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Youngest has just turned one and goes up and down the stairs like nobodies business and hasnt fallen for a while. Safe to remove the stair gates or wait a while yet?
get rid of the gate but introduce the concept of the 'Philconsequence Naughty Cage' its like the naughty step, but soundproof and secure.
once the kids go to bed you and your collection of laydeez can make use of it too.
If he does fall he won't do it again. 😯
I would say no, my wee boys 21 months and he's pretty good on the stairs, up and down like a (not on-one) whippet. Still has his not paying attention moments on the flats never mind the stairs so it'll be a while before he gets unsupervised access to ours methinks..
Reckon it was 1.5 to 2 years with ours but tbh he's fallen down them more (well, a couple of times) now he's older (3) and in a hurry/carrying toys...
Ensure you have a properley secured handrail for him to hold onto, and teach him to always use it.
A few years ago got called to a customer to re fit a handrail on the stairs, it seems as if her dad had had a fall backwards on the stairs, got a fractured skull and died.
Now you dont want that to happen do you.
Depends on the house layout I would say. Our girls have yet to fall down the stairs and can (if they put their mind to it) walk up and down without holding on (just turned 2). One night we forgot to shut the gate and one of them walked in to the lounge without a care in the world.
But we have a very small landing so we worry that they could dash out of their room or the bathroom and straight onto the top of the stairs without quite getting their bearings. I am sure if we had a bigger landing we would have taken it down by now.
I don't believe there is a right age, just a right child. If there's one thing I've learnt from being a Dad, it's not to get too hung up on the "right age" for anything. You'll know when it's time.
My mother in law died after falling down the stairs.
It's totally dependent on the child and the stairs. Our old house had very steep, very narrow stairs. As a result we had a stairgate top and bottom, no compromise. In our new place the stairs are far wider, have a shallower pitch and have a low level handrail. My youngest was two and a half when we moved and hasn't had a problem, yet.
my large 23 month old is ace at colours.. numbers.. shapes.. blah blah blah..
I wouldn't trust him near a kerb let alone stairs though..
I'm surprised that he can even coordinate his primary functions he's so clumsy..
I'm surprised that he can even coordinate his primary functions he's so clumsy..
The eldest of our two is like that - she can do multiple shape puzzles at once but I am forever picking up stuff she has knocked on to the floor. The other twin just tries to eat the puzzle pieces but is very agile and can climb anything. Recently I found her sat on a full size bike in Toys R Xpensive - somehow she climbed up the frame and got on the saddle and was furiously peddling (even though her feet were about 12 inches from the pedals) 🙂
never had one at the bottom but had one at the top though in case they just fell being daft. Kept till they were about 3 or ish.
They were taught to walk up /climb the stairs and sit on their bum to come down.
never fell though till they were older and rushing.
My son was fine on stairs from about 18 months. Right up until we stayed at a cottage in Wales with a stair case with that turned 90 degrees at the top and had a door at the bottom. He was about 2 then.
He got out of bed whilst we were still up and tried to get down stairs. Unfortunately he tried to use the narrow bit of the steps and misjudged it.
First thing we knew was a couple of bumps followed by a large thud as his head hit the door at the bottom.
I opened the door and he rolled out onto the floor, surprised but otherswise uninjured.
He was a bit more cautious on stairs after that.
As above, my nephew fell off kerbs until he was abotu 4 so it's more to do with the kid than an age.
Taught ours to climb up and down the stairs from about 12 months. In my experience the buggers will climb up with ease, the trick is to teach them to climb down rather than walk down face first. They'll soon be sliding down on their tummies.
Disclaimer: Son1 managed to fall down our stairs with two 90 degree turns right to the bottom when he was about 9 months. Impressive lump from the skirting board - that's when we decided to teach him to climb down!
youngest is 18 months, stair gates have been gone for 4 months.
Blimey! I only put the stair gate UP last month when my daughter was 14 months.
My son fell down the stairs a couple of times when he was little no harm done just a slightly bemused expression on his face when he came to a halt.
When he was just a baby I fell down some stairs (holiday home) while taking him to bed. It is quite difficult to fall down stairs while cradling a baby but somehow I managed it. Came to a halt with him still in my arms (and still asleep).
Probably about 2 with mine... and the reason was not that they could climb up and down, but to ensure that they would only do it when they were allowed or supervised.
Gate at the bottom was the first to go - gate at top remained as we wanted to make sure they would not get up through the night and fall down the stairs.
Gate into the kitchen also remained until the age that they understood why coming into the kitchen is a bad idea and would/could ask to come in and get something.
Make the house child safe until the child can be made house safe.
Probably about 2 with mine... and the reason was not that they could climb up and down, but to ensure that they would only do it when they were allowed or supervised.Gate at the bottom was the first to go - gate at top remained as we wanted to make sure they would not get up through the night and fall down the stairs.
Gate into the kitchen also remained until the age that they understood why coming into the kitchen is a bad idea and would/could ask to come in and get something.
Make the house child safe until the child can be made house safe.
Perfect example of it depending on the circumstances/house layout/children.
The ONLY stair gate to go in our house is the one to the kitchen.
I fell down the stairs when i was about 14 months and fractured my skull. Go me.
We only had one at the top of the stairs, simply because the daughters room is opposite the stairs. She's been able to use stairs from about 18 months, only accident she had was when carrying her potty upstairs. As others have said, go with when you feel its right. For instance, we have never bothered with keeping her out of the kitchen, since she only played with the saucepans or helped her self to ceral. Her cousin on the other hand, i wanted to put him in the chiken run after about 2 minutes.
