How do you keep younger siblings safe from toys containing small parts

[Lunabelle]

So I have a 4year old and a baby on the way. I am planning on them sharing a playroom and when the baby is a little bigger sleeping together in one room rather than having their individual rooms.


I am currently going through all the toys to store toys with small parts higher up, and will have access on lower levels to toys that don’t have that safety warning on them. But there are certain toys that my daughter loves but are such a nightmare with so many small parts. I am wondering if I should just take those small parts away but still let my DD play with the toy without the small parts, for ex playmobil comes with 100s of tiny pieces that get lost everywhere. Even if I stored these away and took down for my DD to play with, I would never get all the pieces back.


So how do you do keep children under 3 away from toys with small parts in practice when you have older kids? Are there toys you do not allow older kids to play with because it’s a safety risk for younger kids?

 

[Babybump87]

We basically went around the whole house and bagged up any small pieces !

If they do play with little bits and bobs they have little tubs to put the bits back into when finished playing. Granted doesn’t always go back but I do generally check around where DS is playing and remove them .

My girls didn’t notice when we removed the little bits and bobs and made no difference to their play and They still get barbies , LOLs etc bought for them.

Edit - you have a while yet before the baby should be on the move so maybe let your DD have the use of these toys until then and remove them when baby is crawling . Thats when we did the whole house xx

but why do toys have to come with soooo many small bits !!

 

[MKaykes]

My eldest is still under 3 so not tiny parts but he does have some toys that we don't want his mobile baby sister getting her hands on. We limit access to these so we can monitor better and usually only let him have them when she's napping or in a different room.

Would something like these storage playmats work to more easily contain the smaller pieces? (Note this photo gives me anxiety with the infant edited in on top of the tiny Legos!)

 

[Lunabelle]

Thanks babybump, I think that’s what I will do too, just bag up the small bits. We are currently moving so I will use this opportunity to put them away.

Thanks Mkaykes, I will have a look at that playmat.