[~*Lou*~]

Hi ladies

We're moving house in few months, just after DS's 2nd birthday. The house will have a staircase, we currently live in a single storey unit.

Just wondered if I will still need a safety gate at top and bottom of the stairs? At what age did you stop using a safety barrier on stairs?

Grandparents' house has stairs, so DS does already know how to get up and down (under close supervision) if that makes a difference.

Many thanks
Lou

[aratiaw]

We moved into our current house when DD2 had just turned 2. It's a split level and the lower stairs are tiled and off the main access between the kitchen and the rest of the house, so pretty much unavoidable. I was quite nervous about the possibility of DD2 taking a tumble so we supervised extra closely for the first few weeks, and had lots of reminders about holding the handrail, not climbing them in sock feet, etc.. She proved herself quite capable. I felt at that age that a gate would be more of a hazard than a help (picture 2yo climbing gate).
DD3 came along and is close to crawling so we will have to install gates, but I expect that by the time she's 2 we will have removed them. Thankfully DD2 is now old enough to be somewhat sensible with safety gates.

[deejie]

DS is 2 yrs 8 months and our stairs are still gated. He is very competent going up, going down is not so great. Most of the time he will bum-shuffle, but when he walks down, it makes me hold my breath!

I think it not only depends on the physical capabilities of the child, but also the staircase. Ours is steep with small triangular steps where it doubles back on itself after the landing. We don't trust him yet to navigate it unsupervised. It only takes one slip

[BornToLove]

DD is almost 2 and I would still use one, more to keep her contained in one area than for safety. She's pretty good at going up and down the stairs, but I would not want her on another level from where I was.

Also, if the bedrooms are on the upper level I would want the stairs gated to keep her from wandering in the night and falling down the stairs.

[LittleMissPink]

DD2 is 2y8m and I still have them top and bottom. BUT, they are not locked, so she can go in and out as she pleases, but I dont think she has realised this When we are down the bottom she stays down the bottom, same as when we are upstairs. For us its just a visual thing, rather than a locked gate.

She can climb up fine, on her hands and feet, but cant get down yet.

[-Moxie-]

Im feeling a bit negligent as we had a second story installed last year and the stairs went in in October. We never used a stair gate and DD3 has been using them unaided ever since. She will be 2 in 2 weeks.
We moved her out of the cot and into an upstairs room in January and she will come down in the morning or during the night by herself.
She started walking just after 12 months, but by 15 months she was climbing the ladder up the scaffolding if you took your eyes off her for a second.

I think it would entirely depend on your child and their development.

[katniss]

I agree it depends on the child. We have stairs so my boys were used to climbing them from a very young age. We have always kept the top gate up but took the bottom gate off when DS1 was just over 2 then put it back up when DS2 started moving and am now considering removing it forever now that DS2 is almost 2.5.