Conference moira::parenting

    My mother-in-law used a few heavy "rag" type rugs over the edges of
    her raised hearth. 
    This worked well when the grandchildren came over.
    
    Linda

    I used large throw pillows on the edges of my raised hearth (this was
    for visiting children - mine were no longer toddlers when we had a
    fireplace).  When you Don't need them, toss 'em back on the couch or
    stack them in the corner.
    
    -sandy
    

I ordered a "hearth-guard" from one of the catalogs (Safety First or similar,
can't really remember)

It has a metal frame that you screw tight so it sits really good, and has thick 
foam-like padding over the metal frame. It is adjustable to fit different sizes
of fire places. Not hard to install at all, (I did it while dad cleared the
kitchen after dinner.)

It was kind of expensive ~ $60 dollars, but well worth mum's and dad's peace
of mind if nothing else. There was a cheaper model that fastened with 
adhesive tape, it did not sound to durable so I never considered that model.

We have the fireplace in the family room where most of the indoor play
activity is taking place, I'm really glad that I got it installed.


/Malin

	My mom's got a raised hearth, and never child-proofed it per se
	(she watches Emily at her home 2 days a week).  She's got a few
	things strategically place near the corners (a large floor plant
	and a rocking chair), which sort of made the hearth unnoticeable.

	I don't know if this type of "blockading" would work for you, but
	it's certainly cheaper.

	Karen

    We got creative and used pipe insulation.  It comes in approximately 3
    or 4 foot sections and has a slit down the length of it, which fits
    nicely over the edges of our harth.  It can be found at any home or
    hardware store. 
                                                              -Dave-

    Since having my two girls, my mom came up with a good idea. She bought
    a really pretty rug to fit over the cement, it looks good and it keeps
    the kids from hurting themselves when and if they fall against it...
    It's the right size and it fits great. It's like a runner rug maybe 4
    or 5 feet long.
    

    Hi,
    
    I just wanted to thank all of you for your wonderful ideas.  
    It's great to know that their are alternatives, whereas, before 
    I hadn't even a clue!
    
    I guess I better get to work because it looks as though my
    daughter will be crawling very shortly!!
    
    Again, thanks so much. 
    
    Sue
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

The foam pipe insulation was our solution, too.  (It's still there, even though
Elspeth is 12 now!)  Our "hearth" is actually a suspended graystone slab about
1-1/2" thick, so the insulation just slips right over the edge.

	-Neil

    
    We have a huge brick hearth which is raised about 4 inches from the
    floor. I have put foam pillows over all the edges and have placed a
    small table at one end to form a barrier. This works fine. When we do
    have an open fire, we move everything out of the way and NEVER leave
    Rebecca alone in the room. 
    
           Celia
    

    I never even thought about kid-proofing a hearth until my daughter
    ended up with 11 stitches in the low-center part of her forehead.
    Now, there is an old comforter thrown over it...The doctors at the
    emergency room said that this is a good cheap idea that works well.
    
    Pillows sound like a good idea too...
    
    I'm glad that you're thinking about this now so you don't have to
    worry about any stitches or unnecessary accidents....                   
    

    We have a brick hearth raised about 4 inches from the floor.  I put a 
    carpet which covers all the bricks down to the floor.  I then placed
    about 10 different pillows (different colors) to match the room in 
    front of the glass fireplace doors.  Make a great sitting place...the
    kids also like to lay down with their blankies up there.
    

    Be careful with the pillows.  I found out the hard way, when
    someone moved on of the pillows slightly off the fireplace hearth. 
    My oldest, Kevin was about 3 years old and jumped onto the pillow
    landing his forehead on the hearth. I was home at the time and
    was in the room, but it happened so quickly that I didn't have 
    time to grab him. We ended up at the hospital emergency room. 
    Kevin ended up with 7 stitches. 
    
    We still have pillows but the carpet idea sounds alot better
    to me.  With three children, two who "love" to wrestle, I'm
    constantly checking to make sure the pillow are over the hearth.
    
    - Pat K. 

	Last year, I wouldn't allow a fire if Emily was up.  The brass on
the fireplace doors gets very hot, and even burned me.  I don't think I'll
allow them again this year - even with us in the room, I don't like the idea
of Emily underfoot while the fire's being stoked/tended.

About hearths... ours is not raised, but Emily still managed to fall on ours
and cut a pretty mean gash in her head when she was just 6 months old.  We 
also happened to have had a blizzard the night before, and the driveway
had 2+ feet of snow in it.  Luckily, the bleeding stopped within moments and
it healed ok without stitches.  Her pedi said it probably could have used one
or two, but that it had healed fine.

