Safety Gates...

[tenderhearts]

For those of you who have a woodstove in your daycare area,(hopefully someone does) I'm having a really hard time finding a gate. My states guidelines are very brief. All it says it I have to have a gate for children up to 6 yrs of age and it has to be jpma certified. So we bought the plastic play yard which is stamped but unless I put it WAY away from it my 5 yr olds could lean over and touch the sides of the woodstove if they wanted to. Info I've read online (not state) says it should be at least 2 feet from stove which is is on sides and more in the front but still my one 4 yr old (she's very tall for her age) and my 5 years olds could touch it. Now most of them have them or a fireplace at home but still. What do you use or do????

[VTMom]

I have a hearth gate for our pellet stove (we got it off ebay but they sell them at one step ahead) and it's at least 2 feet away from all sides. I don't allow the kids to touch the gate at all. I have a 1, 3, 4 and 6 year old and it's rarely a problem. The rare problem would be when one of them, usually the 4 year old, wants to curl up around the gate first thing in the morning with his blanket! I've explained that it's not safe past the gate and they don't challenge this one.

[Michael]

More posts on gates: http://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=gates