When Did You Take Your Baby Gates off Stairs?

Never but mostly so the dogs didn't go downstairs and snack in the litter box.

I felt they were needed for the kids until they had balance. My kids could go up and down steps shortly after crawling. My fear was losing their balance at the top.

I took mine off when my daughter was able to climb up and down without falling. She was probably 16 or 18 months.

I'll weigh in with yet another 'mother of the year award' contending story which undoubtedly reflects so poorly on my parenting. We recently moved into a two story. While our 18 month can go up and down the stairs well, he sometimes gets super excited and/or super distracted. All of which means to heck with going down slowly, feet first, tummy down, blah blah blah. He comes barreling down and twice now he has fallen partially down the stairs. Both times my husband caught him after a few steps. We have elected to keep the gates up because it is just smarter for us. Watching him fall was heart stopping and completely our fault. Without gates we can't be there with him when he goes up and down every single time which means we can't police his descents which means he is running the risk of falling. The price we pay is ugly gates and holes in our stairs and walls. Good luck whatever you decide.

At only 10 mos, I think you have a couple of more years. We stopped locking the gate when our oldest could open it himself at 2.5 or 3 ... We still use it for the dog and when youngest gets a little taller will need to lock again.

Have you considered an adapter for the banister? We have one for the gate at the top of the stairs ... It's very similar to this one and meant we didn't have to drill into the banister at all ...

http://www.diapers.com/p/kidco-stairway-gate-installation...

Haha! Mine are 5 & 8 and I just took the gate off the top of the stairs! The boys could easily open it, but it was my "safety net". I could always hear it open and close and would know when they were up in the morning. Plus, it made me feel safer when hubby was out of town.

Personally I would wait until you could trust your child to be up or downstairs on their own. Or until they could open it.

My oldest fell down the stairs at 15 months and it scared the life out of me.

Pressure mounted gates don't require holes, so perhaps one of those would be a better fit so that you could get your new railing... Good luck!

We have VERY steep wooden stairs, so we waited until he was likely four on both sets of stairs as he needed to be accompanied on them (held his hand). Had our stairs been safer, I'd have waited until 3.

This question's answer varies so widely that you can't truly base your own choice on what we say. Your own child's development and personality are key here -- and our kids may be totally different from yours. If your child turns out to be a climber, a runner, a rambunctious kid, you may have to leave that gate up right until he's ready to start K or beyond! But even a calmer kid only needs to fall down the stairs once for it to be a disaster. If your kid is navigating the stairs calmly and using the rail earlier, take it down earlier. But since he's 10 months -- don't bet on taking it down for a long while to come.

I think a child should be holding onto the railing consistently before you take away the gate. And even then, a child doesn't need to be going up and down steps unsupervised.

Do you also have a gate at the bottom of the stairs so he can't crawl up them and then fall back down them? It's important. We didn't at first, because our daughter wasn't ever downstairs without us when younger, but once during a playgroup at our house, one of the other kids crawled up the stairs and went head over heels back down them -- thank goodness he was OK. We did put a gate up at the bottom after that, just in case!

We left the gate at the top of the stairs in place until our daughter was probably four, nearly five. We also have a door at the top of the stairs and that stays shut even now unless one of us is using the stairs! It's basic safety for adults as well as kids -- no yawning gap into an open space, which is essentially what a stairwell is.

I grew up in a house where there were gates at the top and bottom of the staircase. My mom kept them there until I was probably at least seven or so, I think; I clearly remember them being in place when I was starting school! My mother knew a family whose child of six or seven died after falling down the stairs in their home. It made her very cautious about stairs and kids, and I inherited that caution, I'm sure.

hard wood is slippery in socks, and my son used to run full speed to the top of the stairs, they think they can stop on a dime. I'd leave it there till you're sure it's safe to take it away

We took them down when our son was opening and closing them on his own, so about 18 months to 2 years?

Every child is different, but I would think you'd have at least a good 6 months before you'd feel completely comfortable with no baby gate.

I never had baby gates on the stairs. Mostly because I'm a klutz and would have tripped over it myself! As soon as they were mobile, I let them try climbing the stairs on their own. They did a pretty good job of it and never fell or hurt themselves. I guess it depends, though, on how crazy the baby is. My oldest, I could just tell her, "No!" and she wouldn't do it. My youngest was a total nut and was practically swinging from the rafters the minute she could pull up to standing. So with the first one, I didn't worry, and with the second one, I figured she would just climb the gate anyway. ;)

My son was about 2.5 when I trusted him to go up and down the stairs by himself. He just turned 3 and we still have the gate at the top of the stairs, but only because his room is right at he top of the stairs and I worry he might not be super steady when getting up to potty in the middle of the night. He's been able to open it for 6 months or so, but it would stop him from accidently taking a tumble.

I never had a gate. I taught my daughter at around 8 months to sit at the top of the stairs and to go down stairs on her bottom. She had no problem going up on her own. FYI...my daughter did not walk independently until 14 months but she could do stairs:)

In full disclosure, my stair case has a landing and a turn (shaped like an L) so if my daughter had fallen it would have been down about 5-6 steps not a full flight.

I took them down when my kids could go up and down the stairs safely. For my oldest she was about 2.5 my youngest was maybe 18month old. Kids develop differently. At some point it seemed that the gate would injur them while they tried to bypass it. So it came down. Good luck. Just make sure that upstairs is safe. Plugs covered, furniture fixed to walls, window locks.

When our youngest was probably 2 1/2 or 3 and started opening the gate herself.

I think they were about two when they could independently manage going up and down stairs.

My house is 4 floors, all of which we use regularly.
So my kids learned the stairs as they learned to crawl, and could navigate them pretty easily right away. We taught them to go on their bellies to get down.

We kept the gates up to keep them on the floors we wanted them on, not really for safety.
If it were me, I'd teach him to go up and down over the next couple of weeks, and move forward with your project.

3 years old.

It may vary per child.

Just moved out of my two story house to a one story! We left the gate installed at old house. We had a wooden railing and we purchased a wood gate for our top gate which was then finished to the same finish so it looked permanent. The people who bought our house had a 4 year old and she was pregnant so they probably kept it:) We had a metal, removable gate at the bottom. I moved it - but don't really know why.

When we left, we didn't use the downstairs gate anymore. My oldest is 7 and my baby is 3. However, oldest sleep walks. I was afraid of him sleep walking and falling down the stairs. So until the day we moved, we used that upstairs gate. As soon as we put them to bed, the gate went up and stayed up until they were awake in the AM. We didn't use it during the day at all - but at night, oh yeah! If we had moved to a house with stairs, I would have put in a new gate.

Good luck!

If he's crawling, teach him how to back down the stairs. My kids were really close together, our house is small & the bedrooms were upstairs, so we only had the baby gate up full time while the oldest was young. Once #2 & 3 came along, as soon as they were crawling, we taught them how to get up & down safely. We didn't have a permanent gate, though. Also we did keep it in a closet to put up when we knew we weren't able to be watching them or if we had play-dates with kids who hadn't learned how to use the stairs yet.