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Buy A Baby Gate Well Before Your Young Child is Mobile

susanw | Jun 13, 2010 |

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Do not wait until your baby is getting around by him or herself, either by crawling, in a baby walker, or outright walking, before you invest in a baby gate. It really is best to plan ahead and purchase as many as you need to secure your home well in advance of actually being in a position where you need them.

Once your baby begins to crawl put up that baby gate. Many parents underestimate how much ground a crawling baby can cover, and how quickly they can get around! Unfortunately some people tend to think that they can wait until their young child is actually walking before putting up baby gates. Crawling babies can get into all sorts of things when they are down there at ground level and they also seem to have a real fascination for crawling up or down stairs. In order to contain your baby in a room that you know is safe and has been baby-proofed you should install baby gates at every exit and at the bottom of the stairway.

Once a baby has graduated to a walker, if indeed they actually use one, you really need to set up boundaries. Basically a baby in a walker can cover the same distance, sometimes even faster, than a toddler. Walkers also have a tendency to get stuck or to bang against furniture and send whatever is sitting on the furniture toppling to the ground.

Of course it goes without saying that once your baby is walking gates must go up. Some parents prefer to enclose their child in one room, such as the child's bedroom or the living room and as such they install a gate at the exit thus preventing the child from leaving the room. Other parents prefer to set up child safety gates at danger spots, such as at the kitchen door or the bathroom door and the stairways, and leave the rest of the house free for their young child to explore.

No matter whether you limit your child to a specific area or just make some rooms 'off limits' you still need to carefully baby-proof every room in the house. Cover up electrical outlets, tie curtain strings up high out of reach, put heaters and other dangerous objects out of the reach of your child. It is a good idea to either look in baby book or check online how to make your home baby safe. Make a list and then systematically go through it till you are sure that every room in your home is safe for baby, or if some rooms are not safe admittance to them is restricted.