Baby Gates & Wide Metal Bars on Stairs

There is a mesh you can buy at the baby store, it works just fine. As for the baby gate, we installed/bolted the gate to the wall and stair rail. It latches closed. It is rather a permanent fixture but it is a sense of security while we are sleeping.

I'm not sure which type of gate to use, but I know there are a lot of different gates out there now, for all kinds of different situations. Try looking at Babies 'R Us, at babyage.com, and googling "baby gates" or "safety first" to see what you can find.

I do have an idea for your metal bars. You could use plexiglass/thick plastic to cover the whole area, drilling holes and using something (zip ties?) to attach it to the bars. If you can't find that, then even something like thin plywood or wainscotting would work. It's relatively inexpensive, you can drill holes in it easily, and you can cut it to whatever size you need. It wouldn't have to be really thick, just strong enough that your kid couldn't break it. If none of that will work for you, maybe you could use some strong fabric (like canvas type) to cover it, and sew some strong velcro or ties to the ends and tops to keep it in place. It would have to be very taut to work, but if the other options aren't a possibility for you it would be better than nothing. I wonder if Babies 'R Us or someplace else has plastic sheets that are made for this? They're coming up with new stuff all the time! In the meantime, you could always use some stiff cardboard and good old duct tape!

Good luck! Hope this helps!

We had those metal bars, too. We found a clear plexiglass sheet that we affixed to the rail and you could still see through. You really could not tell it was there until you tried to touch it. I don't know where we got it, but it was made for this purpose. It worked great.

You can buy a thick plastic sheet (with zip ties) to cover the rails. We bought ours through an online baby safety website. I think the product was called banister guard (?).

As for the baby gate, I know there a lot of options out there, but you have to do some research. My gate (it's a retractable screen/net gate) has an option to buy an attachment for metal rails for one or both sides. Good luck!

If you can't find a baby gate that will work in your house, look at pet stores. They have some marvelous gates that are 4-5 ft tall and are attractive. Babies grow taller and can climb over baby gates. My brother has one for his dogs and a toddler/preschooler wouldn't be able to get over it. And it closes with a latch high on the gate and is easy to open and shut once you know how.

I understand your fear about the bars and your daughter putting her head in between the bars. Because her shoulders are wider than her head she won't fall thru. If she lay on her side and pulled with her hands and pushed with her feet she might be able to squeeze thru but how likely is that? None Unless, perhaps she's a preschooler like my granddaughter who loves to take on the impossible. At 10 she pushes her way in between the columns in front of Fred Meyer. Has to turn just so but she worked at it until she did it. lol

When my son was young we lived in a house where the rail on the stairs was metal and he could get between the bars (this was 10 yrs ago). At the time there was a product which was a net you could tie over the metal rails which kept him from squeezing through. It sure looked funny and we had to keep checking the ties to make sure they stayed tight, but we kept it up till he was 4 yrs old and too big to squeeze through anymore. It worked like a charm!