Once babies become mobile we pretty much have to restrict their ability to move within our homes. There are stairs, shelves they don’t need to try to climb, maybe electronic equipment we’d rather they didn’t go poking around on. Eventually they will learn what to stay away from, but when they first become mobile they don’t know any of that, they just know that it’s their job to explore. Since it is our job to keep them safe while they explore, and since most of our houses can’t be made 100% safe for a newly mobile little one, we have to find a way to contain them within safe zones that are 100% safe.

In many homes, regular baby gates will work. But in homes with a wide open floorplan we often have to get creative. The house we live in now was easy to gate off, we could use normal baby gates with no problem. But the house we lived in when we brought GlitterGirl home had a wide open floorplan and it took a creative mix of furniture arrangement and unique gate options in order to hem GlitterGirl the Explorer into where I wanted her to stay.

First, a few words about safety: Gates like the one pictured at left haven’t been made since the mid-eighties, but you can still find them at yard sales and thrift shops. They are not safe, do not use them. Also, never use a pressure gate of any kind at the top of stairs. Pressure gates can give way and if a child is leaning on the gate and it gives way then that would be very bad.

Actually, I detest the old style pressure gates on principal, they are such a pain to take down and put up and take down and put up. If you’ve got a very low traffic area (meaning it won’t have to be taken down and put back up more than once or twice a week) then an old style pressure gate may be an option, but for high traffic areas you are really going to want a gate you can open and close with one hand. There are some pressure gates out now that swing open and closed, so if you’re going to use a pressure gate, then one of those would be much preferable to one of the old style pressure gates. In the end it’s a cost-benefit ratio thing: If it’s a low traffic area and your child is not a climber then $12 to block it off is probably a good thing. But if it is high traffic area (or if your child is a climber – they can get toe holds in those old-style cheap plastic gates) then the extra $35 or so dollars for a gate that swings to open and close (and that has no horizontal pieces that can be used for climbing) will be money well spent.

Personally, I prefer hardware mounted over pressure mounted, but both have their uses and you’ll have to figure out which gates will work best for your needs and your home. We are down to one gate now, the gate at the top of the stairs, and I imagine that gate will be there for a really long time.

I do not see the exact gate we used at our old house, but the gate at left seems very similar: It is adjustable to fit an area up to 12 feet wide, and it has a walk through gate in the middle. Here is another option, though that one seems to be out of stock at the moment. We used something like this in another area at the old house, this gate will fit a door from 45″ to 59″ wide, and there are 24″ extensions that can be bought if you have a wider opening. For an odd shaped area, this gate may work for you (take a look at the last customer image at the link for an idea of how to keep a child away from steps when there is a landing at the bottom without a rail.)

And now, to talk about the top of the steps. I recommend a gate that is specifically designed to go at the top of steps. That means it only swings one way, not both ways. And it means the hardware is designed with the top of the steps in mind. The Kidco Safeway Gate does all of those things.

And finally, I brought these up when I discussed Pack’n Plays, but they need to be talked about here, too. Sometimes it’s just easier to make a safe spot in the middle of the room. Plus, these can go outside as well, making them a very versatile thing to have.

When you are making decisions, think long term. Is this something that will need to be here until the child is two and then it can come down? Or is this something you’ll want to have until the child is four or five? For longer term items, spend a little more money to make sure it’s something you can live with for that long, and to make sure it can’t be easily climbed by an older toddler. For shorter term gates, use your best judgment. We often find ourselves in a balance of cost versus safety versus convenience, and baby gates are no different. In my mind, cost wasn’t a huge factor in the gate at the top of the steps, we got a really good gate. The other gates we got for our current house were of the less expensive variety because I knew TT wouldn’t need for them to be there long.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under Reviews: Baby Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.