The Baba is pretty mobile now so a fire guard seems like the sensible move.

What’s the STW consensus on this? Is it unnecessary and I should just manually move the child away until she understands instructions!?

Or is not having a fire guard essentially neglect and I don’t deserve to be a parent!?

Popped into the local stove shop today and the guy in the was talking about getting a local iron monger to custom make a guard rather than getting something standard off eBay!

Just get one of these and accept that safety comes before style here.

Also, an order of magnitude cheaper than ‘custom’.

‘Custom’ is *always* more!

Edit: then spend years looking forward to getting rid of the baby proofing. And stair gates.

I just ordered me of these http://www.babasafe.co.uk/baby-products/baby-fire-guards.html

Was £76

I wasn’t going to bother but was in A&E last month and saw a baby with burnt hands, heart wrenching

Also my stove gets pretty hot with all those used nappies I’m burning.

My wife wants to get radiator covers too but I’ve drawn the line there. Will turn the heating off if necessary 🙂

I’ve looked at the clippasafe, isn’t that a PIA for a wood stove, I.e. access for chucking logs on?

I think that is specifically the one the fella in the shop was referring to as flimsy!!

We haven’t got the stair gates up yet but I’m already looking forward to getting rid of them!! We’ve got a large pen in the other room which is great, a godsend for popping her in, but it takes up most of the floorspace!

Made my own.
Got some stainless steel mesh, cut to size and used some key rings for hinges.
Worked fine for our girls, they were more frightened by the INTENSE HEAT though.
It did ease MrsDT’s concerns though.
At the end of the day, it only has to be there for a few years then it will be in the loft!

Also on stair gates, we had the flexi roller blind type which were great and much less obtrusive..

been using one like this as a playpen initially then as fire guard. were given it by brother and sil who did the same. my 18 month old has been curious of the stove but clearly very weary of it too so probably wouldn’t touch it intentionally, but she does run around hectically and without a guard I cold see her running into it….so I’ve come round to my OH view, the guard is needed.

http://www.jojomamanbebe.co.uk/dreambaby-3-in-1-playpen-and-gate-d3515.html?gclid=Cj0KEQiA9P7FBRCtoO33_LGUtPQBEiQAU_tBgD2g2IBojfFASi7HX2VU0rf3gL04JrFTuMdaEzRGE4UaAtul8P8HAQ

Can’t you just put the child in a baby jail until it’s old enough to understand?

😈

IMHO – absolutely neccesary – the burns from touching a stove at temperature are instant and bad. An open fire is probably less of a risk as at least it looks intimidatinh.

We have a babydan gaurd – fairly acceptable cosmetically.

We had (have in the shed free to s good home near Leeds ) the clipsafe one . the top flaps easily hinge up to lean over open the stove door and chuck logs on it needs to be moved out of the way to build the fire . it was robust enough for crankbrat to pull himself up on and shake .

Big black cage one round the stove clipped to the wall.. There’ll be no second chance if little miss kennerley melts her hand on a hot stove…

I bodged together parts from a couple of cheap guards to make something that fitted the hearth.

Worth it imo. Yes they can learn through burnt fingers, but it’s the sibling fights and accidental falls that you are protecting against.

What’s the STW consensus on this? Is it unnecessary and I should just manually move the child away until she understands instructions!?

I have kids. I am of the opinion, on this question, that it’s important that they learn that fire hurts. There are, essentially, two ways they can learn this. The first is to burn themselves when they are very young, the second is to avoid the burns unit for a while and be told that it’s really dangerous when they’re old enough to understand. There’s lots of stuff (immunity?) that’s harder to explain than to let them try and get it themselves, and then there’s the other stuff, like burns on the parts of the hands etc they need the most at this age to discover the world, that we should probably hedge a little on.

Or is not having a fire guard essentially neglect and I don’t deserve to be a parent!?

However, just to be clear, many, many children have survived and never had an issue without any protection. I do just feel that it’s a bit daft to place that bet. But no, it’s not neglect, and it wouldn’t mean you don’t deserve to be a parent. 🙂