When Do You Take the Stair Gates Down?

Don't take the gate down, they are a safety network. I would not give him the run of the house either, you don't know what he is doing if you are down and he is up. If there is a potty down, then keep him down, when you go up, he will go up. A 21/2 yr old should be within eye/ear site all of the time. When he decides he is very focused on wanting to get past, I bet he will climb over.

My son is 23mths old and we do not have a stair gate up. He's very confident climbing up the stairs and flips onto his belly to "back" down the stairs. So, I think a good rule is to wait until your son understands that you have to be careful around the steps and fully understands how to go up and down safely...even when you aren't right there to watch him. =0) However, we still put a gate up at his bedroom door at night to keep him from leaving his bedroom in the night.

If you are happy with the gate up, leave it until he starts to try to climb over it and then take it down before he hurts himself climbing.
Sunley

I would definitely leave them up for a good while. At 2 1/2 I wouldn't want my son on the stairs when I wasn't looking, and we all know its impossible to watch every move they make all the time. I would wait. It's not hurting having the gate up, you're used to it, and if he were to stumble he is still much too young to be able to catch himself effectively and is still small enough to be very seriously injured. I hope this helps!

I really think that depends on your childs maturity and awareness of his surroudings. I just took mine down and she is four. My baby is a clutz!! You will know when it is time because it won't scare you when you do it. If you take them down and it freaks you out just put them back.

Call me paranoid if you want, but I wouldn't take the gate down until he is older and completley confident on the stairs like 4 or 5, unless you are going to be able to constantly supervise him on the stairs. My daughter is 2 1/2 and not allowed at all on stairs by herself. I look at it this way one missed step and she tumbles.....you can get hurt so easily from stairs it is just not worth the worry and risk.

i see hes 2 1/2 i would say its time to take the gates down. my daughter was a little over a year when she started the stairs alone. my infant will go up the stairs (with me behind her of course) good luck!

The questions isn't can your child get up and down the stairs with confidence but does he have the skill to catch himself if he trips near or on the stairs. I kept the gates up until my children figured out how to open them on their own.

I also taught my kids to sit down on their hinney and bump their way down, and to turn around and to go down on their belly. They loved doing this and would play on the stairs in that way while I watched. It was fun and practice on manipulating the stairs.

Keep us posted on what decision you make.

R.,
My son goes up and down with great ease - I took my gates down for a while, but put them back up so that I can keep him where I want/need him to be in the house. Of course now he has learned to manipulate the gates, so they are pretty much only an early warning that he is going up or down the stairs. Good Luck
T.

We moved to a rental the month our son turned 2 that had extra wide stairs.(3 floors of them)Since none of our $10 gates fit, we just left it along .Most of them were carpeted and our son did great. He just held on to the rail or sled on his tummy:)Of course now we have a gates up again since his brother in 16 months old:).

Hi, R.

I took down the baby gates when our kids each turned old enough to be walking well and tall enough to hold the rail.

THEN, we put them back up to keep the PUPPIES downstairs! lol

I say take them down! Of course, I would just keep a close eye him, but at this point they are already expected to be able to walk up and down one foot at a time, not even step - together, step - together. If your child is not doing that yet I would work on that with him. It'll be no time before he's running up and down with confidence.

When my kids were around 18mths, I taught them to sit down, then turned them around and helped them go down feet first on their belly. We just took it one step at a time, bumping down was tons of fun. They quickly learned and I didn't have to worry about them with stairs. Good luck!

Yes it is ok to take the gate down, He is old enough, he needs to start to learn to crawl and walk down the stairs holding on.