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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

Following on from the Stairgate thread- who has a gate across DC's room?

29 replies

Novacane · 13/07/2007 14:20

My DS is 3.2- we have removed the gates from the stairs from ages and ages ago but have a gate across his room to stop night wandering- anyone else?

[paranoid emoticon] am I keeping him prisoner??

OP posts:

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boo64 · 13/07/2007 14:22

No but I'm planning on doing so when he goes in a 'big boy bed' - he's just turned two - so interested in others' views

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frogs · 13/07/2007 14:24

Yes, did this with all three of mine. Can't see the problem, really -- surely the alternative is to risk them wandering into the bathroom and drinking bleach, or into the study and dismantling the printer or whatever.

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Novacane · 13/07/2007 14:25

I don't think I would ever sleep!

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Chirpygirl · 13/07/2007 14:26

I am definately planning a gate for DD's room when she moves out of the cot, she can get the bathroom door open and climb into the bath on her own already, so it seems sensible to me!

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fingerwoman · 13/07/2007 14:26

I haven't, but know people who do. When we put ds into his big bed we thought about it but decided to see how he went.
He's fine, if he wakes up in the night he either shouts or comes into our room- never wanders around.

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SlightlyMadSpider · 13/07/2007 14:27

No - we did keep the gate at the top of hte stars until they were about 3 1/2 - just to use at night in caase they were a bit woozy if they got up but TBH they rarely got up and would have been fine.

Other than that we have always made sure that everywhere upstairs is safe for them.

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Sixer · 13/07/2007 14:27

We did this as well.

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Chirpygirl · 13/07/2007 14:28

Thinking about it the only disadvantage I can see is that when I were a lass we had a gate on our room to stop us wandering outside into the garden/road/whereever.
The problem was that I shared a room with 2 of my sisters and therefore couldn't escape when a fight broke out!

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annoyingdevil · 13/07/2007 14:33

Will be putting one up the minute DD climbs out of her cot! She was put in a ready bed once and must ran riot around the house until around 3am.

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frogs · 13/07/2007 14:34

SMS -- sounds like you've been lucky and never had a really determined climber/explorer. With the best will in the world, you can't make a house completely safe or indestructible for a hardcore inquisitive climbing fiddly-fingers.

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SlightlyMadSpider · 13/07/2007 14:37

True - but we can lock our bathroom door from the outside and that is where most of our upstairs danger coms from. Which only leaves their bedroom (which they would be locked in anyway) the spare room and our room.

As someone else said though - they would tend to lay and shout rather than get up and wander around - so I guess the risks never got tested to their limits.

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FlameDelacour · 13/07/2007 14:42

We do - our stairs are right outside their bedroom door and are very steep. Not risking sleepwalking (I did it a lot as a child) and falling - no top of stairs gate as it falls out and is more dangerous with it.

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Crocky · 13/07/2007 14:46

We had a gate across ds's door up till a year ago, but it was to keep his little sister out, not him in.
He has a high bed and she climbed up, got stuck and tried to throw herself over the side. Luckily I arrived to catch her as she did.

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mm22bys · 13/07/2007 15:21

We do. It is useless now though, but it is still there.

We got it to keep DS in his room. It worked for a while, but he's figured out how to open it.

We really should take it down I guess, just haven't got round to it yet.

We never had stairgates though at the top and bottom of stairs, but we do have a stairgate round our computer, which took DS1 exactly 1/2 to figure out how to open for himself (so also useless...)

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TigerFeet · 13/07/2007 15:23

We have taken ours down. DD needs to go for a wee in the night sometimes. pita though when she wakes up at 5.30 am

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AlbusPercivalWulfricBrianSun · 13/07/2007 15:28

We had gates at the top and bottom of stairs, but after a bad fall on the three steps between our living room and kitchen (he cut his head the poor mite) he's not really tried unless DP or I are there. He's just starting to try again with the smaller steps but is still very tentative.

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Bubbaloo · 13/07/2007 18:19

We have a stairgate on ds1's bedroom door.We've tried not having one and he just refused to stay in his bedroom.I can't see us ever getting rid of it.

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tigerschick · 13/07/2007 18:28

No need for us to have one yet as dd can't get out of her cot ... yet!!

But my friend has one on her ds2's door as her ds1 can manage the stairs quite easily but can't open the gate. So the gate on ds2's door keeps him safe while giving ds1 the freedom he deserves.

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nimnom · 13/07/2007 20:33

Did this with ds1 and will definitely do it with ds2. In fact when we took it down ds1 was quite upset.

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funnypeevesculiar · 13/07/2007 20:35

No - if ds wakes in the night he yells, but doesn't get up
We do still have stairgate at top of stairs however

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clayre · 13/07/2007 20:36

i did for ds, dont trust him not to fill the loo with toys and wake his sister

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butterbeer · 13/07/2007 20:36

We don't do it at home, but do at my mother's as his room there is RIGHT at the top of the stairs and I think he could get confused wandering in an unfamiliar house.

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Washersaurus · 13/07/2007 20:39

DS(2) has just moved into his big bed last week, so I have put a stairgate back on his bedroom door until I can be sure he won't wander around in the night (his door is right next to the stairs). Must say he's been a star so far so doubt it will be there for long.

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ZisforZebra · 13/07/2007 20:47

We still have a stairgate on our DC's room and they are 3 and 5. They can both open it though and the main reason it's still there is because it squeaks and gives us an early warning of their iminent arrival in our room so they don't catch us at it!

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divastrop · 13/07/2007 20:49

both my boys could open stairgates from the age of 2you are all lucky!

i keep meaning to get some as dd2 is 19 months now,but shes figured out that the stairs are high and she should go down backwards or wait for me to carry her down.we have a 3 storey house with so many stairs i would need 5 stairgates,which would be a fire hazard,so im just goping to put one on her room when she goes into the big bed.

bet ds2 will just open it for her,though.