They’re cute and adorable and we all love them, but they have a dark side! According to new research by Direct Line Home Insurance, ‘terrible toddlers’ cause hundreds of pounds worth of damage. Between the ages of seven months and three years, they wreak £389 worth of damage on the average family home. And, any expectant parents should look away now, because more than half a million (573,000) families’ little ones do damage of over £1,000. Across the UK, that’s in excess of £3.4bn worth of destruction annually.

Unsurprisingly, the most vulnerable areas are the paintwork and wallpaper, which made up nearly half of all reported damage (48%). Next up for those sticky little fingers were furniture and furnishings (44%). For 26%, the lure of flashing lights and glowing buttons proved irresistible, with tablets and mobile phones particularly popular targets, followed by TVs at 13%.

Top 10 damage by toddlers

1 Ruined paintwork or wallpaper                48%
2 Soiled furniture or furnishings                  44%
3 Damaged tablet or mobile phone             26%
4 Damaged picture frames or mirrors          25%
5 Ripped furnishings                                    19%
6= Damaged other electrical item(s)            15%
6= Pulled over a bookcase/shelving unit    15%
7 Damaged TV                                             13%
8 Caused an appliance to break                   9%
9 Damaged electrical cables                         6%
10 Broken windows                                        4%

On a more serious note, one in six parents (15%) reported their toddler pulled over a bookcase or shelving unit, which can easily result in serious injury. Three-quarters (70%) of parents with toddlers reported their child has been injured at home over the last 12 months. That equates to 3.4 million injuries last year alone, or seven every minute.

The most common injuries were toddlers hitting their heads on furniture (35%) or tripping over (14%). 13% scalded themselves with boiling water from a kettle (13%), and others burned themselves either with a hair styling device (8%) or on a pan or oven (5%).

Dan Simson, Head of Home Insurance at Direct Line, says:

“When children start learning to walk, parents suddenly see their home in a new light, one filled with potential hazards. Valuable objects must be moved out of reach or put away, cupboards must be locked, and electrical cables and sockets must be secured. Even then, young children will inevitably find things they shouldn’t touch and risk redecorating the walls with crayon ‘art’.”

Parents do try their best to protect their children. On average, they spend around £137 babyproofing their home – a total of £1.7bn nationwide. Typical babyproofing includes; fitting baby gates on stairs (59%), adding safety plugs to sockets (56%), putting locks on cupboard doors (47%) and attaching corner guards to furniture (37%).

Despite it all, toddlers still manage to get themselves into all sorts of trouble. While they were out of sight, parents reported; 60% had climbed all over the furniture, 52% had gone up or down stairs and 46% had got out of their room. Toddlers, it seems, are born escape artists – a further 46% got out of their bed on their own and 29% managed to escape from a high-sided cot.

It seems, when they say that a baby will turn your life upside down, they mean your home as well! So, just after that giddy moment when you discover there’s a little one on its way, you’d better make sure your home insurance policy is up to scratch!