Karen

    Good topic! I thought about this from the day Andrew was born.
    
    Our solution was a rug remnant. My father gave us one from a house he
    was building. THis works great. Our hearth is also raised a couple of 
    inches so we just placed the remnant on top on the hearth and put the 
    fireplace screen on top of the rug to secure it. 
    
    You can ask for rug remnants at any carpet store. I'm not sure of the
    cost but I bet it's cheaper than any fireplace protector that you can
    order from a catalog.
    
    Also, before we got the rug, we draped a sleeping bag over the hearth.
    For some reason, this took all the mystery out of the fireplace and
    Andrew stoped crawling over to it. It's not pretty but it did the trick
    for us. 
    
    Karen

I thought about this a lot.  I had friends who used sleeping bags draped
over the hearth.  I didn't really like the look of this.  I had a friend 
who used pillows, but I thought that I would always be fighting with 
Taylor to leave them where they were.  I tried to think of something 
decorative and inexpensive.

What I ended up doing is buying some of the prequilted fabric.  I folded it
in half and sewed it on three sides, making a big pocket that extended beyond
the hearth about 3 inches on all sides.  I put 2 layers of rug pad in the 
pocket.  I tried batting (the stuff used for pillows/quilts) but this did not
provide enough protection.  I tried one layer of rug pad and did the head test
(funny sight to see two adults wacking their heads on a hearth.  Things I never
even imagine I would be doing, all for the love of your child!!).  I found that
two layers works best.

I like the decorative look so much, I'll probably even leave it there even after 
the safety concern has passed!

    Any ideas on how to keep a baby_on_the_move away from a woodstove?
    
    Thanks!
    
    - Barb

	Our solution was pretty involved, but has been great.  We've even 
	gotten several comments on its appearance...

	Our hearth is raised about six or eight inches off the ground.  We 
	originally bought some of those hard rubber strips that come in 
	sections (available through several baby catalogs).  They are 
	supposed to stick to the bricks.  In our case, that only lasted 
	until my son grabbed, and pulled them right back off (I'd guess 
	they only work if your toddler has no interest in examining them).
        After that, we concluded that the only solution would be one that 
	Andy couldn't dismantle.  

	My husband took a piece of plywood, and built a shell that slides 
	over the top, front and sides.  We took the rubber bumpers, and 
	connected them to the plywood shell.  The rubber-edged plywood 
	was then lined with foam, and the whole thing was covered with 
	vinyl-backed fabric, secured on the inside with a staple gun.

	This "unit" now slides pretty snugly over the hearth.  Since it's 
	padded with a brown/beige vinyl fabric, it melts into the room's 
	decor just fine.  It's even pretty comfortable to sit on.  We used 
    	to slide it off whenever we wanted to start a fire (also served 
	as a pretty reasonable obstruction to getting too close).  But, 
    	since we converted to oil heat, it almost never comes off at all.
	Total time to make it was about two hours.  

	One last comment...  When we bought the rubber bumpers, it turned 
	out that, for the length we required, we had to by TWO sets instead 
	of one.  When I was having trouble securing it (to the bricks), I 
	happened to call the company (think it was Safety First).  When I 
	mentioned this fact, I was told that there SHOULD HAVE BEEN a note 
	inside, telling you how to purchase a single extra strip directly 
    	from them.  Apparently, the place I bought these at removed the note, 
    	so I'd buy two sets!

	Peggy

re .16

This may sound cruel, but there have been previous discussions about steam
heaters that may apply.  Then again it might have been in the HOMEWORK
conf.....

- They will learn soon enough to stay away!

We had steam heat in a previous house and all it took was one touch and
Anthony knew the meaning of hot.  There was no need to put any protective
barrier around the heaters after that.  Of course, if you're dealing with
something that can really cause damage, then you need some barrier, but it's
amazing what experience will do.

Dave

We have a friend who built a ~3ft high rod iron fence around their wood stove. 
He did a real nice job and it fits well in their house.  His reasoning was the
stove was in the family room and the two kids "rough house" there alot so he
plans on keeping it up until the little one is over 6.  He is a fireman and has
seen some bad burns hence the reason for the fence.

We struggle with this also, we have a 19 month old who is cautious but takes a
lot of spills/falls when playing.  We like using the wood stove as our primary
heat in the winter so we need to do something.  We really are hesitant to put up
a fence but have not had many other ideas...

