Safety Gates For Stairs: Keep Potentially Dangerous Places Out Of Reach For Your Toddler

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If your baby will soon make the transaction to moving on his or her own, it's time to consider safety gates. In fact around the time your baby is starting to sit up is the ideal time to go shopping for baby gates and by the time your little one is crawling, it's too late!

When I had my first child, everything was so new to me and I literally was learning on my feet from day to day. By the time your child is making robbing movements which is the precursor to actually crawling, you realize you have to take a look around your home with a view to your child's safety when s/he starts crawling everywhere.

Stairs are the immediate danger that most homes have so it's important to keep them off limits to your child. There are many baby gates on the market to choose from. Check around with friends and family who have children. They can give you good advice regarding which product they choose and the advantage and disadvantages. Not only will you learn a lot but you may even be gifted with used safety gates. When children are old enough to navigate stairs and there are no other children planned, then baby gates are usually not needed anymore. Although they are great for keeping your dog off limits too! Not to mention if an inquisitive toddler is coming over to visit.

Basically these gates can be classified into pressure mounted ones and hardware mounted gates. Obviously the pressure mounted ones are great as you don't have to put any holes in walls or banisters. No brainer that these are the most common. These gates can be economical and they are also portable which is a good feature if you know you will be regularly visiting friends and family whose homes are not baby-proof.

The hardware mounted gates are attached to the door frame or wall with screws. They are becoming more popular and they are very sturdy and cannot be pushed open. Of course you will have hole marks in your wall or door frame but when you eventually remove the gates, a bit of putty in the holes will do the trick and next time you paint, these holes will be covered.

Another feature to check is whether you child can use the gates in any way to climb up or whether she can hurt herself by putting her feet/arms through the bars. Some gates are built with mesh for this reason.

With research, check with friends and family and at the store as well as online, you can definitely find great safety gates for stairs for your purposes.

Find out why a Safety Gates For Stairs are a real asset, especially for new parents. For more information visit http://safetygatesforstairs.org/

Why Stairs Are Dangerous and Why a Safety Gate Is Essential

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Why are stairs so dangerous?

When children are small their centre of balance is such that their heads are the heavy part! As they start to learn to walk they have to learn to balance and because of the head their centre of balance is higher up than in an adult. This means they're more likely to lean backwards and fall over. Whilst this is a normal part of the learning to walk process on flat ground it's ok - children learn to fall and being small they don't have far to go.

On a flight of stairs though there's a huge potential for disaster here if a child falls, they're not just falling a few inches to the ground, but potentially all the way to the bottom of the stairs. This is a terrifying thought and so it should be! A large percentage of ambulance call outs for small children are related to them falling and the injuries relating to this.

Protecting your child from this obvious danger should be something every parent wants to do.
Of course if you regularly visit family members then you might want to persuade them to get a stair gate fitted too for your peace of mind.

You really only have to turn your back for a second on a toddler for them to be away. Avoid accidents by taking this simple and affordable step to making your home safer for your child.

Some parents have a safety gate fitted on to the kitchen door too and this is one way of keeping young children out of the kitchen and away from all the harm in there!
You can let your children in to do cooking with you when you're relaxed and not under any pressure, otherwise try to keep them out of the danger zone of hot oven doors and pans of boiling water to reach up and tip over.

You should have a stair gate at the bottom and the top of the stairs. At the top it should be more securely fixed on so look for a screw fitting type rather than the pressure type. These normally don't have a bar across the bottom making the bottom section of a U shape. You need to reduce trip hazards at the top of the stairs for the adults too!

A stairgate at the top means your child can't get downstairs on their own, so it is useful once they can get out of their cot or bed on their own. If you let them play upstairs then it's essential to have a stair gate to stop them crawling down the stairs.

As your child gets older, is more confident on stairs and has been taught then they shouldn't play on the stair case then you can remove the stair gate. The gates are normally suited for up to 2 years old. Some people leave them longer even though their child can open the gate themselves. Sometimes the gate works by just being there rather than being something they can't get over.

You should regularly check your child safety gate is still fitted securely on a regular basis. Make it part of your daily routine and check it more if your child is climbing over it.

Discourage your child from climbing over the gate. Explain to them it's there to stop them hurting themselves on the stairs and that they should not play on the staircase.

Stairgates are essential for child safety in the home