Safety Gates Advice

Ann what is more precious, the staircase or the child? There is so much stuff out there now to use to repair drill holes. You can barely tell where the holes were.

There are adapters you can buy at www.onestepahead.com that keep you from having to drill into the banister. They have great reviews and are suppose to work with most gates.
Good luck!

I suggest the mounted gates for peace of mind. I need to let you know that I watched my daughter, when she was 2, fall down a flight of stairs. There is really nothing you can do when it starts. It is something I probably won't ever forget, the feeling of hopelessness. So again, I suggest, if you want peace of mind...a mounted gate. The others might not hold his weight.
You have to decide the risks you are willing to take as a mom. Being a parent is not a wrong or right decision...it is making the best decision you can.

Ann,

No one wants to drill holes in their new house, but it's your child we're talking about. Holes can be fixed. You want the one that drills in and make sure it goes into a 2x4, not just wall, he could pull that out too. Baby gates range from 30 for a decent one to overly priced! I would invest in one that you can keep until they are much older. Baby gates are a good idea even for youngster if you can take the opening and closing, opening and closing a million times or so! They have a tendency to be in a hurry, sleep walk (half asleep/half awake trip to the bathroom/water)and in general have other priorities than what is around them. My little sister bought a baby gate that also screwed into the floor after she spent 50.00 on one and her son kept getting his little arms stuck underneath because of the large gap that one will give that is not solid. (some are adjustable and have give from 29-50 inches. When it comes to safety, I always try and go to the middle of the road expense wise, there's so much to do and as soon as you finish one thing, they get into another. Suggestion for your kitchen to save fuss once gates are installed, leave one drawer and one cabinet open with old pots and pans, a couple wooden spoons maybe some tupperware. This way they don't feel as if there is no place in the kitchen for them at all. I don't know how much of this is wives tale, but Grace goes to the open cabinet at wind speed every time I'm in there. It's better than fussing about pulling on the others that are "off limits". Good luck, someday you'll have your house back and then come grandchildren!

http://www.securebaby.com/baby_gates_all.html
(not all baby gates have to be ugly anymore either!)
Take care, T.

Hi Ann
When our son was about the same age, we got wooden safety gates for our stairs. I bought them online at:
http://www.child-safety-gates.com/index.html
They work great. We got the Kidco wooden gates and are very pleased with them.

The website offers different mounting kits for the gates, if you cannot mount/drill into the staircase. Check them out - you may find a solution for your staircase. We only had to drill into the wall to mount the gates and used the kits for the other side (we have wrought iron staircase and could not drill into the wrought iron poles).

Good luck!

:-)
S.

Hey Ann. My husband didn't want to drill into our staircase but ended up having too. Then my parents bought a new home and the previous owner had babyproofed the entire house and the husband used a piece of wood attached to the inside of the staircase using zip ties. It is rock solid and the gate is screwed in to that so when we remove it all it takes is a quick snip and no damage to the stairs. I wish we would have known that. Good luck.
K., proud mother of 4

I have three children that were all within 1-2 years of each other. We have a steep staircase too. I had used every gate made and hated the way the pressure ones ruined my door frame. (They were cumbersome to get through too.)

When we built our new house, (with the steep staircase), my father built me two of the cutest little "garden style" gates. These were gates that we didn't mind attaching permanently because they became part of the decor. We put one at the bottom of the stairs and one at the top. We used regular gate latches on the inside which made them a breeze for us and impossible for the kids to get through. We made sure that they were mounted in such a way there was no place for little feet to get a foothold to climb up.

Not only were they lifesavers then, they are quite decorative now. If you don't have a woodworker in your family, ask around. Someone will know one.

Now that my children are older I still love them. When friends come to visit with their little ones, I don't have to worry.

This is just the option that worked for us.

Hi, Ann - I am a mom of three children who are each 18 months apart. I also have a steep staircase in my home with no midway landing. I was in the same delimna as you, and I purchased the pressure mounted gates because they were easy to install, cheaper, and I could avoid the drill holes. Looking back, I was always nervous in my home because I was afraid that they could push the pressure mounted gates down. Eventually, one of my toddlers fell down all 14 stairs. Fortunately she escaped the accident with only a bruised cheek, but it could have been fatal.

Peace in your heart and safety in your home is priority. You can patch and paint over the drill holes in the staircase. You may not be able to patch your child's injuries. Drill the gates and move about your home in peace, knowing that your child cannot push the gate out of the wall.

I would suggest a hard mounted gate for top of the stairs. if she pulls up on a pressure mounted gate if its not mounted exactly right she could have enough weight behind her to push it over. and like a previous mom said hard mounted are soo much easier to deal with there are even some that have pedals to open them. so you just step on the pedal to open the gate no hands needed.

