Strategies for preventing baby eating Playmobil?

[thehouseofmirth]

DS1's 4th birthday yesterday was celebrated by his friends buying him the smallest Lego and Playmobil with bits you need a magnifying glass to see. This has fabulously coincided with DS2 (4 months) learning to roll and developing a precocious pincer grip and I realise it's only going to get worse.

I've never been a wrap-'em-in-cotton wool kind of Mum before but I realise I do need to keep DS2 safe so I'd be interested to know what practical strategies other mothers have adopted. DS1 is particularly crap at tidying stuff up and I also don't want to make him too responsible for his brother or to suggest DS2 is spoiling his fun...

DD1 always played with playmobil sitting at the dining table.

We keep all Playmobil upstairs in DS's bedroom. It is not played with downstairs, DD would eat it in second flat.

16mo old ds2 still tries to eat the tiny bits, given half a chance. Ds1 is only allowed to play with it when ds2 is napping, usually after lunch. We turned it round so it doesn't seem like ds2 is spoiling his fun, more that Playmobil is a special treat that big boys do and babies don't.

He will need a big storage box to store it all in, preferably with a lid to prevent the baby gaining access to it.
Seperate rooms is a good idea, but might be impractical. How about a shallow tray on a table? Or a towel on the table tends to keep them on the table and not on the floor.
Can I also suggest a space for displaying his models? The sense of satisfaction they get from displaying their work is very immense.

DS1 has a colourful big box that all the Playmobil bits go in.

The one rule is that he has to play with it on the tables.

It works surprisingly well (he is 4, DS2 is 17 months)

Thanks for your advice. We trotted off to Homebase today and bought 2 tool boxes full of tiny compartments (think I secretly want one too!) to put it all in. He is not a sitting at the table kind of boy and I can imagine his reaction to being asked to stop playing because his brother has woken up so I think we'll have to work on confining it to his room.

My DS1 also turned 4 last weekend. He's now got more Playmobil Pirates than Toys'R'Us!

He is only allowed to play with it whilst DS2 (1 next week) is asleep. Now we have the question "Can you put DS2 to sleep now please?" at least 4 times a day!!

We had special playmobil playtime too. It also had the benefit of stopping all the little bits being scattered far and wide. Now the "baby" is three it's all over the place, sigh.

Exclusion zones. Playmobil stays in older DC's room, emerges only in controlled amounts to be played with on a table.

(it improves, BTW - we have more or less the same age gap and today DD (now 2.5) acquired a bag of assorted Playmobil animals at a school fete which decided, on reflection, that they wanted to move in with all DS's menagerie. They played nicely together in DS's room for ages 20 minutes with no squabbling )