Fireplace babyproofing?

[shamrock]

We have a brick fireplace in our main room. I've tried some of the foam corner stuff and it wouldn't stick at all.

Anyone have a better idea for softening the corners?

Luckily I have a bit of time before DS becomes too mobile. We had some friends over w/ a walking little one so tried out the foam padding and it hardly stayed on the length of time they were here.

[amydiara]

You can get an adhesive foam tape for brickwork at Target, etc. to use with the foam guards. Only problem is I think its very very hard to try and get off later, if at all.
I havent found a good solution. We have a fireplace insert we use so we bought a huge gate that goes up around the fireplace- wouldnt do that though unless you actually were using the fireplace.
My son LOVES to pull the foam things off- is almost compuslive about it (at 9mos) so its been a worthless approach for us as I didnt want that foam tape that is hard to remove.


Amy

[proggoddess]

One of the suggestions I got here was to buy the foam insulation for water pipes, cut them in half, then tape them to the hearth. We used duct tape, and while it is not the most attractive, it is certainly functional and cheap. And I don't think DD will be able to pull it off easily because it is too hard to pick at the edges of the tape with the level of dexterity she has.

[CiderLogan]

We made a fireplace cover out of wood, foam padding, and fabric. My DH measured the area of the part of the fireplace that is on the floor (is that the hearth? I have no idea of the terminology) -- our fireplace is stone, so the part on the floor is about 1.5 feet out but only a few inches from the ground). He bought some wood from Home Depot and constructed a wood version of the hearth. Then we bought some foam padding from a craft store and staple-gunned it to the wood. Finally, we bought some fabric from a craft store that went with our sofas and stapled that to the foam/wood thing. If I say so myself, it looks quite good and is actually one of DD's favorite spots to sit (it's pretty soft). It was actually not that hard -- we are NOT handy people -- but it ended up being kind of expensive -- I'd guess $60 or more total.

Jenny
Mom of Julia, 8/03