My son who is 1.5 yrs old, loves to climb the stairs holding on to the railings. He knows he shouldn't do it and most of the time does it just to get my attention while I am doing other house work. I do put him in his playpen, high chair but can't keep him tied up everytime, so thinking of getting a gate for downstairs as well. We have wall on one end and wooden railing on the other. I just checked few other gates at babies r us, and all seem to need walls on both ends to drill holes.
Where do I find sturdy gates for situation like ours? Do you own a gate which needs wall on just one end and is sturdy as well. I am worried my son will try to climb it.
Any advise on how to handle kids and teach them not to climb stairs is appreciated. He knows to climb down but I don't trust him not to fall. I don't think he understands he needs to be careful or he will hurt himself. I tell him not to climb , to get down carefully etc but he gets so excited he starts jumping on the stairs.Scary!
Go to onestepahead.com. They have a whole safety section with many gate options and kits to use for banisters.
Just because your child's behavior scares you doesn't mean it is dangerous. If he is using the hand rail and making it up and down there is no reason to keep him off stairs. By the time my kids could go up and down the stairs on their own I took all the gates down. This was somewhere between a year and a year and a half.
Better to let them continue to gain experience and confidence on the stairs so when you are out and about and they encounter those hard cement stairs they will have no trouble.
Oh to actually answer your question you can drill into the post and putty it with wood filler when you take the gate down. My ex's mom always had gate issues because of her dogs.
You can definitely get a gate that doesn't require a wall on either side. We have used KidCo brand (amazon, babies r us) and they come very highly rated and are quite safe. We use them at the top and bottom of our stairs.
At our old house, we only had metal railings on our stairs - no walls. We took pieces of wood and lashed them (using zip ties) to the railings, then drilled the gates into the pieces of wood. It protected the railings and the gate was still totally safe.
This is the gate we use at the top and bottom of our stairs for our 1.5yr old who loves the stairs!! After a little while with them installed, he doesnt waste his time trying to get up them much anymore. And its so nice to be able to let him run around upstairs during bath and bedtimes without worrying about the stairs.
We have the same "wall on one side banister on the other" at the top and two banisters at the bottom. They need to be installed very tight from the start, but we've had them for several months with no problems.
http://www.amazon.com/Regalo-Extra-Tall-Stair-White/dp/B0...
We have a curved gate at the top of our stairs (split level home). We also have netting to keep little people from going through the railing. The gate is screwed into the wall on one side and uses industrial-sized zip ties to hold to the railing. It's been up for about 2 years and periodically we have to fix the ties, but it does keep the kid (and her friends and cousins) exactly where they need to be. The curve gives the cats a platform. We have a 20+ plus cat who jumps on the gate daily and it's still fine.
We keep our stair gate up to keep DD on one floor. The basement is teen central and where her father's workshop is and it's easier to have one gate at the stairs than to try to kid-proof the basement.
In my experience, it has always worked better for my kids when I act scared rather than mad if they climb things. Like GASP! Oh my goodness! (Hand over chest, eyes wide) Baby, No No that's dangerous! I don't want you to get hurt! PLEASE don't climb on that! Very scary!
Be very dramatic about it. Every time :)
We had the same situation as you in terms of a wall on one side and a wooden banister on the other...and did not want to drill into the banister as it would look bad eventually when we are done with this phase and b/c of resale issues if we ever move. So...I highly recommend Evenflo "Top of Stairs Plus" wooden gate - we put one at the top and one at the bottom of our stairs. I even stained them so they matched the same color as our wooden banister. My now 3 1/2 year boy never damaged them despite being a "typical" boy - they held steady and secure. Kidco has a "Stairway Gate Installation Kit" that you can find on Amazon for about $30. We bought 2 of them (one for top and one for bottom) so we didn't have to drill into either of the banisters. They are totally secure. They fasten around the bannister post. Highly recommend. They are still set up in our house and will be used again shortly when our 6 mos old daughter gets a bit older and mobile. Just let M. know if you have any questions.
From Amazon, we got stair gates. For both the top and bottom of the stairs.
Pressure mounted.
Do a search there, on Amazon, and you can also read the reviews of it. And just input "stair gates" in the search box.
Most gates, you will need 2 walls to anchor it to.
Because this is safest.
Per stairs, even if you teach a child about it, accidents happen. At at this young age, they do NOT even have, fully developed "impulse-control" nor, the cognizance of deductive reasoning.
So again, accidents can still happen.
We had the railing at the top of the stairs, so we really needed to solve this problem. We attached the hinge side to a 1 x 2 board and then attached that to the railing with zip ties. It was very sturdy.
I really felt with my daughter, who has always been a wild child, that waiting for her to understand that she wasn't supposed to climb was not an option. He'll learn that later. Right now, just worry about keeping him safe.
Good luck.
Look at a large pet store. I've found that they have many more options in gates. My brother has a very sturdy gate that's held in place by tension rods. No need to drill holes. He purchased it at a pet store.
http://www.northstatesind.com/index.cfm/event/productview... This is the one I bought 12 1/2 years ago and it's held up! I had to order replace piece to release the gate about a year ago - but it was only about $5 for 2 with s&h! Our apt is on 2nd floor - our front door opens and then 17 stairs up to the apt and it's a real wide stairway. There really isn't another way to block it off except a gate with the layout. The housing ppl often ask where I got it because they see a lot of apartments that need it!
