Should I worry about toddler falling over stairs hand bannister

[ForRubyMoose]

On my landing in my house I have terrace Victorian house with spindles and a hand banister at the top of the stairs.

Should I be worried the toddler will try to climb over the hand bannister and fall down the stairs?

Not my house in the picture but hard to describe.

Had something kind of similar in a previous house and to be honest it never occurred to me to worry about it, and DCs never tried to climb

Assuming your planning on putting a stair gate in, I dont really see your worry. There must be hundreds if thousands of homes with stairs to a landing like that. We have one and it never occurred to me that the kids might go over the barrier.

I think about it way too much, can't shake that it's unsafe! Cry

I guess if he cabt get down the stairs (death stairs) he would come into my room?

With a chair next to it (or anything else he could climb on) yes.

As long as you haven’t got chairs there that he could climb on to (like in the photo) I think he’ll be fine

I have the same and a 3 year old. They've never tried it. Also I doubt you'll be leaving them unsupervised on the landing anyway.

If you've got a chair there like in the picture then move it.

With nothing to stand on nearby it's safe unless you've got a climber, in which case it could potentially be unsafe.

How old is your child now and what level of mobility?

Will they be able to get out of one of the upstairs rooms by themselves? If not then they will always be supervised upstairs, no?

I think it comes down to if your child is a notorious climber (some kids really do climb everything and anything) whilst some (mine) showed no interest in it.

and also are you leaving your child for any time out of eyeshot / ear shot?

2/6 of my kids are climbers (the youngest 2) We have ours raised to the ceilings and very sturdy. The other 4 kids have never attempted

We have those kind of stairs and a gate at the top that's it and we have 3 toddlers, they will potter about upstairs while I do jobs etc

It's more when I'm asleep and he wakes up.

When he's awake he's my shadow

Lol lol lol of course I don't have a chair

Well, I'd move the chair

But no, this is a very common style of bannister and it's never been an issue for toddlers in any house I'm aware of.

If you are worried about it I'd put a stairgate on his bedroom door rather than at the top of the stairs. We did have this kind of bannister when DS1 was little though and a stairgate on the stairs and it was fine.

Yes this is perfectly normal

ublike the house I grew up in which had floor to ceiling poles with enough space it in that you could swing round them - which we did a lot and they started to get loose

quite how no one was injured

If he is your shadow when awake, he is very unlikely to try to get down the stairs.

He would come into your room, or more likely, stay in bed and cry for you to come to him (that is what my kids always do!)

I have that but I also think he will climb.ober at one point

That's what I'm hoping.

I would be moving imaginary items

We had this but as soon as he could he climbed the stair gate and then "dropped" on to the stairs. So that had to be taken down. He never tried to climb the actual bannisters.

Thank you. Sleeping and him falling down the stairs is a real issue of mine

How would a toddler climb over banister??
stairgate top and bottom is enough

Some toddlers are really quite remarkable climbers!

Why not put stair gate on his bedroom door or a lock so he can’t get out ?
stable door?