Do I need gates for stairs at 22 months?

So, we are moving into a new house, it has a staircase covered in carpet. I feel like I should get gates but I look online and it says 3 to 24 months? does that mean they can open them? Does that mean they don't need them after 2 years? The walls are concrete so do I get the spring mounted ones for top and bottom? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

We have stairs, and moved into this house when they were 8 months old. I did have a gate at the bottom, since that is where most of our time was spent. At that age, we only went up for naps. I took the gate down around 14 months. It took a lot of no-no's to get them to not go up the stairs, but they don't even try now unless they know we are going up for naptime. They can go up and down themselves on their hands and knees.

Since stairs will be a new thing, I would get one gate. I used a spring-loaded style gate, although, I do not think they are recommended for stairs.

 

My boys are 26 months and we have our gates still up at the bottom of our stairs in my living room, our vestibule door and between our living room and dinning room. They are just the plan wood ones and my boys don't climb them for me it's a safety issue if I run into the other room no matter how many times I tell them not to go up the steps it's inevitable that they will it really just deters them from even bothering. I plan to keep mine up for awhile our basement door is always left open no matter how many times I tell my SD and DH to close it so I feel better with them up.

 

I have had gates in my hallways since before I had my girls so that I could keep my dogs contained when needed. In hallways and doorways I use pressure mounted gates with a doorway that swings open in either direction. Once my girls were mobile and not contained in a baby pen I put a pressure mounted gate at the bottem of my stairway. At the top I have a wall mounted gate as the pressure mounted ones are not safe at the top of the stairs.

All my gates are currently still up but are open most of the time. The one at the bottem of my stairs is almost always closed but I have started leaving it open and just telling them not to go up. When we are all upstairs I don't even lock the one at the top anymore but I like that the stairs are blocked off so I keep it up.

All my gates are from Kidco. Here are links to the gates I have: Pressure mounted gate Wall mounted Gate

 

T&T started climbing over right after their 2nd birthday. They were capable long before then but they didn't seem compelled to do so. At this point, the gates are all down because they were more dangerous than they were useful. But, I know there are other people who use them until age 3 or even later.

So, I guess it depends on whether your kids are content with both feet on the floor or if they climb everything in sight.

 

We have stairs, and never put up a single gate. We did buy one when the boys were 6 months old, and returned it a year and a half later since it never came out of the box.

 

I used gates until we started potty training at 2. One gate at the bottom of the stairs also went to a bathroom so we just took them down and because they had always been up, they were never tempted to go up. Even now, they will rarely go up or down without asking now. I always had one at the top of the stairs. I had a fear of turning my back and one being pushed or tripping down, by accident of course.

 

I still use gates at the bottom of the stairs, but one of my DD's has figured out how to get past them. She knows she's not supposed to go up, but once in a while when it gets very quiet, that's exactly what she's doing. We have gates that roll into themselves (sort of like a blind) because there's nowhere to swing the gates out to at the bottom of both our staircases.

I also still use a gate at my office entry, to keep them away from the computers. It's pressure-mounted and they haven't figured out how to climb it yet.

I think I would use them since stairs will be new to them. Mine are quite good on the stairs, I'm just not quite ready to give open access.

 

I would deffinately get gates! We have gates at both the top and bottom. And just for the record NEVER NEVER use a non mountable gate for the top. If you have to drill holes so be it. Safety first. I think our gate also says up to 24 months (at least the bottom one I think does) but, we have it placed on the first step rather than at the very bottom so there is no way they can climb it. It's just too high for them. I will try to post a pic of the gate we have. I think the age recommendation has to do more with them climbing them rather than opening them of course depending on which kind you get. My girls wouldn't be able to open the gates we have until they are at least 5 or 6 if not more. They are just too hard. There have been several adults who couldn't figure out how to open them!

We have 2 of these gates (one at the bottom of the stairs and one going into the laundry/computer/entrance to the garage room). I think they are by far the most attractive of gates and like that they are clear.

http://www.amazon.com/First-Years-Clear-Sw...809&sr=8-10

For the top of the stairs we have a regular cage style gate but extra tall so that it would last longer.

 

I would get a gate. Mine are close to the same age & we just visited friends who have a staircase......I was so glad they had a gate! Over Christmas, we were at my grandma's house & ds was climbing up the stairs & doing really well at it. All of a sudden, he took a tumble! So even when they're good at stairs, they can still trip.

I don't know what to do about the concrete walls. We've had the spring loaded kinds that they've leaned on and they fell through.....which would be really dangerous at the top of stairs.

 

We still use them in our house and my kids are 7 and 4. Neither kid has ever tried to climb over the gate though. The one to the basement is also used to keep the dog out of the basement.

We use the one at the top of the stairs to keep the kids upstairs at night time when we are sleeping. Not sure when we will stop using it for that purpose, but not anytime soon.

I have the Evenflo wooden mounted gates.

T