how do you teach your 1 year old things are dangerous?

[magicfairy]

On friday night DS (13 months) was watching DH light the fire, when he got hold of the poker and proceeded to run around the room with it bashing everything in sight. DH shouted no and it all ended in lots of tears! then he wanted the poker more and more and kept getting closer to the fire (the guard wasnt up as it was still being lit) then he got upset again as was told no to going ner the fire!
I dont believe in shouting and making him cry to emphasis a point of danger but how do you make him realise danger without experinencing the danger himself?

We have childproofed our house to some extent, fireguard, valuable and braekable things out of reach but then the DVD and sky box are at his reach and he is bored of fiddling with them as he gets no reaction! CDs are kept in another room coz thats just annoying, and the bottom 2 shelves of the bookcase in the lounge are all his things. he is allowed to touch and play with most things but there are certain things that i dont let him play with, the kitchen bin for example, which he does get a no at.
I see your point on following the no witha simple reason, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks everyone!

magicfairy, like yourself i tend not to use no.

dd is 17mths, we have no stair gates and only an ordinary fire guard. we have not safe proofed anything in the home and she has been allowed access to most things (within reason) since she was a baby.

she watches her dad light the fire and passes him sticks whilst doing it.

we don,t use no, when she goes near it, only burny burny.

if she is too near ah ah, sharply, catches her attention. if she brandishes a poker, careful is our word of choice.

i have found that they all have better effects than no.

a lot of it is about monitoring and repetition.

DD (17 months) thinks it's highly amusing when we say, "no" and just grins and goes straight back to it. Repetition really is the only way (or a straight-jacket) but is terribly frustrating.