baby proofing a fireplace - do I HAVE to buy a fire guard?

[bohemianbint]

Or could I do something cheaper like pad the hearth up with a sheet or something? I've got a Victorian fireplace with a tiled hearth with frighteningly sharp edges and an open grate just asking for my son to climb into it/bump his head on it.

Obviously we're not going to be burning anything in it for a while (well, at least I hope so but the way this summer's going who knows!) it's just the sharp bits that bother me. Any thoughts?

You can get foam edging strips in muted colours so they blend in for the sharp bits.

On holiday there was an open fire place (with coal in place too!) and all it took was a few times of "no" sharply and removal for the 3 babies (all 12-13 months) to lose interest.

Wouldn't want to risk it without a fireguard though if you were actually going to light it, just because of sparks spitting out.

we never had a problem. Obv only ever lit it after boys went to sleep.

Have never really had a problem with fireplace. You could just put cushions down when ds is playing near it if you're worried.

oooh, where do you get foam strips from? I've tried saying no to DS when he gets too near things, and whilst he does understand no (well, I think he does, sometimes) he's only 10 months lets me know what I can do with my "no". Glad to see I have such authority with him already...

I used to have one when dd was little and we have a marble botoom thing that sticks out. However, we havent used it much but just tauught her to be careful around it. My dad freaks out at me all the time, which is strange thinking of all the risks we took as children in the 80s.
L

dd used fireguard a a cruising facilitator and also enjoyed standing and rattling it really hard like she was in a prison movie. they also double as handy clothes dryers. try and get one off freecycle if you decide to get one.

we fixed a large piece of stiff card in across the front of our fireplace. We have a coal effect gass one. (BTW ours was marble and the card has been removed without a trace ) Both DD & DS seem to think that the "coal" were fun blocks. This effectively shut off the fireplace from them. Of course, we couldn't use it either but was a lot cheaper/less frantic than either a fireguard or a rush to A&E because my independent children decided to "push that boundary"