The First Years Baby Gate - A Great Hands Free Option

First your bundle of joy is helpless, soon he or she is sitting up and smiling at the world. Before you know it those first frog like kicks are propelling their small bodies across the living room at surprising speed. Soon he or she will be more and more mobile but not entirely steady. Suddenly your living environment is full of dangers. Head height table corners might need softening with corner bumpers, low shelves need clearing of all things sharp and breakable and most of all the stairs in the house need to be banned from all would be small mountaineers.

The preferred method of banning are stair gates. They generally fit against walls and banisters and are adult friendly with an opening mechanism too stiff for little ones to operate. For peace of mind stair gates are brilliant. They can, of course, be used to prevent your little children gaining access to any place you choose as they can be easily fitted into doorways - the kitchen, for example, is full of dangers and so is a prime place for a stair gate.

Some stair gates are pressure mounted meaning that you screw extension walls tightly against walls so fixing the in place. The other method available is wall mounted gates, for these you will have to screw fixings into your walls to mount the gate. They are recommended for the tops of stairs as they usually do not have a lower cross bar which could be a tripping hazard. You can also purchase travel gates which fold up into a convenient bag and reassembled and pressure mounted - great for visiting relatives and friends. Gates can be bought in metal or wood. Other options include self closing gates and most manufactures produce extension kits of your stairway is of Gone with the Wind proportions or your doorways are extra wide.

The First Years gate has another useful addition - a foot pedal with which you can open the gate, great for a parent with their hands full. You press the pedal at the foot of the gate and push with your knee. A gentle nudge in the opposite direction will close the gate for you. It will open both ways with this method and it is not physically possible for children to open it by themselves. It is a pressure mounted gate and will fit standard doorways from 29 to 34 inches (as mentioned before you can buy extension kits and this First Years gate is no exception). Reviews have been positive, the hands free aspect being very popular as was its sturdiness. Parents reported that although they had some misgivings about children being able to open the gate with the knee knocker mechanism they soon realised that their children were not heavy enough to be able to do this.