Advice with house and stair gates.

[Coffeemonster1]

We are moving in to a 3 story house, meaning DD is on the floor below us with her own bathroom. She is 2.
Downstairs from her floor is a living room and kitchen, then upstairs from her floor is our room. What do you do about stair gates?
I don't want her to fall down stairs or wander downstairs etc in the night and her having access to the bathroom scares me as she loves water. But in a few months when we start to toilet train, she will need access to the toilet at night. Stair gates or not? On top of stairs to downstairs or on her bedroom door?

[TheBoov]

I'd put a gate over the bathroom door, absolutely!

[yellowsnownoteatwillyou]

We moved from a flat to a 2 story house when ds was 15 months and own 2 stair gates and haven't put them up.
But we aren't on a different floor when sleeping. I would put a stairgate at the top of the first flight of stairs for night. And just keep the bathroom door closed.

[WhyOWhyWouldYou]

Bathroom - depends how good she is at staying in her room.

Stairs - definitely have one at top of stairs on her floor. You dont want her being able to sneak down and play in lounge or kitchen without you knowing. Probably one at bottom of stairs on her floor too.

We have a 3 storey 2bedrooms on top and 2 on middle. We moved DS down a floor at 2.5yrs ready for DC2. He was confident on stairs at that point so we have a gate at the top of the stairs leading down to lounge and a gate at the bottom of the stairs leading to top floor bedrooms. When we're downstairs we leave the gate down to that floor open, other gate shut and when we're upstairs we leave the gate to that floor open and the gate down shut. DS is very good though and only leaves his room if he feels ill or once his sunshine is on on his groclock.

[Coffeemonster1]

Thankyou for your replies.... The stairs she is good with as her room at pre school is up stairs so they go up and down ( with staff at top and bottom ) many times a day. It's more what she might get up to once down stairs etc she is able to get doors open so just closing the bathroom door won't keep her out.

[WiggleGinger]

If it's just a night time thing I'd out one in her door & a potty in her room.
DD had a potty in her room as I found no matter how close her room was to the loo she would wake needing a wee RIGHT NOW so potty won

[Littlef00t]

Just put a latch high up on the bathroom door and perhaps a potty in the bedroom? Would you hear her if she got up in the night to use the bathroom?

[kimistayingalive]

Stairgate on her bedroom with potty in room and a baby monitor so she can call you if she needs the loo. The potty can be if she can't hold or wants to use that instead.

[Coffeemonster1]

I'd like to think I would hear her get up as we do hear her wake at the moment but we are in the next room. In the new house it will be further away and new floors so not likely to have creaky floor boards. I think stair gate on the bedroom and potty in her room incase is a good idea. At least that way she can still go and we can sleep knowing she can't get her self into any danger coming out of her room.

[Artandco]

I wouldn't tbh, I know far more accidents with children just climbing over the gates and falling from even higher. We never had but ds2 climbed over a friends in about 30 secs at 18 months.

At night turn off all lights downstairs so it's pitch dark downstairs and shut any doors ( so you would hear if any did open). Then get some night lights and plug in in hallway outside her room leading up to your room so she will automatically go where there's light.

You can't block access to the toilet, it's a basic necessity. A potty in bedroom is disgusting, would you want to piss in a pot then go back to sleep with the smell getting worse all night? And she's likely to put stuff/ hands in it or kick over. Once potty trained add a nightlight in her bathroom also and leave her a toilet seat on toilet and a step so she can easily use

[Hillijx]

We are in a two story house so never had the problem of being on a different floor, but we do have a gate at the top of the stairs to stop her going down at night even though I'm not sure she would, just to be safe. We have not blocked access to the bathroom as didn't even think of it, she is 3.5 now but went into a bed at 2.5 and she would come and get us to use the toilet. If you think she would be dangerous in the toilet alone maybe use the latch idea as then when she is older you can leave it open, until then use a monitor so she will definately wake you if she gets up and about at night. At my inlaws she sleeps on a different floor so we take a monitor so we can hear her if she gets up and about.

[TarkaTheOtter]

At 2 I would (and did with exactly the same layout) put a stairgate across the bedroom door. Worry about the potty training later. Even if she takes to it it'll be a while before she's able to get up and get there herself half asleep so better to have her call for you anyway.

[HomeIsWhereTheHeartIs]

I'm confused as to why you are worried about access to the bathroom? Why would that be dangerous?

[NellyTheElephant]

I would say it depends on the stairs, are they fairly straight and easily manageable or steep and spiral and tricky?? If the stairs are straight and not too steep I would suggest some of those plug in night lights to give a low light in the corridor in order to avoid accidental falling downstairs, but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much.

If you are concerned I would definitely go with stair gate across her door and a potty in the room rather than lots of gates on both sets of stairs / bathroom. When DS was 14 months we moved to a house where he was upstairs and we were down, he was still in a cot at that stage, so no concern, but we took the side off the cot bed when he was nearly 2, he shared a room with his sister (then nearly 4) and I didn't want to put a stair gate across their door as she needed to be able to get to the loo in the night. The house really was very straightforward - nice straight stairs that I never knew him to fall down and normal bathroom with nothing he could climb on, so I just didn't worry really (and I never had a cause to). We had a baby monitor in the room.

When DS was about 2 and a half we moved again. This time we were all on the same floor, but the stairs were an extremely steep spiral staircase (initially with no carpet and those spiky tracks for holding the carpet exposed), so absolutely no way I wanted him wandering around at night, so we went with stair gate over his door and a potty in the room just in case and that worked just fine (it isn't revolting, we never had issues with spills or hands in it etc and if used it was of course emptied first thing in the morning - much easier when they are tiny than expecting them to make it to the bathroom in the night without calling you. I think all my 3 had a potty in their rooms at night - just in case, from about 2 ish when night trained until rising three when they were better at going to the loo on their own at night, I preferred this option to be woken up in the night for assistance, but maybe I'm just lazy!!) .

[Coffeemonster1]

Thanks for all your replies, it's nice to hear what other people think. It's more her having access to the bathroom due to her being really into hand washing, water play etc and worry about her turning taps on/filling the sink up and ending up in danger ( I know this might sound extreme but as I work in a hospital, I have seen a few cases recently of children who have drowned so I think it makes me more cautious)
I do think a stair hate on her room for now and I have a feeling she will be in pull ups at night for a while yet.