Gate for the Top of My Stairs

Hi, I am with Joanna on this one, we bought a tension one at first, and then brought it back. We now have and still use the kind you bolt into the wall. I no longer have one at the top of my stairs, but it was a life saver as our son was little. He is almost 5, and he has to show our friends how to open it to get into the living room. It's also great at keeping our dogs out of the front room as well. It can hold a lot of tension, and it is NOT going to open. We bought ours at BabiesRUs. It measures out large, and you can add or take from it! Great bang for the buck!! Safety is so important. Good luck :)

Hi S.,

I haven't had to use a child gate because I don't have stairs however I would like to suggest that if you haven't already, try looking at onestepahead.com to see if they have something that will work for you. They have many types of gates to choose from, customer reviews and pictures to show how they would look.

Good luck!

We have the ones that bolt to the wall (I'm not sure of the brand.) I love it, because I know it isn't going anywhere. It's very stable, easy enough to open, but not easy enough for the kids to open. When you open it, it can be pushed in so that it's smaller, and then it sits against the wall. I'd highly recommend the ones that bolt because they will never slip if somebody pushes too hard on them. I hope you find what you're looking for. :)

I don't have stairs, but I have seen recommendations for teaching the child to go up and down the stairs safely, instead of getting a gate. I have a gate on our bathroom, but my daughter is figuring out how to get over it... My biggest fear is that she will get to the top of the gate and then fall...
Good luck
R.

The best way to figure out what works for you is just to buy one and try it. If you save the packaging you should be able to return it. You should be able to try out whether it's easy for you to open, etc. As far as whether to actually put one at the top of the stairs: we did, because the upstairs of our last place was narrow and we figured there was too much of a chance of my daughter losing her balance. While we had it up, we were still teaching her to walk up and down the stairs on her own. We don't have stairs now, but if we did, we would no longer have the need for the gate since she knows how to do it now and she's bigger. Trust your instincts. Just remember you have to teach your child to not play with the gates, ESPECIALLY the one at the top of the stairs. You don't want it coming loose, and you definitely do not want her to climb over. If she tries to climb, discipline her immediately so she knows it's serious. We always tell my daughter when something is dangerous, and she seems to (mostly) understand. (We still have to watch her, of course.)