2 yo climbed out of cot and over stair gate

[alotlikeChristmas16]

What did you do for toddler-proofing if your 2 yo (2 yrs, 2 mos) suddenly developed climbing superpowers? DD(2) climbed out of her cot, i tried to co-sleep with her in the big bed (she hates co-sleeping) and after 2 hours I'd fallen asleep and then I heard a voice saying 'mummy, mummy' and she'd gotten over the stairgate (her bedroom door was open because we have a stairgate on the top of the stairs) and she had walked to the bottom of 2 large flights of stairs without incident. I'm shaking - I can put covers on the door so she can't turn her bedroom door but it's a nightmare that she can get over the stairgate if anyone forgets to shut her door properly. Any ideas?

Turn your doorhandles upside down.

is there any other line of defense though? Doors are so easy to leave open and I've got 2 huge flights of stairs. I worry if I get a bigger stairgate though, it'll just be seen as more of a challenge. Should I get rid of the stairgate since it's now useless?

Yes, get rid of the stairgate. It is more dangerous to tumble from the top of the stairgate and down the stairs, than to tumble down the stairs.
Into a bed too. Cot is no longer safe.
Get a side bar for the bed if you want, but no need to cosleep if she doesn't like it. DS1 fell out of bed for years. DS2 fell out about twice. Both climbed out of cots before 2yrs old.

Get rid of the stair gate and move to a bed. If they can do the stairs anyway surely not needed and must be safer to have low lying bed rather than climbing from cot? Xx

It's worse than useless now -it's dangerous because she could fall climbing over it. The same applies to the cot sides.

Teach her to bump down the stairs on her bottom if you're concerned that she'll struggle with them.

thanks, that's what I thought about the stairgates, knew the cot was history, that wasn't as much of a surprise as the stairgate. It's funny, DC1 even at 6 will sometimes miss a footing and fall down stairs, this little DD was holding onto the banisters and calmly walking down them when I found her on the second from last step, the worry is that they get overexcited and don't always do that.

ah - the reason I was trying to co-sleep is that DD2 wants to get up whenever she wakes up, so 2am was get up time to her. I need to get her into a settle back down routine.

Did she climb out 'unaided' or use anything as a step?

We originally had an arm chair next to DD2's cot-bed. We found her one night angrily shaking the stairgate at the top of the stairs. She had used the arm of the armchair as a step through the bars of the cot-bed. We removed the armchair and she happily stayed in the cot-bed for another year.

I was trying to figure that out today - i put her in the cot to see if she'd show me, I think from what she attempted she's just throwing her leg over the side and pivoting until she chucks herself over!