urgent 18 month old locked himself in toilet

[redbluered]

it is a slide along lock
i have been calling to him outside the toilet for 20 mins
clearly he locked it so technically he should know how to unlock it but at the moment he is not doing it
what should i do
i have no one (adult) else to contact
shouldering the door seems the only option but not sure i am personally strong enough to do that at the moment
any suggestions very welcomed (if there are any)
i am in deep panic
thanks

Hope you have managed to open the door OP

thanks for all the posts
next door neighbour has come and knocked a small hole in the door and unslid the lock
son was lying on the floor crying inside so no chance of getting him to unlock anyway
husband tells me from work car phone that he would have been able to shoulder the door without causing any damage - thanks for that... v useful (not)
anyway i am currently very grateful to the neighbour, glad to have my son back and looking on b&q website for cost of replacement doors...
what would have happened if the door was made of something more indestructable and there was no way to shoulder the door i wonder, dread to think
my fault for not unscrewing the slide lock earlier tho , i am so rubbish

Great, now have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit for DS and hope you feel better soon

ahhh. good news that hes ok.

don't worry now...get rid of the lock and tick it off as a lesson learned...one of many!!!

alorsmum
neighbour was/is v nice but not dream worthy
frankly a fireman or policeman would have made not just my day but my year
but now i need to get a grip back on reality
maybe its the relief of it being over notwithstanding the mess/ money now required to fit a new door

Hurray !

Your son is out !

That's what Mum's are for ! To get you out of a tight corner when you can't find your own way out

Have a cuppa and take it easy for the rest of the day !

Is it a wooden door? I wouldn't bother with replacing a wooden one immediately if you can't quite afford it. Just get a small wood panel and nail it over the hole. It won't look pretty but it will do the job for now.

Glad he's out and okay.

yes its wooden and it is horrible and needs changing anyway but it is just one more expense, in january and all that
oh well, its done now cannot be reversed

Hooray!

Glad he's out!

PLEASE don't beat yourself up about it! It has happened to me too, when DS was a young 3yo and the bathroom door catch jammed shut. Next-door-neighbour's builder came and unscrewed the door handle. I repaid them in cake.

Nail a bit of plywood, or just glue some card over the hole - that will sort it our for the time being and fix it properly when life a bit easier.

Go and get a screwdriver and take the sliding lock off now! If you want to keep the door lockable for adults, replace it high up. If difficult to refit the sliding lock, you can get 'cabin hooks' (like gate catches) that are very easy to fit.

Can I recommend the locks that show on the other side and can be opened with a screw driver or coin?

We have these and they are great as we can open them from the outside if required (although DS isn't yet old enough to do this yet thankfully!) but we can still lock the door if needed denies locking herself in there for some peace

brawhen
thanks
the reason there is some self reproach is because i previously moved the sliding lock on the bathroom to high up as you say but not the toilet (illogically) because i thought the only one who really goes in there is my 3 yr old who is toilet trained so has a reason to be in the toilet and she knows how to lock and unlock the door (so it would just be stubborness if there was a problem with her) but cleary she has been "teaching" my 18 month son the locking trick but he is not old enough to also learn the "unlocking" trick
however i look at it i should have taken the lock off the toilet months and months ago
anyway, over and done with now

Don't be so hard on yourself redblue

You did just fine ... obviously with hindsight you might think you could/should have moved both locks ...

But as they say hindsight is a wonderful thing

At least the door is horrible and needed replacing anyway :)

If it was more indestructable it probably would have had a different sort of lock on it - so no point in worrying about that either!

Tell DH, if he keeps banging on about it, that he could have moved the lock higher up & it wouldn't have happened in the first place.

I've been watching this thread but had nothing useful to add at the "stuck" stage. Don't replace the door immediately. As others have suggested cover the hole with a piece of plywood (on each side if it makes it look better). Paint the bits white and stick on a few stickers of the children's favourite characters - then everyone will assume its deliberate and possibly an inspired toilet training idea. Glad he's OK.

Aach redbluered - hindsight is a marvellous thing isn't it? You got him out, no one is hurt and you still have a door :)

I'd say that was a bit of a result

thanks for all posts
now everyone is asleep i have the luxury of reading your posts properly
faced the music with other half about cost of door replacement - temporary outcome being living with a toilet with a small hand shaped hole. husband said "you never got your hand through that hole" so i guess that means it is not too much of a cinema for anyone who wants a bit of privacy for the immediate future before I can afford to pay for a replacement!!! maybe there is some humour in it all which i will discover in a day or two when it fades
in the meantime you lot are fab

I'm not entirely sure where you will find the humour, but perhaphs some comfort from the fact that it could have been much worse - bugger lugs could have flooded the bathroom

As for facing the music - as I said before, if DH had complained I would have told him to STFU because he could have moved the lock higher himself before it became an issue.

The door needed replacing anyway.

All's well that ends well.

These things do tend to become part of family history - like my nephew phoning 999 whilst he was round here with DBro one afternoon when DN was 3.

So, if not actually funny, still a tale that will be brought out on many occasions.

A good sense of perspective with even a little humour in the mix sounds good to me !

We had to take a whole radiator off of the wall twice when dd2 was smaller. She was trying to reach a lost toy when she got her arm stuck right upto the elbow

When DH came home she excitedly squealed "Look what I did Daddy. I put my arm here and it got stuck, like this. Oh. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllll" Duh!