2.5 yr old and stairs

Stardust54

Forgive me if this is a common ques, but Ive looked through and didn't see anything! We are moving soon to a place where the kids rooms are on a different floor than ours. We will obviously be using baby gates throughout the day, especially for our 16 month old, but what about at night? I don't know how I feel about my 2.5 year old being locked downstairs! But on the other hand I wouldn't want him falling down the stairs bc it's dark and he's half asleep! Help!

JulesDiane

If you want your 2.5 year old to be able to get to you at night, I would suggest some night lights to light up the stairs enough to see.

Stardust54

mainerocks:

I would not be comfortable with my child doing stairs alone at nighttime. Can you leave your door open so that he can yell from the bottom to get your attention? Can you buy a cheap baby monitor with just audio so that you can hear him if he needs you?

Yeah this is what I'm thinking...even with nightlights etc. I just don't feel comfortable either. Was just wondering what the norm was or if i was bring way too paranoid! I guess too it all depends on the child. Thanks

superned

DD's room is right at the top of a steep flight of stairs.  She is baby-gated in her room at night.  We are on the same floor, so we would be able to hear her if she needed us at night.  Otherwise, I'd do the audio-only baby monitor idea.

meganandchase

My DS is 2.5 and there is no way I want him on stairs at night.  You can get the baby monitor, but I find that DS can yell more than loud enough to wake us up without the monitor!

Stardust54

Thanks Ladies! I feel better now knowing I'm not imprisoning him lol with a gate!

megann831

DD has always been very active and pretty tough, she doesn't usually fall or trip, and when she does, she's right back up.  I don't remember the last time we used a gate for her.  I was trying to keep her in her room for naps, so I put a baby gate up for when she opened the door, but she thought it was fun to climb over the gate.  Tonight I took a shower and put the gate up to keep the baby upstairs, DD ran right over to it and went to climb it.  With our 2 year old, we'd be safer with the night light because I wouldn't want her climbing over the gate and down the stairs.

chpineda

We had a two story & my daughter's room was upstairs.  I never felt comfortable that she could maneuver herself at night.  Fortunately, we had an opportunity to move to a single story home but my next step if we hadn't moved would have been to use monitor to hear when she got up.