Stairs Q

amandadot

Hello all! Happy Monday!!

We are moving in August so my husband can attend seminary. Our new apartment will stairs. This will be something new for all of us. DD will be 15 months old when we move. Is that old enough to learn to walk and up down stairs on her own? I don't feel like it is. She walks/runs now. 

I was thinking of putting a baby gate at the bottom and top of the stairs. What brand/type did you use? What system did you use? Did you also put one on LO's room? 

TIA! 

boogerbearoriginal

Nope. We have a ranch, so the only steps lead to the basement which he isn't allowed in alone anyway. LO is 21m, while he is decent at going down standing up and can climb up quickly, I am always with him.

They are still very clumsy and could easily trip/fall, definitely not safe to traverse alone at 15m. 

We don't have a gate for the stairs because we have doors that close it off. We don't have a gate anywhere actually.

KatFCo

I can't remember what kind we have, but Onestepahead.com has some nice ones you can look at. Even if you don't get one from there, it's helpful to look at the different options. I think we just got ours at Target. I like ours because it's a plastic one with a clear face (i.e. not bars) and can be either a swing gate or a tension gate.

For the top of the stairs, it needs to be mounted to the wall, not a tension gate. For the bottom, I recommend a wall-mount too, just because it's easier, but it's not a safety issue to have it at the bottom.

One for LO's room isn't necessary unless she plays in there by herself or isn't in a crib. If she can get out of a crib or is in a toddler bed, I suggest putting a gate in her door at night.

oliversmommy32912

Our 13 month old can go up and down stairs great but he goes up and down on all fours. We still have a gate at the top of the stairs and a door on the bottom. We always supervise when he is going up and own but we also let him "practice" several times a day.

Tink112011

We have a 2 story house and DS learned how to crawl up and down stairs at a very young age (8-9 months).  We used baby gates and supervised him, but around 13-14 months we stopped using them.  He still crawls up and down the stairs at 17 months, but we don't supervise him and he's free to roam.  In your situation though, I would definitely use baby gates since the concept will be new to your DD.

We don't have one in DS's room.  He's still in a crib, so I'm not sure why you'd need one before moving into a toddler bed.

Mandy_Lou83

We live in a split foyer style home and spend all of our time upstairs so we only have a mounted gate at the top of the stairs. The girls have been "bumping" down the stairs since last month. They sit on their bottoms and say bump as they go down the stairs while I stand in front of them. They crawl up the stairs really fast. I know it was said previously, but make sure you use a mounted gate at the top. We have this one https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10963379.

chardonnay24

My son has always been fairly advanced physically. He could walk (not crawl or scoot) up stairs by himself by 16 months and down by 20 months. I still go with him, though, because even at 27 months he could easily fall and I don't want to take any chances.