I have to childproof my home PDQ. My wife and I have a few unusual issues. The biggest issue is the pellet stove that lies at the side of our family room. Not only is the brick platform a perfect place for cracking a head open, but the pellets themselves are a perfect chocking/eating hazard.
The problem is, I have yet to see a good free standing barrier that will be effective. There are plenty of door/stairwell barriers, but they rely on being between two sturdy supports. What we need, is more of a U shape against a wall. There must be something available. I have a hard time all child bearing families have never encountered this problem.
You might find something in a pet supply store, a portable, foldable metal cage that might work.
Failing that, stand some metal chairs (if they need to be heat-resistant) around the stove, facing it, then duct-tape cardboard across their backs. Pile lots of heavy things on the chairs. This has the advantage of being cheap.
There are freestanding gates available, but they always seemed flimsy to me… The most aesthetically attractive option would be to build some sort of railing with a locked gate in your family room. Maybe even frame out a 36" high 1/2 wall with an 18" countertop for sitting at. Then put a toddler gate in the opening.
I’ve just resorted to not building any fires in the fireplace for a 5 year period or so (i.e., until child #2 turns 3). Naturally, this won’t work in your situation.
A good barbed wire or electric fence may work depending on how stubborn the kid is.
Seriously, after setting up some pretty ingenious barriers, I soon realized the best thing is just to do simple babyproofing and teach them to stay away from things. Can you put a blanket or something soft over the brick platform and move the pellets away from the kids reach?
Flimsy doesn’t concern me much. Often barriers are more psychological than effective. I can probably work with something flimsy to make it more sturdy. I’m much less concerned about the heat than the choking and cracking the head. I can and will pad the corners of the brick platform. If she ever gets near enough to touch the stove there is allready a supervision problem. It’s ulikely she would do more than touch the stove and get a burn on her hand which no doubt would be an emergency room trip, but I doubt she would do it again.
Even a flimsy option would be of interest to me. I am not concerned with aesthetics.
Of course, as my initial thought was much the same as yours, what does this say about me???
There are definitely babyproofing items that will soften hard edges - we had them on corners of our kitchen counter (very sharp laminate). Those would help with the brick plaform, though of course they wouldn’t help with keeping the child away from intentionally touching the stove.
Re the pellets: what about some sort of locking pet food bin? One example is here.
A quick look on line suggests to me that lots of products are available commercially.
Hard to suggest one without your exact problem area, but isn’t this the sort of thing you are looking for? Of course you’d use the gate to get to the stove…
It doesn’t seem like it would be hard to take two of the ends and attach them to studs in the wall so the rest wraps around the stove. Of course, if you your kid is not that cute, you might not want to spend as much on it.
[ul]
[li]Store the pellets in the garage (no choking hazard).[/li][li]Place a baby gate in the doorway of the family room to keep the kid out. Or just close the door.[/li][li]If the child is in the family room, a responsible adult must supervise 100 percent of the time.[/li][/ul]
The problem isn’t where the pellets are stored, we have them in a sealed tupperware container. The problem is that pellets are inevitably spilled a bit and your solution would increase the problem not decrease it. We go through about 40 lbs a night.
We don’t really have an appropriate ground floor place other than the family room at this point. The office will eventually get cleaned out, but it seems everytime we get it cleaned out, the parents deliver more boxes of old stuff. I agree though, that supervision is the main key, but from what I understand, little ones can be quite fast at getting into trouble the instant you turn your head.
I’m gonna second the freestanding pet fence/cage. We have one that my wife keeps around the elliptical machine so little baby P doesn’t get her arm mangled in all the moving parts while my wife is on it. It should work just fine for what you want to do.
Something like this: http://www.petco.com/Shop/AlternateImages.aspx?FamilyID=11371&sku=
You can leave it in a straight line (instead of hooked together in a circle) and as long as you put a few bends in it at the hinges it’ll stand on it’s own.
With some parts from a hardware store you could even screw it into the wall to keep it even more sturdy/secure.
We have one of these in our living room, to keep the kid away from the office area, cats’ dishes, etc. It’s great, and it sounds like it would be perfect for your needs. You can buy extensions for it, and you can set it up in almost any arrangement. And it’s relatively cheap.
They have them at Babies R Us, if there’s one in your area. I think they have them at a lot of other places, too, but that’s where we got ours.
Kids fences don’t need to be sturdy. Sometimes the flimsyness can be an important part of the design. Using wooden rails/bars invites the kid to try and climb the fence, or to pull herself to standing up on it.
A fence made of mesh netting (tightly pulled so there is no risk for the kid of getting caught) is both easier to store and maybe safer, in the end.
Years ago, I childproofed my house. But they got in anyway.
Ahem. Seriously, what will happen is that whatever is made off-limits will assume irresistable attractiveness to the kid.
Also, whatever you take steps to mitigate against, the kid will find something else that you hadn’t thought of to threaten its health and wellbeing.
Supervision and training are the key.
There are things you can buy to stick on the edges of sharp things like the brick platform. Some of these things are self-sticking and leave a sticky residue forever, and that would probably be even more likely on something near a heating device. I can certainly see why you’d want to block off the whole area. But I think I’d go with some kind of padding and consistent, strong warnings.