Hey Ann!

i know what your husband means about not wanting to drill into the wood and i felt the SAME WAY as he does at first but we know some people whose little one got seriously injured on stairs. that changed my tune immediately and we now have the gates from ToysRUs that are clear but lock at the top to where a small child can't open it - even our 5 year old can't manage to get it open. you need one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. That way, you only have to open the gate to pass through instead of hiking up your leg to climb over the things! Trust me that gets old!! Good luck w/it and if you have any questions about which ones we use - we're VERY pleased w/them - just e-mail me back and i'll get the brand and model number when i get home tonight and e-mail you back.
The ONLY way you know a gate is totally secure is if it's mounted into a solid surface. otherwise you're depending on pressure/resistance to protect your little guy and i can tell you that's not enough.

I have five children ages 9 months to 10 years. I have had both kinds of gates. I prefer the hardware mounted ones because they are so much easier to use. Imagine going up the stairs with your arms full and then having to use both hands to open a pressure mounted gate. The hardware mounted ones can be opened with one hand by an adult. You will need the gate for at least a year or two, and I think it will be much easier to patch holes down the road than to spend so much time with the inconvenience and worry of the wrong gate. (Even holes in wood can be patched nicely.)
Having said that, though, I really don't think a 10 month old (or probably even a two year old) could push over a pressure mounted gate. My older children (ages 4 and up) can push ours over when they try, and I do worry that they will make it fall one day as they try to climb over it, but so far it hasn't happened. Fortunately, I don't have to use our gate regularly since my 9 month old isn't crawling yet.

We also have a wooden banister that we didn't want to drill in to. Fortunately at the top of the stairs it's a wooden banister on each side, no wall. We bought the hardware mounted kind and mounted it to 2 pieces of wood, then used zip ties to attach it to the banister, so no marks. You might want to use a piece of felt protector so the woods don't rub on each other. Some friends of ours who at the bottom of the stairs have a banister and wall, used a pressure mounted swing gate on one side and zip tied it to a piece of wood for stability and then zip tied it to the banister. It's worked great for us. The pressure mount you just have to watch if they turn in to King Kong and like to shake it.

There is no real safe alternative to putting a few holes in your wall/staircase. We tried everything to avoid doing it, but we ended up drilling the holes. The pressure gates can be pushed down. It is just not worth the risk of your little one falling down. Now my kids are 5 1/2 and almost 3 so we are pretty much done with the gates and we just had the foyer and den painted and all signs of the gate are filled and repainted, so really not a big deal, when you are all finished just spackle and paint. Best of luck.
C. in Alpharetta

YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DRILL. WE PUT ONE UP ABOUT A YEAR AGO AND IT ALMOST TORE OUR WALL DOWN BUT IT WAS THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE ANY PIECE OF MIND. WE ALSO HAVE A STEEP WOODEN STAIRCASE. I WOULD RATHER PAY TO HAVE SOMEONE PATCH THE WALL IN A COUPLE OF YEARS THEN DEAL WITH AN ACCIDENT. WE ACTUALLY BOUGHT SMALL PIECES OF WOOD TO DRILL TO THE WALL PRIOR TO PUTTING UP THE GATE(3x12'S) SO THAT IT WOULD STAY AS MOST CORNERS ARE VERY HOLLOW SO WE FOUND OUT.

R. R

We have 2 yr old twins in an older home so we only recently let them roam the whole house somewhat unattended. We too didn't want to permanently mark the walls of our new renovations. We used a tension one, but only have 1 level & no stairs. I would really suggest the hardware mount ones. I think the risk outways patching & painting later. So hubby you loose this one :)

Our boys only recently could push the tension gate down if they wanted too & they are big boys so most probably your baby couldn't with out hearing the racket of it, but still too risky.

