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Behaviour/development

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

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Original poster

When could your toddler open your stair gate?

24 replies

lottytheladybird · 17/10/2012 21:40

Hello! My DS started opening our stair gates at the age of 2 years and 2 months. It's driving me mad now that he can go up and down the stairs whenever he wants to. I still think he's too young to go up and down on his own, so I have to go with him, baby in tow.

How old was your toddler when he/she worked out how to open the stair gate? Do you have any advice for preventing them from going up and down whenever they want to?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

MacMac123 · 17/10/2012 21:52

Am impressed! My 4 year old still can't open ours (not on stairs but on door to road! So don't want him to be able to open it!)

InkleWinkle · 17/10/2012 21:53

Not yet thankfully

Sorry, not very helpful & can't remember from the first time round

AnyaKnowIt · 17/10/2012 21:54

12 months

bigTillyMint · 17/10/2012 21:55

No idea as we never had any And no accidents!

AnyaKnowIt · 17/10/2012 21:55

Posted too soon, I taught her to climb up and go down on her bum

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 17/10/2012 21:58

my nearly 2yo can't open a stair gate, but we have been happy for her to go up and downstairs unsupervised for the last month or two, and took the stairgates off.
the novelty of going up and down independently wore off after a week, and normal service of clinging to me like a limpet as we go about our daily business has resumed.

jellybeans · 17/10/2012 21:58

About 2

trikken · 17/10/2012 22:01

mine will be three in a month but cant yet. she likes her bedroom one though so she hasnt tried thar one yet.

BertieBotts · 17/10/2012 22:03

Top one, two and some months. Bottom one, just before he turned 4.

We have really steep stairs but I didn't follow him up and down and usually left the bottom one open. He slipped once - I got the fright of my life, he was unhurt. And more careful afterwards

KateShmate · 17/10/2012 22:05

Never as we have those roller gates and they are absolutely brilliant!
Quite a bit more expensive than the metal gates, but totally childproof. We mostly got them so that they were rolled away when not needed, but actually they've proved to be great all round!

SamSmalaidh · 17/10/2012 22:06

DS 2.2 can't open the one on his bedroom door, but we don't have any on the stairs and he has been able to go up and down safely for a couple of months.

NuzzleandScratch · 17/10/2012 22:08

Ooo, what's a roller gate? I have a feeling dd is on the cusp of working out how to open ours (age 2.7).

Beamur · 17/10/2012 22:08

Mine was quite tricky and some of the adults struggled with it...so never.
Try a different stair gate? Your biggest problem would be if he tried to climb it though - in which case, you need to simply take them out. Teach your child to go down backwards, that way if they slip they don't topple forwards.

Original poster

lottytheladybird · 17/10/2012 22:08

KateShmate - I've never heard of roller stair gates before. Please can you let me know which make they are and where you got yours from? Thanks!

OP posts:

cheeseandmushroomtoastie · 17/10/2012 22:08

Have taken ours off recently, but he couldn't open them anyway. Took them off as he started swinging from the top of the stairs and was terrified he was going to pull it off my 27 year old sister couldn't open it anyway, you had to hold and lift the gate so was a bit tricky....

kernowmissvyghen · 17/10/2012 22:12

11 months, about 3 weeks after we'd put the damn thing up. So we gave up and just taught him to go up and down as safely as possible- and keep an eye on him!

(To be fair to the stair gate, it was second hand and missing a part, but it was pretty obvious that if we got another one which he couldn't open he'd just climb over the top of it... )

If that child makes it to school age without killing himself I am going to give myself a prize!

mamij · 17/10/2012 22:17

DD1 is 2.11 years and can't open ours. But she is unsupervised and has been since she was about 2.

We have the roller ones also as DD2 can crawl up and downstairs now. It's called the Lascal Kiddyguard.

timewastingonhere · 17/10/2012 22:23

Chunky monkey of a 14 month old just pulls/tugs and yanks until it opens - other people find lifting it slightly opens it too!

I taught both boys from an early age, feet first for coming downstairs so feel ok with his access to the stairs, I read I think in a sears baby book that a gate can act more of an attraction but all depends on the steepness of the stairs....

Wingdingdong · 17/10/2012 22:41

We took ours off before DD was 2. I caught her climbing over it. Figured the stairgate was more dangerous than the risk it was designed to prevent.

SwindonMummy · 18/10/2012 10:01

I can hardly open it myself. You have to push the button and pull it up at the same time. It's very stiff.

ShowOfBloodyStumps · 18/10/2012 10:06

DD was 18 months.

DS is 13 months old and we haven't bothered this time round. He climbs the stairs and comes back down competently which is better than him climbing the stairgate and leaping from it. DS is a real climber.

KateShmate · 28/10/2012 17:40

Roller stairgates are the Lascal KiddyGuard ones - quite a bit more expensive than the metal ones but soo worth it!

wonkylegs · 28/10/2012 17:51

I don't know as at 12mths he learnt to climb over them and we decided that was more dangerous. Tbh though I let him on the stairs at that age anyway the stairgate was to stop the nighttime wandering (he was and still is a sleepwalker, thankfully he's a noisy one and I now wake up and gently steer him back to his room.
He has never fallen down the stairs (we have 3 flights) and he is now 4.5. He has done many other stupid things though, so I just go with the teach him how to do it properly and hope for the best school of thought, so far (fingers crossed it's working ok)

BabydollsMum · 28/10/2012 18:28

Ours too SwindonMummy. I make sure they're all closed for the burglars when we go out.

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