Stair / safety Gates

[Tillysmummy]

Does anyone have any recommendations on good safey / stair gates ?

[Demented]

We had a wooden Bebecar (?) one. It didn't have any trip bar and I believe you could buy an extension if needed. My personal dislike are the gates that when open leave the bar to be tripped over, that was my only requirement when we shopped for one!

[bundle]

I have one of those roller blind types, got it from GLTC, about £50 so pricey, but well worth being able to remove it when having baby-free evenings.

[bundle]

..oh - and it's also useful if your walls aren't exactly 90 degrees opposite each other, like at the top of my stairs. other guards wouldn't have fit.

[pluto]

Don't buy a pressure mounted one. They didn't stay put to our walls.

[bayleaf]

We ended up with a Multidan extendable at the top of the stairs but I'm not sure I'd particulary recommend it as an easy mechanism to open which is what I wanted when I bought it.
On the reccomendation of my Dad ( who apparently did this when I was small) at the bottom of the stairs we don't have a gate as such - but on the second step each side he has screwed two little strips of wood with an inch gap between them - and we have a piece of wood about a foot high with a hole cut in it as a handle. This slides between the two strips of wood ( I hope this makes sense!) and as it is on the second step it is far to high for dd to climb over - but we can easiy step over it - and of course it pulls out very easily. We did this because a gate would be a nuisance when open in our hall - and Dad said how well this had worked when we were little - and indeed it is working very well - might be worth considering?

[SofiaAmes]

We got two timber expandable ones for top and bottom of stairs. The opening mechanism involves lifting up so any adult can do it, but not a child of even 3 or 4. To shut them you just let them swing shut. When they are open there is no trip bar and they have verticle slats so they can't be climbed on. They are £50 or so at John Lewis, but we got them for £10 each out of Loot.

[CathB]

We have 2 pressure mounted ones, which seem to have stayed put. One is a baby Dan one, which opens fully and is fine. The other was a hand on of unknown provenance. This has a door within the gate which opens with a hook and latch mechanism. This is about to become a problem, as my expanding bump is almost bigger than the door bit (I am of about average height). It may be worth bearing this in mind!

[21stcenturygirl]

Hi again Tillysmummy!

Like Sobernow and SofiaAmes, we are using the Lindam stairgate and it is excellent. I even bought 3 of them in anticipation of dd being not too good on stairs. However, at 14 months she started flying up and down the stairs (on her front) with no problems (don't tell the HV!!). We therefore have one stairgate at the bottom of the stairs (to contain her, not for safety!) and 2 stairgates (brand new, never opened and still in box) no longer required! If you're anywhere near London, I'm open to offers!

[bells2]

Just a question on bed guards. Having just returned from a night away when our son (very nearly 3) managed to fall out of his single bed 3 times before coming into bed for me, I wondered how others have made the transition to sleeping without a guard.

Over the summer there will be quite a few occassions when we are going away and he wil be sleeping in a single bed in his own room. Should we just remove the guard on his bed at home in order to get him used to the idea?. Would be interested to hear what others have done.

[PamT]

I've just taken the bedguard off DDs bed. To be honest, I've never really liked it as she was able to push it away from the mattress and did once get herself stuck between the bedguard and the bed. Now I tend to put her duvet across the bed and tuck it in tightly at both sides. At 3 (just) she doesn't need the full length of it and it does tend to strap her down a bit better that way. A friend of mine puts one side of the bed against the wall and puts a couple of rolled up towels under the mattress to tilt it just enough so that her child can't roll out. HTH

[Azzie]

We never used a bedguard with either of our children. Ds went into a single bed the week before he turned 2 (because he had learnt how to climb out of his cot), fell out of bed a couple of times then never did again. We moved dd into a single bed when she was 22 months, because we were going on holiday and couldn't face taking the travel cot. She fell out a few more times than ds had, but again soon learnt not to. We just put spare pillows, cushions or duvet on the floor next to the bed until they seemed to have got the hang of it. I think that maybe they just don't learn to sleep staying still until you take the rails away.

[SueDonim]

I never had a bed guard for any of my four. Only one of them ever fell out and that wasn't until he was about 8 or 9 anyway, when he began doing it on a regular basis! You could put the old cot mattress by the bed if you are concerned about a fall.

[zebra]

DS (2.6yo) sleeps in a full size single bed and he has occasionally fallen out, when we forgot to put the bed rail up. We don't *have" to put the bed rail up every night, but I'd rather not be woken up at obscure hours by child wailing on the floor!

[PamT]

I would like to add that it is essential that all noisy, hard objects are removed from around the bed area just in case the little one does fall out of bed, then they don't hurt themselves or get a noisy shock when they land.

[bells2]

Thanks very much for that. Will remove the guard tonight and prepare the surrounding area accordingly!

[pupuce]

Bells - like the others... worst case he falls out a few times in 1 night or maybe 2... he will very quickly learn the boundaries of his bed.
DS felt once the first 2 nights and has never fallen since.
Good luck