1st off, you can never be too careful or paranoid about the safety of your child. I think it's great that you aren't just hoping he doesn't fall down it but taking precautionary measures to prevent it. A lot of people aren't so bright or careful ;o) I lived in a Log Home until my daughter was 3. We also had a STEEP all wood staircase. I made a point to try to get her familiar with the staircase so she'd know it was a place she could fall. I'd let her crawl up from the bottom a stair or two, then I'd call her name from the bottom so that she'd turn around and lose her balance. I'd be there to catch her, if it was the second step, but from the 1st step I'd go ahead and let her fall, just so she'd understand it. I taught her to hold on tightly to the slats on the side - this works way better than the handrail (if he can even reach the handrail), at least for us it did. I used the pressure type of gate and had no issues, although it seemed useless so we removed it before long. I had an older wood one that is SO sturdy, I actually now use it to keep my 80 lb Black lab out of certain rooms, and it holds her back, so a 20 lb baby should be no problem ;o) Just check every once in a while to be sure the grips haven't slipped. If you're really concerned abut it, I'd use the baby gate in the hallway or a doorway first to confine the baby to a certain room or rooms with the gate until you know whether he's going to climb the gate, bang on it like crazy until the grips slip, or what. That way if he is going to overcome the gate, it won't be the stairs he's facing when he does! Personally I found that at 6 months my daughter had no interest in trying to get over it, and by 9 months she would just climb right over the safety gate no matter which one I bought. I'd heard of several that were supposed to prevent this, and bought and borrowed a few different ones at that time, but my kid was a little monkey. At the same time the daycare had to rearrange the class because she was climbing the beds and getting to the window sills and would stand on the window sill and call out for them! At 9 months! They'd never had that problem in that age class. So test it out somewhere safe, and realize kids can overcome a gate whether you get the permanent one or the temporary one. I know I used the gate very little for my baby and would have been upset if I drilled holes in my wood for it. I wound up using closed doors a lot more, or the gate as a barracade to keep hre in certain areas. I've used it MUCH more for other purposes later in life, and the luxury of being able to quickly throw it in the car to take it to grandmas - or just use it in several different areas of the house - has been very valuable, which is something the permanent ones don't offer.

I have two little ones and faced the same dilema... I can tell you we have both the hardware mount and the tension type for two different areas in our home we defintely needed to keep the little ones safe from...

Our tension gate is a Graco mesh gate where the tension bars are the type you turn until they meet your tension needs, somewhat like a curtain tension rod but, much thicker (we tried the handle type and it did not hold at all - we could not get a strong enough hold!!).

My husband turned it so much - I can not remove it just by pushing it (with a weight of 6 times my little ones!) It is a bit inconvenient if yours is a highly traveled area (our is not...) which is why we ended up opting for a hardware mount in our other danger spot, it is far more convenient because you can open and close it easily while keep it very secure...

Hope this helps a bit!

I would suggest the pressure mounted gate at the top of the steps. You can always fix the holes which is a lot less heart ache then if your child falls down the steps. I live all on 1 level now and use a pressure mount at times and my 16 mo old girl will grab a hold of the gate and just shake it like crazy. I know with her, I would not trust a pressure mount gate if it was at the top of the steps. I try to err on the side of safety for the kids and can fix the house easier when they are older. You never know what the kids are going to do when your back is turned. When I go to the bathroom, my 3 yr old and 16 mo old take advantage of the time that my eyes are not on them!!! Good luck - you will make the best decision for your family.

You are not being paranoid. It is easier to fill holes in wood than it is to take a child to the hospital. I have 3: 26, 20 and 17. Please believe me and know that a child's injuries hurt your heart worse than you'd think.

We have Sure & Secure Extra Tall Walk Through Gate by Summer Infant. $60.00 Toys R Us. We have one at the top and bottom. We have it pressure mounted. You can also drill this one into your walls. Like you, we did not want to drill holes in our walls. At the bottom stair is a round banister, that one sometimes comes off but its not bc of the girls its bc my husband and I thought we opened the gate only to knock it down and we fell as well. Both my 16m and 3yr old have shaken the top gate and it has not budged at all. We have had them since Aug 07. The gate is very easy to use. We did not tighten them all the way, bc then my 3yr old would not be able to go up and down as pleased. how we open is, we lift up the gate and not have to worry about sliding the little button at the top. I like pressure mounted as well, bc if your walls are uneven, you can still get the gate tight. Go to Babies R Us and read the reviews. good luck to you

KiddiGuard makes a gate system that has a special attachment system for staircases. It has parts that go round the uprights and you screw them to each other, instead of the staircase. The actual gate we have is retractable which works well for us but you may want to see if they have a harder, sturdier version since you need it for the top of the stairs (ours is at the bottom). The stair connection kit is sold separately and is additional cost but works very well.

You are not paranoid. One of mine did just what you described. We were upstairs doing laundry and she pushed through the pressure mounted gate and since I was upstairs with her, she fell all of the way down. Luckily, she was not hurt bad. She did, however, get a cut on her forehead. With the next one, I did not put gates up at all. It took ALOT of effort and chasing, but he now successfully walks up and down stairs.

I would definitely go with the wall mounted one. I can understand what your husband is saying but like you said the pressure mounted ones can be knocked over. It really won't take much to fix the staircase later on. You can even get the nice ones that would match the staircase and just leave it up. Check out the ones at Safety first or even One step ahead. They have really nice ones.

