Baby Gate Help

Hi - LO is now 8 MO old and crawling all over the place. We need to put a gate at the top of our stair way (on the main level of the house) and I am having a tough time figuring out what will work. I do not want to drill into our banisters and they are quite chunky (picture attached). So far I am interested in a kiddyguard gate or a kidco but they do not recommend tension mounted gates at the top of a stair way. For what its worth - this is not a high-traffic stair way. Let me know your thoughts on what could work.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a3...D550/ry%3D400/

Maybe a retract a gate with stair bannister kits would work?

http://www.retract-a-gate.com/

We really liked ours. It's particularly nice because it leaves the entire width of the stairway when open rather than partially blocked like most gates.

Catherine

It's unsafe to use a pressure-mounted gate at the top of stairs because if someone falls against it, it could come loose and the person (or child) could fall down the stairs. Try attaching a piece of wood, like a 2X4 to your banister with zip ties, and mounting the gate to that. Or use one of the banister kids (Kidco has some, I believe). You could also put a pressure gate in the doorways on either side of the stairs, effectively blocking off all access to the stairs without needing a gate at the top of them (we did something similar to this to avoid drilling into our banister).

This may get my BBB status removed, but I didn't have a gate at the top of my stairs in the upstairs because our bannister is really flimsy. We never had the kids upstairs except for bed time when they were in their beds/cribs and we had the doors to their rooms closed. Our stairs to the basement have a door so we just keep that closed. We kid proofed the living room and that is the only place our kids roam free.