace. My son is now pulling himself up on everything...favorite place being the hearth of the fireplace. So we need to make it safe...pronto! I have done some research and read that the fireplace bumpers do not stick well to brick. My son is pretty strong and determined...so if he can pull it off...that will be the favorite game. What great products have you found?? Safety of my son is obviously first priority...but would like to not have some crazy homemade contraption around my fireplace either. I have heard of people ducktaping big pillows around it...? Not looking to do that. Especially b/c we are still using the fireplace. Thanks mama for any great ideas you have!
Thanks for the responses! We got the pipe insulation and will put it on tonight. Loved the idea of using the wood with a rug...maybe in the future. We needed a quick fix for now. Great thoughts. I wish my 8 month old would just understand and listen to no...don't know any that young that do! Kudos to moms with apparently smarter children;-)
I know they make safety gate/ fences that you can put up... it sort of surrounds the area. And gives them something to pull up on that is not the stone hearth.
Does your son understand hot and cold yet? It might help to show him hot water (from the tap, and not too hot of course) and teach him that the fire is even hotter and could really hurt him...
Good luck!
My folks used a braided rag rug which they folded in half and laid so it overhung the edges of the hearth. It was substantial enough to offer padding, and heavy enough not to shift from its place.
Once DS got steady on his feet, they removed it.
Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.
Never used a product. Just kept them away and told them no. First of all because then if they saw a fireplace at a friend's house they knew it was off limits. Second looking at the protection devices there were still 150 ways they could still hurt themselves.
Just seemed safer to go with no.
I feel very ignorant, because I'm not sure what the hearth is or if I'm thinking of the right thing but I can tell you what we did.
The ledge in front of our fireplace is about 12 to 18 inches off the ground and is nice and smooth and an easy place to sit down, especially if you are less than 3 years old. We have boys who love to climb, so this was definitely going to be an issue.
We measured it and bought a plank of wood that would fit on top of it. We also purchased a strip of carpet (from Menards, but I believe Lows and Home Depot would probably have this option as well) and wrapped it around the wood and stapled it to the underside. Then we simply set the piece on top of the ledge.
It has worked wonderfully for us. The wood and the carpet have really cushioned it, and our boys (now 3 and 5) have never gotten hurt on it - knock on wood, ha, ha, ha.
Anyway, it worked for us :-) We did the same thing for my parents, and it has been great there as well.
Our fireplace hearth is rather tall and we have concrete floors, so we had to have a plan too. We used the bumpers you stick on...we bought ours at Target. I think the ones we got we technically intended for tables. They do not stick well when you use the tape that is included. But if you go to Home Depot or Lowe's, you can buy foam tape meant for brick and concrete. That stuff worked great for us! We put it on when our son was 18 months old and it lasted through two kids tugging and pulling on it (I only remember having to retape it once). We removed it about four years later. And when it was time to remove it, there wasn't too much work in getting the tape off the fireplace. I had to use a bit of alcohol in a few spots, but other than that, we were able to get it off pretty easily.
We also had a problem with out kiddos playing with the glass doors on our fireplace. We were worried about squished fingers. And it did not take either of my kids long to figure out there were pebbles inside(ours is gas) that are perfect for throwing about. To solve this problem, we just installed an adjustable baby gate in front of the doors until they were old enough to understand they needed to stay out.
Our local hospital has a safety store and I was just asking about this last week. The very nice lady there showed me a pic of a fence that had 5 sections that mounted to the wall on either side of the mantel and then had a gate in the middle to access the fireplace. It was about $100. They just didn't carry them in the store. If you don't need to access the fp then you can get a playyard/coral and do the same thing, but it won't have a gate. These are only about $60 on Amazon or even less on craigslist. I have one and I love it for going to the park and such. I hope this helps!
We used pipe wrap insulation from Home Depot (picture link below). It's cheap, pre-cut to fit on edges and comes with adhesive already on it. We used it on our coffee tables, our hearth, and our entertainment center. It prevented many facial injuries. We got the idea from HDTV from one of their projects. Now that the kids are older, we are planning on buying some for my daughter's headboard. Her brother fell against the edge and cut his back pretty badly. Until the outgrow the rough housing, we'll continue to use it. Good luck!
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/400/c6/c6d...
We got a really big gate that has several sections so it can be adjusted to fit pretty much any opening. Our fireplace protrudes out about 2 feet from the wall and this gate keeps our kids away from it. Ours is this one: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...
We've also used it other places in the house, as we've never had it mounted to the wall. Our furniture just happened to be positioned in a way that stabilizes it without us having to drill into the wall.