We have 2 sets of stairs (to the upstairs and our bonus room). We used the hardware mounted gates and love them. They have held up to our 2.5 yr and as hard as she tries, she cannot figure out how to unlock them. They are very durable and acutally require much smaller holes than you would imagine. We have just taken them down this week actually, and after a very small bit of wood putty, you cannot even tell they were ever there. Pressure mounted ones would have never stopped our little one, or held up as long as these have! It is worth a few small holes for peace of mind.

www.onestepahead.com has a great selection of gates and various baby proofing products. I have used pressure mounted gates as temporary solution visiting people but have noticed that they can also cause damage everytime you instal it.For the top of the stairs choose something sturdy, you will never forgive yourself if something happened. If you choose to go with a pressure mounted gate there is one on the market that actually can be opened like a regular gate, maybe that one is worth checking into.

I am more of a fan of the mounted gates, I did have the pressure ones and if moved in a hurry someone my not put them back correctly and then there's an accident...which we had luckily we had a ranch house but still there are rooms baby needs to stay out of. Plaster can be replaced and wood can be filled in by a professional were not one would ever know the difference a set of stairs is way to scary not to have mounted gates to me.

hardware mount is definitely the best! I have 3 boys and my youngest (14 mos) can push the pressure mounted one at the bottom of the stairs down. When we sold our old house it was no problem at all to caulk up the little hole and paint over it- and ours looks asthetically well overall too- we bought a wood color one to match our wooden stairs...safety is always best!

I highly recommend an installed gate at the top of the stairs, especially in your case where you have the steep wooden stair case. The pressure mounted gates just cannot be counted on to stand firm when a child is pushing agaist it (and this will definitely happen. Your toddler will push on it and probably even try to climb it a little bit!) It is simply NOT worth sacrificing your child's safety in order to save a few holes in the banister and walls. These small holes can be easily patched in a few years when the gates come down. We used the Safety First Simple and Secure Stair Gate at the top of our stairs when our twins began crawling. We kept the gate up until they were almost 3! I liked this gate because it installed securely into the wall and banister and also because it was not easy for the kids to unlock (although easy for adults. The lock uses a push-in and turn motion.) I've included a link for it below. Also, once we took the gates down, I patched the holes in the wood banister with wood putty and used drywall spackle to patch the holes in the dry wall. After repainting the wall area (which we'd planned to do anyway because we were putting the house on the market), the holes were no longer noticeable at all! I really hope you'll decide to use one of the installed gates at the top of your stairs. I'm sure there are even some newer, better ones on the market now. It was almost 4 years ago that we bought ours.

Here is a web link:
http://www.kohls.com/upgrade/webstore/product_page.jsp?PR...#

Good Luck,
L.
(Mom to 4 year old twins)

I am a grandmother of one and mother of four, including two very rambunctious boys! We lived in a townhouse when the boys were little, and the steps were definitely a big problem. The biggest problem with a gate at the TOP of the steps is that the boys could climb over it. If they are at the top and climbed over, it was an even bigger fall and they were more likely to get hurt.

A gate at the bottom was better, while we were down stairs. However my best suggestion is to teach your son to go up AND down the stairs. It only takes a few lessons to teach him to turn around and crawl down the stairs, backward. Climbing up is usually no problem but then he gets stuck at the top, because he is too afraid to go down when he sees how far it is to the bottom. But once he learns to go down backward, he isn't afraid anymore.

This doesn't solve the problem with him getting into things on the other floor, but it may keep him from getting hurt-at least most of the time. You can't protect them all the time. I learned that the hard way!

Enjoy your baby! They grow up too fast. Next thing, you'll be worrying about CARS!!

we had the same problem, you can buy banister attachments at onestepahead.com for i think 25 bucks each (need one for each side) or you can do what my husband did. He went to home depot and bought the plastic lashes and secured a strip of wood to each banister- the guard was nailed into the wood strip instead of the banister. we looked and it was essentially the same thing that onestepahead was selling for a lot cheaper. our daughter is now 20 months old and loves to lean on it and it hasn't moved at all.

That is a darned good question, as I am in the same boat as you. My daughter just turned 10 mos. and is becoming quite the little scooter herself.

Let's figure this one out together. Good luck to you.

E.

As annoying for your husband to have to drill into the wall, it is definately the safest gate to have at the top of the stairs. Once your baby becomes strong enough to start pushing and climbing on it, the pressure mounted ones can slip or if they are not tight enough the door can actually come open if pushed on hard enough (this one I saw first hand). Do not take a chance and your husband can fill the holes in later anyway!! Good luck!

Your not being paranoid. The mounted gates are the only safe gates for the top of a stairway. When it comes down to it what is really important? The safety of your child, don't think it won't happen to us. Good-luck.

Don't use the pressure gates. I never found one that didn't fall. Does your staircase have a little bit of wall on either side? Attach the gate to the wall and use it like a swinging half door. When your child is old enough to remove the gate, walls are easier to patch and paint. We used a piece of plywood at the top of our basment stairs, and it worked really well. Just make sure the door opens in.