A wood stove and a baby can share the same home, on three conditions. A fixed fireguard keeps your child away from the glass and the sides of the stove, which burn at the slightest touch. Dry wood and a well-maintained stove keep smoke down. A room aired every day protects their lungs from fine particles.
A wood stove isn't a heater you switch off at night: in winter it is often the heart of the home, burning for hours in the middle of the living room. It is also where your baby plays, crawls and then learns to stand up. Here is how to organise this close living, season after season.
Wood stove and baby: the first risk is a contact burn
The glass and body of a lit stove reach temperatures that burn skin in a fraction of a second. A toddler doesn't pull their hand away quickly enough, and their thinner skin burns more deeply than an adult's. The danger begins as soon as they move around on their own, often before their first birthday.
In March 2012 the Commission de la sécurité des consommateurs, France's consumer safety commission, issued an opinion on contact burns from radiators and household heating appliances. It drew on a survey by the Institut de veille sanitaire, the French public health surveillance institute at the time. The survey recorded 389 burns caused by radiators or stoves between 2004 and 2010, two thirds of them in children under 5. Hands were the most commonly affected.
UNICEF gives the same advice in its prevention tips: don't let your child get close to stoves and fireplaces, and put a fireguard in front of an open fire. It also recommends keeping the area around a wood stove clear of anything that could catch fire.
Which fireguard should you choose for a stove?
A fireguard creates a distance your child cannot cross. It only works if it is stable, tall enough and securely fixed.
- A model that surrounds the stove on all its accessible sides, with enough space between the mesh and the stove that the mesh itself doesn't heat up.
- Fixings to the wall or floor: a fireguard that is simply stood in place tips over when your child grabs it to pull themselves up.
- A height they can't climb over, and bars too close together to fit an arm through.
- A lockable door for adding logs, which closes again easily.
Fit the fireguard before your child starts moving around, not after the first scare. The same logic applies to the other equipment in our guide to babyproofing your home, room by room.
What about an open fireplace?
An open fire adds a further risk: embers and sparks jumping out of the hearth. A spark guard is then essential, in addition to the fireguard set at a distance. Keep an eye on loose clothing, scarves and dressing-up costumes near the flames.
Arranging the living room around the stove
A fireguard isn't enough if the play area touches the mesh. Ideally, set up the floor play area on the opposite side of the room from the stove, where the air is warm without direct radiant heat. A Treelys play mat placed at a safe distance marks out this space for your child and for the adults alike.
- Keep the ash bucket, poker, firelighters and matches out of reach.
- Don't leave loose logs next to the stove: a pile of logs gets climbed and collapses.
- Avoid drying your baby's clothes on the fireguard or right in front of the stove.
- Keep the stove well away from the cot, playpen or bouncer.
Your baby's bedroom, on the other hand, should be heated differently. If extra heating is needed there, our guide to heaters for a baby's room explains why only an electric heater belongs there.
Smoke and fine particles: what your baby breathes
Burning wood produces pollutants, including fine particles, which degrade both indoor and outdoor air. In its guide “Le chauffage au bois, mode d'emploi”, ADEME, the French agency for ecological transition, points out that burning wood in poor conditions releases large amounts of them. Young children, who breathe faster than adults, are more exposed.
Burn dry wood, and nothing else
According to ADEME, logs should have a moisture content of no more than 20%. Damp wood gives off less energy, clogs up the stove and releases significantly more substances that are harmful to health. Logs at 40% moisture lose around 25% of efficiency compared with logs at 20%.
ADEME also says never to burn painted, varnished or contaminated wood, or rubbish. These give off toxic substances, including dioxins. Glossy paper, packaging cardboard and offcuts of furniture have no place in the stove.
Light it from the top
Top-down lighting means placing the large logs at the bottom, with the kindling and firelighter on top. According to ADEME, it reduces fine particle emissions when the fire starts, the most polluting phase. The glass also gets dirty less quickly.
Air the room every day, even in winter
Opening the windows for a few minutes every day renews the air in the room. Our article on indoor pollution and babies' health sets out the official recommendations.
Carbon monoxide: maintenance is not optional
A sooted-up or blocked flue can cause carbon monoxide poisoning or a chimney fire. ADEME points out that in France, under the règlement sanitaire départemental (local public health regulations), having the chimney swept by a professional is compulsory once a year, or twice if you burn more than 10 steres of wood a year. Keep the sweep's certificate: your insurer may ask for it if you make a claim.
Annual servicing of the appliance by a qualified person is very strongly recommended for stoves and inserts. ADEME advises against chimney-sweeping logs, whose effectiveness has not been proven. The signs of poisoning and what to do in an emergency are covered in our article on carbon monoxide and babies.
What should you do if your baby gets burnt on the stove?
Cool the area straight away under lukewarm running water for at least 20 minutes, as UNICEF recommends. Don't apply cream, grease or ice. Remove any clothing that isn't stuck to the skin.
Call the emergency services (15 or 112 in France) if the burn is large, affects the face, hands, feet or genitals, or if the skin is white, leathery or blistered. In a toddler, a burn that blisters always needs medical advice. Our article on hot water scalds in babies covers the official figures and other risky situations.
Key points to remember
- A fireguard fixed to the wall or floor, fitted before your baby starts moving around.
- The play area on the opposite side from the stove, with tools and firelighters out of reach.
- Wood with less than 20% moisture, never treated wood or rubbish, and top-down lighting.
- Daily airing and a chimney sweep by a professional at least once a year.
- If there's a burn: 20 minutes of lukewarm water, then medical advice.
Winter with a newborn raises other questions too, from outings to viruses: our guide to your first winter with a baby goes through them one by one.
Sources
- ADEME, “Le chauffage au bois, mode d'emploi”, practical guide, October 2019 edition.
- Commission de la sécurité des consommateurs, opinion on the risks of contact burns from electric radiators and household heating appliances, 22 March 2012.
- UNICEF, “Brûlures, échaudures et autres lésions causées par le feu”, advice for parents.
