Some refrigerators come with built-in safety latches (so called child-lock, children-lock safety systems). Such safety latch should keep toddlers or smaller children from opening the refrigerator (and doing you know what…).
So much for the promotional materials. Now little reality…
Go to the kitchen and try to open your fridge. How much strength you must have used to accomplish it? Do you think your toddler will be able to use the same strength? Come on…
Unless your refrigerator gaskets are totally worn, your children will not be able to open the door without adult person´s help. As soon as they have enough power to do it (let´s say 3-4 years old), they are also intelligent enough to outsmart any child lock safety system.
Child-lock refrigerator verdict:
Don´t waste your money. Show your children what is in the fridge to feed their curiosity. Explain them why they should not open the fridge alone and what happens with the food if they leave the fridge door open.
Children are very smart and even smaller ones will understand if you tell them that their favourite cake will turn bitter or sour if the refrigerator is open for too long.
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I absolutely do not agree with the verdict. Before your children are old enough to reason and understand, do you just want to go downstairs in the morning to find that your refridgerator door has been open all night? Hey! How about $2,000 cost to replace your refridgerator? I bet you love that cost. I am a mother and I tried all the reasoning methods, and they don’t work! Different children have different learning curve. Sometimes you just have to buy these locks and wait until they are older to reason with them and allow them to open the door.
Hello, Helen,
different children different experience, thank you for yours. If you think the locks are usefull, OK, buy them and use them. My experience is that lock never stops child´s curiosity, in contrary, it raises it (I am father of two boys, 5 years and 10 months old).
Maybe you could go to bed after all you children only and check if the fridge is closed.
Or do your kids wake up at nights to plunder the refrigerator?
Why do they do so?
If they only “forget” to close it, you can easily set the vertical angle of the fridge so that it closes itself automatically from whatever position the door was left open.
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This post is simply not realistic. Most children can open a refrigerator at about 18-24 months and cannot really be trusted to poke around inside a fridge until they are 4-5. That’s 2-3 years of trying to keep kids out of #1 thing they love to get into — the refridgerator!
Hello, Feller, you made me think a little bit.
I will conduct a little research in the next couple of days to find out which fridges do open easily and which not. I will prepare a sort of chart and publish it here.
he problem is that shops here do not sell US refrigerators very often (I live in Slovakia, Europe) but never mind I will try to find as many models as possible.
Maybe you, people from USA, could tell me at least what fridge model you have at home and if it opens (too) easily so that also a child can open it or not.
Thanks beforehand, of course, for any info…
I do not agree with this post at all. My son was not even 2 when he started opening the fridge. Talk about smart, at 25 months, he would bring the island stools close to the fridge, climb it & get into the freezer. The place where I hid the gumballs to decorate my cupcakes.
Kids are smart and very curious. My son spilled the entire container of iced tea that I had just made in my fridge while I was talkin to his dad on the phone. Not only are they smart, but they’re quick. And he’s relentless. You can tell him not to do something over & over…and the more he wants to do it… but this time he adds a look to it.
I didn’t know these latches existed. I bought 2, one for the fridge & one for the freezer. I hope it works. If not, then a metal chain & lock will definitely do the trick.
I’ve learned in the past 3 yrs to never judge anyone & never say never. Cause you have no idea what you will be dealt.