Toddler locked inside a room
Young children frequently turn interior door locks and trap themselves inside rooms like bathrooms. This prevents them from opening the door on their own—sometimes due to getting substances like vaseline on their hands—leaving parents to deal with frightening or frustrating rescue situations.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Calling the fire departmentDid this help you?
- 2Kicking the door downDid this help you?
- 3Unlocking the door from the outside using a small Allen wrench, screwdriver, coin, butter knife, or fingernailDid this help you?
- 4Taking the doorknob off from the outsideDid this help you?
- 5Installing childproof door knob coversDid this help you?
- 6Replacing interior door knobs with ones that do not lock or can be easily opened with a pin or toolDid this help you?
- 7Using door stoppers out of reach to keep the door from closing all the wayDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Two year old locked herself in bathroom.”source ↗
“Had a scary situation happen, we are potty training our two year old. She wanted me out of the bathroom, short story long, she turned the lock and locked herself in.”source ↗
“Has this happened to anyone else?”source ↗
“Literally just unlocked one tonight. Its happened a few times and at this point I dont even get stressed, just annoyed.”source ↗
“My 2.5 year old locks the door all the time. She can unlock the door, but sometimes chooses to not to unlock it.”source ↗
“This happened to us. Turns out they had vaseline ALL OVER EVERYTHING in the 4 minutes they were left unattended and couldn't grip the lock to unlock the door.”source ↗
“My kid did this once.”source ↗
“I had this happen with my older daughter last year. She and her cousin locked themselves in when they were 4 and 3.”source ↗
“Happened when my wife was home with them.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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