Windows, doors, the fireplace and every sharp edge: the fixes that fit your house

What to buy first

Whatever is between the child and a drop, a fire or a cord. This hub is five hazards that share a room rather than one product category, and the order is set by the injury data. Windows first: the CPSC counted about 5,600 children 12 and under treated for window falls in 2024, with one in three admitted, and at least 25 deaths from 2021 to 2023, most of them in the warm months when windows are open. A guard that states ASTM F2090 with an emergency release, or a stop that limits the opening to 4 inches, is the purchase, per how to childproof windows. Blind cords second, because the CPSC's count is about nine strangulation deaths a year in children under five and the fix is free: cut the loops, or wind them up, per blind cord safety. The fireplace third in season, the doors that lead somewhere dangerous fourth, and the corners all year.

How the category divides

Windows split into guards, which are bars that bolt to the frame and are the only product with a fall-prevention standard behind it, and stops, which limit how far a sash opens and are cheaper, no-drill and not a guard. The decision is window guards vs window stops and the ranking is best window guards and locks. Doors split by handle: a round knob takes a clip-on cover a small hand cannot grip; a lever takes an adhesive lock that pins it; both are ranked in best door locks and knob covers. The door also has a second hazard that no lock touches - the gap that closes on fingers, where the hinge edge is the one that causes the severe injuries - and that is best door pinch guards. The fireplace splits into the gate that stands off from the heat, in best fireplace baby gates, and the padding for the raised hearth, in best hearth pads and edge guards, with the whole room in how to babyproof a fireplace. If you are trying to work out which of those two your fireplace actually needs, that decision is laid out in fireplace gate vs hearth pad. Corners are foam or clear plastic, and the choice is about the surface and how visible you can stand it, in best corner guards and foam vs clear corner guards.

What decides the price

The window guard is the expensive item and the only one whose price buys a standard: Guardian Angel lists its F2090 guards at $89.99 to $114.99 per window by post height, and a Velcro window stop is a few dollars. The hearth gate is the other big number, at $274.95 for KidCo's, because it is a steel panel gate with a walk-through door that mounts to the wall on both sides and adjusts to 128 inches; a hearth cushion or 15 feet of Roving Cove edge foam ($25 at list) covers the edge but not the fire. Everything else in the hub is under $20: knob covers list $9.99 for a pack at Jool, a lever lock $19.99 at Wappa, corner guards $9 to $10 for eight to twelve. What you are paying for at the top of the range is a mounting system that survives a child's weight; what you are paying for at the bottom is adhesive, and adhesive is where the cheap products fail. Prices are maker list prices on the day we checked, linked on each spec table; Amazon sets its own.

The common mistake

Trusting the screen. An insect screen holds nothing; the CPSC's window guidance says so in as many words. The second is putting the crib, a chair or a toy box under the window, which turns a 36-inch sill into a 12-inch one; the CPSC's furniture-away-from-windows rule is the free fix. The third is a fireplace gate that touches the fireplace: the gate needs to stand off far enough that the child cannot reach the glass through it, because the CPSC puts the glass front of a gas fireplace at 500 to 1,000 degrees and the barrier rule that took effect in 2015 only covers new units. Fourth, corner guards on the coffee table and none on the raised hearth, which is at forehead height for a cruiser and made of stone. And the door mistake is covering the bathroom knob and leaving the door to the garage or the pool alone; the cover goes on the doors that lead somewhere dangerous, which are not always the ones you think of first.

Two window jobs have their own walkthroughs. A crank window takes none of the stops sold for a sliding sash, and the fixes that do work are on how to childproof casement windows. Fitting a guard so it holds - the opening height to measure, and the frames that will not take a screw - is on how to install window guards.