We block off our fireplace area with an overturned chair, a play kitchen, 
and another piece of furniture, all lined up.  This way we can have the fire 
or not, and we don't have to worry about the baby getting hurt by the heat or
the bricks. 

      Carol

    The safety guard we are going to buy will fit around the whole hearth
    (about 4 foot long), its basically a wire mesh box with a side missing
    to the fire and fastens to the wall. It won't win Beautiful House of
    The Year Award, but it seems to be secure enough.
    
    In the UK it is a legal requirement that a safety guard is fitted to an
    open fire IF a child of under 10 years old is in the room. I think this
    really means something bad happens to you if the child is injured and 
    there isn't a guard fitted! I don't know how this applies to very hot
    but enclosed woodburners/multi-fuel stoves.
    
    Andy
    

    
    We bought the netting for the stairs at Toys R US  but I have seen
    it in catalogs too...
    
    Does anyone know where to get radiator covers???  
    
    

    As far as the UK goes, I've seen radiator guards in DIY stores like
    Do-It-All and B & Q, and also from mail order catalogues like The Heinz
    Baby Club (I don't know where they got our name from but a catalogue
    arrived thru' the door shortly before the baby was born!).
    
    Andy

   re: radiator covers...
   
   fwiw - if you're handy with tools, its not that hard to make one.  All
   you need is the grill cover and some wood for a frame.  Many decent
   hardware stores will carry both.  Then you get exactly what you want,
   and you can paint it or stain it to go with your room.
   
   Just a thought..
   
   - Tom

Or you can put a retired father to work..

My dad made us a wooden frame which fits around our raised hearth. It is L
shaped so it covers the top and side of the bluestone cap. He then attached
(with glue) foam rubber to all the wood surfaces. Finally, my wife covered
the whole thing with fabric left over from making the drapes in the room.

We are always getting compliments on how nice it looks. And based on the
number of times we've seen the kids heads bounce off of it, it has certainly
done it's job.

I recently saw an add in a catalogue for one of the $70 models. Looked just
like the one my dad made. As far as I know, he came up with the idea on his
own. I've been meaning to give him a hard time about a missed patent
opportunity. :-)

						Mark 

    I was reading this string and do have a problem with the thought of
    pilows, batting, blankets and sleeping bags so close to a fire!  I
    guess as the wife of a firefighter, I see things a little differently
    than most.  The idea of the fire DOORS, is to stop sparks and hot
    embers from escaping from a fireplace, the screen is fairly effective,
    but can still allow hot embers out.  As well as the fact that material
    will ignite or melt if it is manmade, if left near heat long enough.
    
    A friend of mine took the little white picket fences used in the garden
    and put it around her wood stove, to  keep her children away from the
    wood stove.  She was, at the time, considering becoming licensed as a
    daycare provider.  The MA OFC approved of her idea, and told her the
    family room could be used for daycare as long as the fence remained.  I
    believe it was somehow anchored into the floor.
    
    Just a nit, but this is a really serious, and scarey subject to me.
    
    Lyn

    Lyn,
    
    Out of curiosity, how far away from the stove did she set up the fence. 
    Atlehi is now mobile on all fours and trying to pull up on things now,
    and I don't know if I'll be able to keep her from toddling until the
    need for the stove is over until summer.
    
    Meg

    Just so's ya know...our fireplace is there for decoration.  We hardly
    ever use it.  When we do use it ... the kids are usually in bed  8^)!
    
    -sandy
    

   For what its worth... there are at least 3 catalogs that I've seen
   that carry safety related products... at least one of these has hearth
   pads like the ones discussed here, though at the moment I can't recall
   which one(s):
   
   Perfectly Safe       800-837-KIDS
   1 Step Ahead         800-274-8440
   Right Start          800-LITTLE-1
   
   Perhaps a call to these folks would give you some options..
   
   - Tom

    re the question a couple back, the fence was probably 2 feet tall, and
    I really didn't get a good look how, but was definitely anchored to the
    flooring somehow.  It was probably set back from the stove by 3 feet.
    This was a coal burning stove, and the coal bin itself was proably 4
    feet tall, with no access to it unless you were an adult height person,
    since it too was near the stove.  I figure if OFC approves, it must be
    OK.
    
    My brother inlaw actually moved his stove down to his cellar, to the
    place where the stove had been, before the main house was built, until
    his two were old enough to understand not to touch the stove which was
    in a hearth.  They then put a small table, with some decorations in the
    hearth, it was really pretty to see.  The children are older (8&7) and
    now understand to stay away from the stove, so they just bought a
    second stove for the hearth area in the main livingroom.
    
    Lyn
    Lyn