Anyone in a 3 storey house decided not to use stair gates?

[nappyaddict]

My friend at the moment hasn't bothered getting any stair gates. She lives in a terrace house so the stairs are quite steep with a corner to turn. They are moving to a 3 storey house and she isn't sure whether she ought to get some now.

as with so many things, depends on the child so much.

My ds went from crawling to running, missing out the walking bit so, no, I never would have been without stairgates. I simply couldn't trust him to have any stair 'sense' at all, and TBH he wouldn't have hung around in one place long enough to listen to 'training' as in 'Come down on your front' etc; this idea would not have interested him at all. The more I look back, the more I think he may have been somewhat hyperactive!

Personally I would always err on the side of caution and get stairgates because I know I would torture myself forever if a fall did happen.

We're in a 3 storey too and currently have a gate on the middle floor because the stairs are just outside the living room. We haven't bothered with one downstairs because DD is never down there alone, and up to now we didn't need one on the top floor because she couldn't open the bedroom door. Now she can and is trying to walk down the stairs forwards so I have been out for another gate.

We have another gate on the kitchen door but that is to keep the dog in and DD out

I only have a two storey house and have no gates up because my stairs have a wall to the left, but nothing at all on the other side! Yes, Dd rushes up them without me realising and so far no falls, but it does worry me a bit, though I got used to it pretty quickly. My Ds slipped down the stairs once as a young toddler and leaned over the top of the open bit(about 10 stair treads up)to see me in the kitchen and fell down onto a tiled floor in the hall narrowly missing the corner of the radiator with his head! he was about 4yo.

Never had a stair gate with dd. We couldn't fit one in old house as stairs were completely open on one side and just didn't bother in new house - we moved when dd was 16months. BUT at that stage she was an unbelievably compliant child! If she was told not to go upstairs alone she didn't go up stairs alone.

DS, on the other hand, is going to be a completely different matter, so we are getting a stair gate...

I would get gates...
Gosh, I worry about them around the front door, if the key gets left in, or unlocked (usually never but I still worry..what it..)

We live in a 3 storey and have a gate on both opposite lounge doors (stop access into hall-kitchen and stop access into kitchen-hall) also to stop going upstairs.

At the top of stairs leading to 1st floor we have a gate as they wander freely around this landing (where their rooms are) so just incase either wanders off down stairs (refer to concerns above..) and dd also has a gate on her door, she is 3.9yrs and it worries me if she wakes and wanders onto top floor/bathroom/ds's room etc.
Ds is only 23 mths so no gate needed on room door as still in cot.

IMO,no matter what size home you have you need gates, to protect the lo's from hazzards such as stairs/kitchen/bathroom etc.
For the little cost they are worth it imo...instead of wondering "if only"

We live in a new build 3 storey, no doors at stairs, just a hallway/landing at each level. We moved here when ds1 was 13 months and didn't bother with stairgates then, he was always great on stairs and never fell. #

We did get them when ds2 came along (at the top of each flight plus a travel stairgate to block off the bottom of the second flight which we used when he first started climbing.)

Now the boys are 3.6 and 1.7 and I only use them to block off the floors of the house I don't want them to go into without me. They can wreak havoc in the upstairs bathrooms so I tend to block off the top floor during the day.

We have gates at the top and bottom. DS1 is good at going up and down atairs but like kettlechip, i like to be able to block off part of the bouse so the dogs can have the run of downstairs whilst i'm upstairs with the boys. also have a gate on the kitchen door so i can shut the dogs in/out at mealtimes or when the boys are playing. they dont feel excluded as they would with a shut door.

we lived in a victorian with 3 storeys - and didn;t have stair gates, prefering vigilance and doors. we never even had a near miss. they just didn't go near the stairs. since dd2 was a toddler however we added a basement and, because of the location of the top of the stairs (near kitchen door - in main thoroughfare of the house) and their steepness I think vigiliance wouldn;t have been enough - so I think it depends a lot on the particular house, lay out etc

Jooly - would you leave dd2 in the living room on her own whilst you pottered around doing other things?

Kettlechip - with ds1 was he allowed near the stairs on his own before you put the gates up?

nappyaddict, yes ds1 was allowed free run of the stairs once we moved here (he had just turned 13 mths.) We'd actually moved there from a bungalow so had no idea what to expect from ds with stairs. We were all prepared to go out and buy four gates but he was so good on them, always coming down backwards and slowly, we never bothered.

Thinking about it, it did make a difference that both flights of stairs go round corners and double back on themselves, so there is a flat area halfway down to break any falls. If they had been a long steep flight of stairs I think I would have automatically bought the gates. Hope that helps!

I always have had stair gates. Do you really want to take the risk?
Because children have relatively big heads, if they fall they are more likely to land on their head and suffer brain injury as a result.
Just today there was an article published in a Dutch newspaper about how many people do not have stair gates and that is quite shocking. For an interesting read about this subject go to www.preventioncomesfirst.blogspot.co.uk.

We 're in a 3 storey terrace, we have a stair gate on the stairs from the living room down to the kitchen but only because the door is a bit dodgy and doesn't close! If this stair gate is open DS (18months) usually closes it now!

He learnt how to go up and down stairs very early so although we keep a close eye on him I'm not concerned by him going up or down. I tend to try not to make a big deal of it too, he's at the age where if he gets a reaction to something he will do it all the more - the stairs are no mystery and not much fun when no one stops him negotiating them. Must work because he has only fallen once and that was when he thought he was already at the bottom stood up and toppled back off the bottom step!

no stair gates as old house with very wide stairs, too wide for stair gate but also shallow wide steps so much easier and safer for child we have high ceilings but there are still 23 steps to 1st floor we taught DD to climb them and how to come down safely no accidents

but also heavy doors so no possibility of opening doors also they have knobs and even at 3 DD still struggles to open some in fact there are some she can't

We have 15 mo twins, a three storey house with 3 flights of stairs ("mezzanine" floor). No stair gates as I decided to put a gate on nursery door and on the door of our living room. Otherwise I would have had to put about 5 gates up and as our banisters are a bit odd shapes it wouldn't have worked very well.