Please look at this plan of my house and tell me where to put stairgates, because I'm crap.

[violentviolet]

Because I've had too much advice and my head is fried. Found this plan of my house from when we were having a changing rooms moment and moving furniture around I've drawn on the places I could put gates in red. I want a max of 3 gates, preferably less.

Downstairs, the livingroom is smaller than the kitchen so on one hand feel a bit mean fencing him off just in the livingroom, but it'd mean I wouldn't have to worry as much as if he had the run of the kitchen too. Under the stairs my dp keeps all his computer stuff, tell me I won't need a gate there too.

The upstairs landing has a step up into both bedrooms, so don't know whether to put gate a on the stairs allowing access to both rooms, or to put a gate on one bedroom doorway and restrict access. Can babies manage a step down and up again?

I'd do living room and top of stairs. they soon learn to manage one or two steps but may hold onto the gate for support so it ahs to be secure.

Ds managed a couple of steps from right when he started crawling. Has always had access to computer stuff and never damaged anything (we have it all plugged into a surge protector that we turn off when not using). I would just put them at the top and the bottom of the stairs, but then I don't believe in restricting ds more than necessary.

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I would do top and bottom of stairs, and cupboard locks in the kitchen/bathroom.

I have only ever had a stairgate at he top of the stairs, with 2 babies/toddlers. And now the youngest is 2.2 only shut it at night in case of sleep walking.

IMO you can make things too limiting for them, just guard against main saftey issues. It is their home too

Thanks for the advice- the stairs are a bloody deathtrap, they're narrow and steep because they go across the house, so I did really want to block them off for now. (We plan on moving sometime this year and we're looking for a house with safer stairs)

So you think I should let him in the kitchen and just lock all the cupboards/move the bleach etc? I can put the bin in the utility room. Do you think he could pull the dining chairs on top of himself? they're just a cheap metal set.

Soupkicthen, would you allow access to the utility and bathroom too? what if he licks the loo!

Children need to learn to live within thier environment. You are there to guide and teach. If they never experience minimal dangers like bins, chairs( which imo are more of an inconvienience) You will always feel anious in others houses.

One at the top and one at bottom of stairs, locks on cupboards in kitchen and utility room and become very good at shutting doors.

we have 2 in the downstairs hall to restrict access to the bottom of the stairs (cant get them on the stairs themselves as the steps just out at the bottom) and we have one across the top of the stairs. we have some cupboard locks in the kitchen and some socket covers and thats all the babyproofing we did. Ds has the run of downstairs - living room, dining room, kitchen, etc (including bins and chairs ) and has been fine. When upstairs he has access to all the bedrooms, bathroom, etc and hasnt fallen in the toilet yet!!

Get cupboard locks, move all dangerous items (cleaning fluids etc.) out of the lower cupboards and shut the doors! Kids do need to explore (we,, my DS does).
Also, baby/toddler proofing is a continuous exercise, as they get taller/find new stuff/develop new skills (like opening doors, grrr).

We never put up any at all.

We taught DS to climb down the stairs as soon as he could crawl. He has never fallen down them

Now... it might be a different matter with DD, as she'll be following DS. If we put any up, it will be one at the top, ( we have 1 flight, a landing, then 3 more, so if she crawls up she'll have somewhere to wait!!)

We have never had cupboard locks, we jsut taught the word "NO" with a tap on the wrist if DS ever went in the cupboard under the sink.

Perhaps I'm another under cautious one, but I firmly believe in teaching children about danger, rather than always protectng them form everything. (obviously I wouldn't let htme cross a road alone...)

Your house looks very much like my old house in the UK, an old Victorian terrace?

In which case your stairs will be very steep with narrow foot areas. We had a gate at the top of the stairs [we didn't have the little step up/down from bedroom door tho] but dc will manage that easily in time.

I also had one on the lounge door, as we had a cellar in the kitchen with no door on it.

We had stair gates for ds1, none for ds2 or ds3. DS2 and DS3 were far safer on stairs than ds1.

We had a playpen for ds2 and ds3 though so if I had to leave them rather than finding them doing something dangerous I could pop them in there.