To not use baby gate on stairs?

[Lullabies2Paralyze]

Has anyone not done this?

did you have any accidents? How did you teach baby stair safety?

we have one in his bedroom door but I don’t want to put one on stairs as we have 2 sets and I find them cumbersome and also a dog so I feel stair gate will be a hassle

my partner wants to put one on stairs too but I think it’d be fine to just keep it on his door and then keep downstairs doors shut or watch him if he’s crawling round upstairs corridor

what are your thoughts?

Youll be watching them like a hawk if there is no gate - there will be a time when they dont want doors shut, but cant manage the stairs reliably by themselves.

I took stairgates off earlier than many, but i needed to be able to go to the toilet, while toddler could see me (read try to climb up my leg) and not sorry about them making a dash up their stairs.

It’s probably okay to just watch him while he’s still crawling, but once he can walk he’ll be able to open doors quite soon after. (Unless your handles are very high up).

We've never had a baby gate and have had no accidents (touch wood). Our son is two now. We basically just watch him like a hawk.

He is very good at stair safety. He knows not to go down without someone with him and will always hold on to the bannister or your hand. He will try to go up on his own though!

We know we'll have to get a gate for his bedroom once he moves out of his cot (which will be soon) as we can't trust him at night whilst we're sleeping.

We didn't get one until DC1 moved into a bed at 2.5-3 or so as her room is at the top of the stairs. It was fine as we were always able to supervise and she got the hang of the stairs quickly enough. She was at nursery 5 days a week while we worked though, and then we were typically all together at the weekends. I would have wanted one if I was a SAHP.

It became more useful with DC2 so we could be sure we knew what floor of the house everyone was on (hard to look after one upstairs and one downstairs when you're solo!), more so than for safety on the stairs themselves.

Never had one on their rooms.

We got those retractable ones as we have a three storey house and I couldn't watch them all the time. They're barely noticeable now. Funnily enough they're still up even though youngest is 8 because they've proven still useful when we have visitors to prevent nosy people during parties.

We never used them. We had a short period of time where we had to keep downstairs doors shut to stop DC trying to climb up. Then he worked out how to get back down, so was much safer. Time upstairs was generally supervised e.g. bedtime routine, so not an issue. I did worry a bit once DC was in a bed and using the toilet but he was confident on the stairs by then.

We didn't have baby gates. We taught the DC stairs early (pretty much from crawling age at six months) and watched.

They didn't go up by themselves and we often barricaded the bottom of the stairs if we weren't able to watch closely (when cooking, etc). We had a playpen DC went into if I had to go upstairs without them.

Gates probably would have been useful, but the style of staircase meant we had to drill one in and we were renting so couldn't. We never had any problems.

We had no gate and no accidents - my friends who have had gates have had far more falling down the stairs accidents weirdly enough.
Having no gate meant we were a lot more safety conscious once the baby was on the move and always in the same room as us when upstairs anyway.

My friend's would sometimes leave the gate open in error whilst they nipped downstairs and baby (well, crawling so 1year old or thereabouts) fell down then. Another, the toddler who was about 14 months learnt how to climb over the stair gate and had multiple falls! Another had one anyway to stop the dog going upstairs and baby trapped themselves in it whilst she was on a call.

I just think they can give a bit of a false confidence! Our stairs aren't super steep though.

PP makes a good point about using them reliably. We had a 3yo too, so decided it was better to teach the youngest and know to keep an eye out than have to police the youngest shutting the gate all the time. Also the 3yo was good at telling us if DS went anywhere near the stairs! We lived in a flat when the oldest was a baby so no issue there.

We don’t. The layout of our stairs means we can’t use normal ones at the top, and the only possible sort feel quite flimsy.

I took the view that there was more risk to DD trying to get through or over them and the whole lot collapsing than her going down the stairs.

As PPs said, we watch closely and taught her stairs early. We have an absolute rule that she doesn’t go up or down without a grown up (this is now mainly to stop her causing chaos on a floor by herself), which she still sticks to at 3.

But I am nervous of what happens when she can open her bedroom door in the night (tricky handles so she still can’t), or watching 2 of them when DC2 arrives in a few months.

Never used them.

Make sure you never have a pressure gate at the top of stairs. They can be really dangerous.

I’d get one. Especially with dogs- you’ll be able to separate dogs and children when needed (visitors/play dates).

Dc1 very tame child, never bothered with the stairs unless supervised

Dc2 different story - races for them every time My back is turned. So ime its very child dependent.

Thanks all very useful things to consider. I have one on his bedroom door mainly so that dog doesn’t go in there when he’s asleep and I don’t have to shut his door when he’s sleeping.

if he’s around the stairs I would be watching him anyway as the rabbit is near there and I have to make sure he doesn’t stick his fingers in her face, and pc cables to pull out so more reasons for not leaving him unsupervised.

will see how it goes and if it looks like we need them when he’s walking about them I will reconsider it but I agree it’s better to teach them stair safety at a young age rather than them being 5 and unable to use stairs by themselves (my mollycoddled nephew)

Never used them. Stairway was too narrow, plasterwork was lathe and plaster and the whole combination was just not going to work.
Taught DD to come down the stairs backwards on her tummy as soon as she could crawl up the stairs. But otherwise it was just a firm NO to going near the stairs without supervision.
A friends toddler had a horrible fall when gates at the top collapsed and he went face first into the gates at the bottom. He was badly bruised facially with a small cut but otherwise unharmed in the jumble of metal by some small miracle. That totally put me off them to be honest.