Safety gates for stair case

krsnow · #1 November 29th, 2011, 01:16 PM

Do you have safety gates at the top or bottom of your stairs? We don't yet. The top of our staircase is right outside of my LO's bedroom and we have had a few close calls. A friend told me not to put up a gate, because once they learn to climb out of their crib, they will just climb over the gate and it hurt themselves even worse. How do you all feel about this? My LO hasn't tried climbing out of his crib yet so not sure when that will start. For now I feel like we really need a gate.

KMH · #2 November 29th, 2011, 03:51 PM

We have the top and bottom of the stairs gated...I couldn't see any other option to be honest! I don't know how she would ever climb over the gate, because it is pretty tall (up to my waist, and I'm 5'8"). It also makes me feel safer when we have company; I don't want anyone else's child to be hurt, either.

We got ours at Lowe's and they were pretty simple to install...just don't use the pressure mounted ones with stairs, and make sure the gate doesn't swing over the stairs.

Celine · #3 November 29th, 2011, 04:40 PM

We have a gate on the top of the stairs only, but the living room is gated off (she can't get to the bottom of the stairs or the kitchen unless somebody lets her out of the living room).

We also have a gate that is wall mounted. She can pull and rattle on it and it won't move. Sophia hasn't climbed the gate or the crib yet, but I taught her to climb down the steps backwards and she does it automatically now. Looks so cute. Does your LO go down the steps w/o help yet?

KMH · #4 November 29th, 2011, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celine

but I taught her to climb down the steps backwards and she does it automatically now.

This is why we got the gates...she refuses to try and go down backwards! She wants to just walk down forwards, which of course doesn't work at all. I don't know if she just doesn't "get" it, or if she's stubborn...either way, the gates aren't going anywhere for a while. Did you just keep practicing with her until she got it?

KatieHeitman · #5 November 30th, 2011, 07:22 AM

We have a split entry house. We mainly stay on the upper level so the top of the stairs has a gate. The lower level has a door at the stairs so we shut that if we're down there. We found that in our old house, which was also a split entry, that DS1 didn't learn to do stairs up or down, cause we stayed upstairs all the time. His cousin who's the same age knew how to do stair's very well, and Alex had to learn. Whenever we go down or upstair's in our house I always put Josh down on the stair's to teach him how to do them. He's learning.

I<3HelloKitty · #6 November 30th, 2011, 07:49 AM

I don't have stairs at my house, and there are no stairs at the grandparents either. Ellie knows how to go down or up one step, but she's never done a flight of stairs before.

laisydaisymama · #7 November 30th, 2011, 08:23 AM

we only have a bottom gate, he's afraid to go down, but I think it's about time to install a top gate too

Celine · #8 November 30th, 2011, 12:40 PM

Yes, we worked on the steps w/ her for a couple of weeks. I would always put her on all 4s and turn her around so feet would go down first and she has to crawl down. She is not allowed to go any other ways. I also told her to turn around and made a hand signal. DH also did it. She got it after a bunch of practice. She always crawls backwards now even when we are outside. It's so cute.

krsnow · #9 November 30th, 2011, 01:32 PM

My LO doesn't know how to go down the stairs. It's my fault I haven't tried teaching him yet. I guess the day gets so busy that I just carry him up & down cuz I'm in a hurry, but I will have to change that and be more patient. So is it best to teach them to go down backwards? Someone told me they taught their kids to sit on the their butt and scoot down, but that sounds like it might be a little more dangerous.

mommydiva · #10 November 30th, 2011, 03:25 PM

We have one at the bottom. We got it TRU I think its a Safety 1st that swings open. Reason we got that style was the dog is always wanting up or down so I needed one that was easy to open.

Rosie knows how to go down the stairs but refuses to actually do it our way. DH has been working with her to do down on her butt. She thinks she can just walk like we do. I think we will try the crawling backwards thing. Because I am ready for her to do it on her own with us there so I can carry Joshua and let her come down at the same time.

She has fallen down the stairs the last 4 and that was because she was upstairs with my mom I was downstairs feeding Joshua and she decided to come down and my mom didn't know she actually thought she was downstairs with me. So she did pretty good in making it almost all the way down before falling.