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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

Beety and any other stair gate free parents ...

38 replies

fisil · 30/04/2006 08:50

How does it work?

We have just had our hallways decorated and don't want to spoil it all with stairgates.

Ds2 will be 1 next week and has been walking for about a month and has no sense at all. He also started stair climbing yesterday and can get to the top in about 60 seconds! If you go downstairs he wants to come with you, and so just follows.

It has always been important to us that the boys can go off and enjoy their own house - we don't have to have them in the same room as us.

So how does the whole stair gate free life work?

OP posts:

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beetroot · 30/04/2006 08:57

I sat with my kids and taught they 'go backwards' and would sit at the top of the stairs and keep turning them and saying it. hey do get it surprisingly quickly.

You have to be quick of the mark, shut doors if you don't want them to get away. There is a bit of chasing them, (which they love)
I found as soon as they learnt the go backwards bit, they were safe on the stairs.

My kids were fabulous at shooting downstairs on their tummy's really really fast..it was great to watch

Then you have to make sure the places they can get to are secure!!

1 already..wow!

hoxtonchick · 30/04/2006 08:58

#we've never had stairgates, fisil. ds is 4 now & has survivied so far! dd is 10 months & has been crawling for about a month now. so far stairs have foxed her, but not for long...

basically you have to be really vigilant & have eyes in the back of your head. and take them with you all the time. not sure that'll work for you though.

hoxtonchick · 30/04/2006 08:59

oooh, yes, going backwards is key. ds & i were trying to teach dd yesterday.

fisil · 30/04/2006 09:48

that's great - thanks you two. ds2 has mastered the belly surf - if he's going up and changes his mind he is very controlled in coming back down. But it is starting from the top that worried me. Know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Very cute thing - for a couple of days he has been babbling "geda geda" which we thought was just something he thought sounded nice. We have since discovered that it is his name for stairs and anything else you can climb, and comes from nursery. Whenever he climbs something they say "get down" and so he thinks that's what they're called!

OP posts:

sixtwosix · 30/04/2006 09:52

even with stairgates you still have to teach them how to go up and down the stairs. stairgates cannot be up forever.
once they have masteredgoing up, teach them to go down by the backwards method.
and watch them watch them watch them until you are content they wont fall down.

i had pressure mounted stairgates, and took them off as soon as i possibly could

Oblomov · 30/04/2006 09:54

We were part of the no stair gate brigade - but not intentionally.

We bought them.
Fixed them.
Didn't like them.
Found ds didn't really need them.

He was very very good on the stairs.
He didn't really need teching.
From early on, just did it.
And I wasn't constantly dashing after him.
Don't know how that happened, really - was just one of those things.
I think, if you have a child that needs stairgates, you need stairgates !!

Dottydot · 30/04/2006 09:55

we had a stairgate when ds1 was little, but haven't used them with ds2 at all - and both ended up falling down the stairs once!

Teach them to come down backwards - and although ds2, who's just turned 2, is now doing death defying walking properly down the stairs, he's doing fine and is very confident about his skills!

fruitful · 30/04/2006 09:56

Ds is 14 months, been crawling for 6 weeks, not yet walking. He has learnt to do the stairs this week. He can go up in 60 seconds, and down (backwards on his tummy) slightly slower. It took a couple of days for him to learn to come down. However, he hasn't yet learnt to turn himself around - he just stays on all fours at the top looking down and moaning loudly till I come and turn him round. I expect he'll work it out this week though.

We have a half-landing though, so if he falls its only half a flight of stairs.

cod · 30/04/2006 09:58

yes mine refused to go bakcwards
bt my nice was a non walker till 18 months and was VERY fast on her tummy

HunKeRMunKeR · 30/04/2006 10:00

If you have no stairgates what are your stairs like? Ours are very steep, have a tight corner in them, walls both sides and a radiator and wooden floor at the bottom. There's only a patch of landing about 3' square at the top and bottom - stairgate-free isn't an option...is it?!

cod · 30/04/2006 10:02

my mates dh had hers up till ehr kids were 4 fgs

edam · 30/04/2006 10:04

Hunker, tiny landings were the reason I put stairgates up and kept them there even when ds could use the stairs. I just didn't want to take the risk that he would trip while racing across the landing between rooms and fall down the stairs. Apparently that's one of the biggest causes of serious injury and even death in toddlers.

PrincessPeaHead · 30/04/2006 10:05

never had stairgates. taught them to go down backwards and when they were a little older they used to go down on their bottom if there was noone to hold their hands.

they've never fallen down the stairs.

edam · 30/04/2006 10:06

Also, I have friends and relatives with younger children so stairgates useful when they come round. And we have a three storey house so two sets of stairs.

HunKeRMunKeR · 30/04/2006 10:07

I don't like our stairs, so the stairgates are def staying, just interested to know what the stairgate-free stairs are like - I'm imagining shallow ones with soft landing carpet!

cod · 30/04/2006 10:08

i have an un built trampoline att eh bottom of mone

HunKeRMunKeR · 30/04/2006 10:08

Now there's an idea...

beetroot · 30/04/2006 10:34

My stairs were in the edwardian houses in London. so long and fairly steep. with tiles at the bottom thoough and a corner to turn

cod · 30/04/2006 10:35

beet i never knew this was somehting you did
was there a thread aout it once

beetroot · 30/04/2006 10:37

dunno, i must have mentioned it in passing somewhere.

It was not a deliberate decision, just just didn't buy them. We didn't buy much of the baby crap. Had no money at that point

cod · 30/04/2006 10:37

hmm ditto baby baths

hoxtonchick · 30/04/2006 10:40

baby baths=waste of money imo

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beetroot · 30/04/2006 10:44

god yes and changing tables

bettythebuilder · 30/04/2006 10:54

We didn't have stairgates - bought them, but they wouldn't fit as the bannister wasn't high enough.
Decided to do without because the stairs were carpeted and very wide and shallow with plenty of 'landing' space at the bottom (for little bottoms)
I did spend a while teaching dd to crawl down backwards ( got through loads of pairs of trousers!) but I can't remember any accidents - she got the hang of it really quickly.
A big advantage was that most of our friends didn't have children and therefore no stairgates, but dd was used to that, so no problem.

QE · 30/04/2006 10:59

I've found that stair gates are a must in my house even though I would dearly love to get rid of them. I have 3 older kids and 2 younger ones (3 and 16mths). When the older kids come home from school, the younger 2 want to go up with them but they trash their rooms which annoys the hell out of the older 3. dh alos sleeps in the daytime (nightworker) so 2 little ones going up and down stairs throuhout the day is not an option.

So, those without stairgates, do your kids just get used to not going upstairss? Do they listen when you say no?

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