When do you buy a stairgate?

[hercules]

Also which are good ones?

tia

As soon as they show an interest in going up them. ds was around 9/10 months. Depends on where you want to put it as which is most appropriate. Our first one was a Mothercare which could open both ways and was pressure mounted across bottom of stairs, although in fact about 3 steps up as bannister only reached that far. Top one was inherited from SIL more fixed with bottom bar . Ikea do one which can be extended across wider gaps but is less stable to open as a result (currently on kitchen door). None of these especially pretty but could open one handed with practice.

hth

Mothersare do a nice wooden one. I got one as soon as dd was crawling - especially important for upstairs!

I bought mine early, I figured if they get used to them then they don't know that there is such a thing as stairs without the gates...
That was my theory and it has worked DD loves chucking stuff through the bars
I got the step through ones with no foot bar, knowing me at the top of the stairs with the laundry bin piled high, I would go sailing never mind the babies!
I got mine from mothercare, they are babydan ones that fix permanently to the wall. It is worh getting sturdy ones as bigger kids give them a right shaking! As do husbands who forget that they are there d'oh! I think with the Ikea ones I have some friends who have said the plastic cup that holds the gate shut is s bit fragile and doesn't come as separate replacement purchase?

We're thinking of getting those roller-blind type ones (because of awkwardly angled stair gap shape upstairs). Has anyone used these? Are they any good?

(sorry to piggyback on your thread, hercules!)

Was wondering the same thing GA.

They're about £50 each I think.

We have awkward stairs and walls too. Are all stair gaps independantly adjustable at top and bottom or do they only fit on bog standard strainght all the way walls?

They nearly all lenthgen or shorten Herc, but some you need to buy extensions for if gap too wide.Havnt seen any that go round corners though

Mine have all been adjustable independently top/bottom and right/left hand side so you can still have a vertical opening even with uneven walls.

this one from Baby Dan is good. We've got a wooden one on the living room door and a white one on the stairs. It fits up to 106cm wide, you can adjust the top/bottom/left/right independently and they're fairly easy to put up. Had them about a year now so they must be solid enough. The wooden one is nice to look at too.

I've got a wooden Lindam one at the top of the stairs which is adjustable to quite big widths. It opens up completely (I loathe those ones with a tiny central opening and a lethal trip step in the middle....) and is still thwarting my 28 month old effectively.
I've never had one at the bottom though as I couldn't figure how to attach it. Also I have concentrated on teaching competence on the stairs at an early age (ds1 could safely get down stairs from about 9 months - I taught him to turn round and crawl backwards) but thie success of this strategy does depend on your child's personality and accident-prone-ness, I think.

We never bought any and we have stone steps going down into the kitchen. We taught ds from a v early age to climb up and down them and he has never fallen at all. Saved us a fortune as we would have had to buy at least four.

We've got 2 of the roller blind ones - one at the top and one at the bottom. They are good because they roll right back against the wall and you don't have to step over or through them when they are not closed but...
1.They are quite difficult to operate i.e. if you didn't know how to work them, you probably wouldn't be able to work it out! and
2. They are really noisy when you open them which always gives my DS2 a shock (and wakes him up if I'm trying to take him upstairs for a nap)

We have three - as we have a big living room / lounge with a door each end so we have the gates on each door - we also have one on dd bedroom door.

Had them put up as soon as we moved into this house but in the previous house they were installed as soon as dd could crawl -

BTW we got ours from Ikea and they seems fine.

HTH

any suggestions for an awkward gap at top of stairs? Wider at top than bottom and wall not exactly opposite bannister. Unfortunately bought a Lindam pressure fit which is useless as it isn't adjustable enough. Help!

Teaching them to go up and down stairs safely is obviously a good thing, but you can't rely on them not falling down stairs accidentally. Accidents on stairs are one of the chief causes of serious injury to toddlers. And stairgates have the bonus that you control where your mobile baby/toddler is.