Sorry for the boring topic, but it's getting cold in Sydney and we desperately need a new heater.

In previous years, we have had a fan heater (and pretty much sat on top of it all winter ) but this year we have a commando crawling six-month-old baby, which means that a fan heater is no longer safe.

My question is: which type of heater is safer to have around a mobile baby in terms of her possibly touching it etc?

We live in an open plan two-storey townhouse, so any heat generated by the heater could very easily be lost, therefore any advice on this would also be gratefully received.

TIA.

Cinnabubble.

I have seen and am considering (although have not yet bought or tried) a wall mounted fan heater at our local Mitre 10. It looks like a mini split system, but just plugs into a normal power point. The staff at the store claim they are good, but they would probably not heat much more than a normal fan heater. I'm thinking of mounting one near the computer for middle-of-the-night nursing sessions, and one in the small playroom-to-be, but I doubt they would do much to heat a large room as a whole.

which type of heater is safer to have around a mobile baby in terms of her possibly touching it etc?

None !

If you must purchase one make sure you have some sort of guard in place, (Ie play pen with heater in the middle so child can not reach it.)

Also make sure it has a anti tilt turn off. (ie it turns off whne tilted or knocked over )

We have column heaters in both kids rooms, which are on all winter. The main problem w have with them is that DS often plays with the controls and turns them up to full. Apart from this, they never get so hot that the kids will burn themselves, they soon learn that they are hot. In three years with DD and 18 months with DS we have never had the slightest burn. They do still need to be checked reguarly - ewither heat is up r there is a toy on it. But again, it's not hot enough to do any real damage.

We also have a convection heater for the living areas. This does a mch better job of heating larger areas, but needs more supervision. I'm not happy about the kids near a gas heater, whereas the column heaters are fully contained. Having said that, in a living area it is much easier to supervise them, and it would probably be more efficient and cheaper for you to run. They can't burn themsleves on a convection heater either, but the controls are more involved than the column heaters, and I worry about toys getting pushed into the vents. Both have anti-tilt shut-offs - essential!

Putting it in a playpen is also a good idea.

Hi there

We live in a 2 bedroom unit - and have oil column heaters. There is one in DD's room, one in our bedroom and one in the lounge. The reason we like the oil column heaters is (a) they won't ever catch on fire (b) they have an auto cut-off if they are tipped over © they can't burn DD - yes, we do tell her not to touch the heater, but the most she will get is warm hands if she does touch - they won't actually burn her (to the best of my knowledge).

As your little one is crawling, if you do get a heater that sits on the floor, one of the PP's had a brillant idea - put the heater in a playpen. That way he won't be able to reach it anyway.

We are also in Sydney and have noticed the temp going down just recently too !!

Helen (Freddie's Mum)
Me & DH - 36
DD - 23 months

I second this ESPECIALLY if it will be on whilst the child is awake (eg. not just going overnight). We nearly had a fire on Wednesday night as the boys knocked over our column heater and with the door shut we didn't realise- we were very, very lucky.

Hi all

Thank you so much for your responses. We're going shopping today and will check out the safest heaters for small children and large (ish) spaces.

Cinnabubble.