If you're told to teach them to go downstairs on their tummies, as I was, just be aware that there are two ways to come downstairs on your tummy, one if which isn't correct.
Brother in law slipped whilst carrying 7 week premature baby up the stairs, let go of one handle of Moses basket, new baby rolled out and down a coupla stairs! Back to the hospital they went, thankfully all was ok!!!! As for the gates what harm are they doing? Better safe than in my opinion!
keep em up.. not just to stop the mites falling but so you know where they are frankly.. dont want em going downstairs in the middle of the night drinking bleach playing with matches watching your porn etc..
If he does fall he won't do it again.
Didn't work with me. First time I bit my own lower lip open, second time I managed to crack my skull open on the radiator at the bottom. Mum had to hold the two halves together while my lil sis rang 999.
I think I was 5 and 8 ... soon as you start rushing/carrying stuff.
Never had any - started to teach the girls to turn around and climb down as soon as they started climbing up. Had a couple of small tumbles but nothing serious (and there is usually someone there to catch them.
They are now (at 22 months) wanting to walk down, holding the rail and someones hand. They know about danger and will not attempt to do something they think they can't.
We take the same approach to slides, climbing frames etc. Teach them to climb but don't lift them up etc.
Partly I didn't want to wreck the freshly painted wall 😀
I don't believe there is a right age, just a right child. If there's one thing I've learnt from being a Dad, it's not to get too hung up on the "right age" for anything. You'll know when it's time.
Spot on.
we never put a stair gate up. my little boy was climbing the stairs on his tummy as soon as he could walk which was about 10 months. to start with he was always supervised but hes 18 months now and will go up and down quite safely. he's fallen once which was a couple of days ago but no harm done.
my nephews house is padded and gated all over the place. because he isnt allowed to climb the stairs at home hes a nightmare when we are out somewhere where there are no gates.
i think its all about the kid and you. our theory was to teach him how to climb them safely from the word go. the novelty very soon wore off going up and down stairs. i know plenty of kids who have fallen down stairs a lot more often than billy has, even though there were stair gates up at their houses.
All good advice. Just make sure they are wearing their helmets at all times.
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I'm disgusted by the lack of piss taking on this thread - get you collective acts together...
Forget stairs and move onto rock
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Forgot to close our bottom stairgate t'other day and subsequently found my 11 month old sat on the upstairs bathroom floor, happily ripping a bog roll to shreds 🙂
It must have taken him about a minute to get up there, the little bugger!
Anyway, I'd agree with the sentiment above - there's no set time, just see when the nipper's ready. I'll be keeping ours up for a while yet, they're both a bit clumsy!
Our boys turned 2 in June they can walk up and down on there own but the stair gates will stay until they learn to stop pushing one another on the stairs!
Depends on the house layout I would say.
We have a gate at the bottom, mainly to stop her escaping up there if she's playing around in the living room. Otherwise it is a right pain that if you pop out to get a drink of water or a biscuit or something, you have to search all the bedrooms and the bathroom to find her - she is really quiet when she has run off to hide. I don't see that gate going until she either learns to open it, or learns enough talking to be able to tell her not to go upstairs.
Our stairs are nice though, they go round a right angle corner every 5 steps, meaning the furthest you can fall is 5 steps onto carpet. Because of this, when Rose was learning to go up stairs she didn't hurt herself much, so I don't worry massively about the stairs and generally let her loose to go up and down when we need her to go upstairs/downstairs.
I taught her to go down stairs safely (on her front, feet first) at about 8 months, when she suddenly started going upstairs all the time, so I figured that at some point she'd want to come back, so she might as well do it safely.
We used to have a gate at the top, but due to the layout of the house & walls, it needed an extended bit on the bottom, which she proceeded to break in order to climb onto the gate and use the gate as a climbing frame, and I figured that the broken gate was more dangerous than no gate. That one went at about a year I think.
Joe
It depends on the stairs.
These could be tricky.
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Our two are 15months and 30 months (2.5yr) and we never bothered with stair gates. No falls yet (touch wood)
What we have done is put a gate on the 15 month olds room so when he gets up in the morning he doesn't walk around the landing!
Neither of the c@@ts sleep so I might push them down the stairs soon! (joke, joke!)
I'm the youngest of 5 kids aged 45 to 56. We didn't have a stair gate at the the top or bottom. Should I shop my parents to Social Services 😉
That said none of us ever fell down the stairs.
still got mine up, my girls are 5 and 7. Two reasons - firstly; one sleep walks and that makes me nervous.
Second; if i took it down I'd have to repair the holes in the wall where it's fixed, and then repaint the holes, and then it wouldn't match the rest of the hall stairs and landing so that'd need doing, and then the wife would say it makes the living room look grubby and that would need doing, and so a 10 minute job would turn into a week's work.
😆
When they can either climb over the gate or undo it themselves it is safe to remove. Otherwise I can think of lots of times when the stair-gate was useful to keep ours where we wanted them and not as a safety thing.
We got rid of ours fairly early, 12mo or so, cos they were a right pain and she was very good on the stairs. She's extremely cautious with all things physical, which is good.
Re the falling down them from the landing - the first word we taught her was CAREFUL! This was deployed whenever she crossed the landing, so she learned to be careful at the top of the stairs. Of course we only have one currently, so that helps.
Our youngest - 3 in September - has been fab on the stairs for a long while now. He's rubbish at staying in bed though, so we moved the stair gate to his bedroom door 😆 We unlock it when he's asleep.
9 o clock last night I was outside washing the car when this little voice pipes up next to me "what you doing Daddy?" The little menace has either learnt to undo the stair gate or is now climbing over it 😥