A question of size more than temperament
Most Yorkshire Terriers are not hostile to children; many are playful, devoted and funny companions for the children they know. The difficulty is arithmetic: a child who trips, drops, hugs too hard or falls can seriously injure a dog that weighs less than many newborn babies grow to within months. Responsible guidance therefore sorts by child rather than by dog. School-age children who can follow handling rules, sit on the floor for play, and recognise when a dog wants to leave are often excellent Yorkie companions. Toddlers and roughhousing preschoolers, however kind-hearted, cannot yet guarantee the physical control this breed's safety requires.
How injuries happen in loving homes
The typical Yorkie-and-child accident is not an attack story. It is a child picking the dog up and dropping it when it wriggles, stepping backward onto a dog silently underfoot, squeezing during an enthusiastic hug, or cornering a dog who wanted to retreat. A Yorkie hurt or trapped in any of those moments may bite, and that bite is then unfairly recorded as the dog's failure. Prevention is management: no child carries the dog, ever; play happens on the floor; the dog's bed and crate are child-free refuges; and an adult supervises every interaction until a child's reliability is proven over a long period, not assumed after one good afternoon.
Teaching children the Yorkie rules
Children do best with short, positive rules they can repeat: stroke the side, not the top of the head; let the dog come to you; stop when the dog walks away; never disturb sleeping, eating or chewing. Practise those rules with a toy dog first, praise children lavishly for gentle behaviour, and give them real jobs that build the bond safely, like scattering a sniffing game in the grass or holding the treat pot during a training session an adult leads. Children who understand the rules often become a Yorkie's favourite people, because the dog learns that small humans are predictable, kind and never grabby.
If your family already spans both ages
Some households already have a Yorkie and then welcome a baby, and that path can work with deliberate management rather than alarm. Use gates and pens to give the dog protected space before the baby becomes mobile, keep the dog's routine as steady as possible through the upheaval, and never leave dog and baby together unsupervised even briefly. As the child grows, involve them gradually under the same floor-play and no-carrying rules. If instead you are choosing a dog now for a toddler household, the honest advice is usually to wait a few years or choose a larger, sturdier breed whose body can forgive a toddler's clumsiness.
One rulebook every supervising adult can see
Playdates, grandparents and babysitters are where careful Yorkie rules most often slip, because a supervising adult who does not know the no-carrying rule cannot enforce it. Put the handling boundaries, refuge spaces and supervision expectations in writing where every helper sees them before play starts. The relatives you pick can open the profile held for your Yorkie firsthand once access reaches them via KinsLe's Family Sharing, instead of depending on a description passed along at the door.