Baby gate - top & bottom of stairs?

blueandgray · March 2013

We are moving into a new house in a couple of weeks that will now be 2 levels. Our current temporary home (we've been living here since DD was 16mos old) has a second level which has a baby gate & a curtain hanging in front of it - just the laundry & a guest room is up there, we "live" on the main level and only go up for laundry. DD doesn't attempt to go up them or bust through the gate unless I'm going up to do laundry and we go together - she manages the stairs very well on her own.

In our new home, bedrooms will be upstairs, living space downstairs. Will I need to baby gate both the top & bottom of the staircase? Just the top? She's going to stay in DC while I'm on maternity leave in a few weeks, I'm wary of me having trouble navigating gates in a new house while sleep deprived!

rls13 · March 2013

We stopped using a gate at 15 months and live in a split foyer so we use the stairs every day. Do you really need the gates still if she does good with stairs??

jr63_2020 · March 2013

LalaMama81:
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ASmallWonder · March 2013

Personally I would gate both. Until just recently I didn't like my kid being able to roam all the way to the top of the steps by himself. In my mind. If you're going to gate the top because you don't want them tumbling down, how is it an

kristennd · March 2013

We have both top and bottom gated. He can climb up and down but that doesn't mean he doesn't sometimes decide to just leap down after the cats. Plus when we're upstairs, we want him staying put until we're ready to come down and this way he can freely pla

MrsT2008 · March 2013

We only have a gate at the bottom of the stairs, not the top (bedrooms are upstairs, living areas are downstairs). She is never upstairs alone and if I need to contain her upstairs, I have one of those plastic tension gates that I put up in her door

beth2882 · March 2013

I would gate both the top and bottom. Now my DD is a little younger than your LO, but I think my reasons would still apply. Like a PP said, if you want to gate the top, then you should gate the bottom in case LO decides to try to go upstairs a

M&M227 · March 2013

We have a pressure mounted gate at the bottom so she can't really play on the steps. Upstairs we have a pressure mount that has a handle to release it. If we're up there we put it up in the hallway between our room and the top of the stairs (n

JMU_Bride09 · March 2013

We have one at both the bottom and top of the stairs.

fancynewbeesly · March 2013

We gate the top. We have floating steps/backless steps in our house and my daughter is terrified of going up them by herself. She runs and gets you if she wants to go up. But if we had normal steps, like my parents we would gate both.

blueandgray · March 2013

Thanks for all the points of view! I'll go ahead and buy 2 now, and gate the bottom of the stairs so I don't have to eagle-eye her every second in case she wants to climb up on her own, and then use the second to gate her room so that's a safe place