InsaneJournal

How to Find the Best Baby Safety Gate
We have a Houdini at our house! JB who'll be two in May received her big girl bed past November. The girl was generating holes in the walls each time banging and sliding her baby's crib in the room, therefore we gave up and purchased her a twin bed – exactly like her big sister’s. Her big sister (A.K.A Gabster) had made the transition effortlessly and that we were hoping for the same experience.

JB found out the first night that she could possibly get away from her bed as well as her bedroom and wander around the upstairs of our house. The Gabster alerted us to this when she screamed at 3 a.m. "Get this pest out of my bed".

Fine, I said to The Man, you are in charge now. Find a method to retain JB safely contained between the hours of 10 p.m. and six a.m. Ideally in her bed, but at the least in her own room. Before you suggest shutting her door, we did. We actually made use of one particular plastic child-proof doorknob covers. Little magician figured it out within just few days. Thankfully, The Hubby rose to the challenge and got home with The First Years Hands-Free Gate.

The First Years Hands-Free Gate is sleek, bright and straightforward to setup. It is also the fourth different type of gateway to come into our home, and so i treated it with a bit of skepticism. Other safety gates had failed before - exactly what could make this gate different?

Ooooh - no hands! How cool! No more juggling a sleeping kid to open the gate. No maneuvering out of the way as the gate swings open. No need to get The Hubby make 4 trips to the hardware store in order to have this gate installed and operating.

This gate, The First Years Hands-Free Gate is pressure mounted. Meaning you keep the gate in the doorway where you intend to use it and twist the ends till it is perfect and stuck! Absolutely no hammer and nails, no electric power drill – best of all – zero holes in the wall. In fact, there's a nut that twists to maintain the little pressure pads in place. Lucky for us, included with the gate is the wrench/lock-fit gauge thing-a-ma-bobby you need to make it all happen. The pressure pads are great. They keep the gate’s components from doing any damage to your walls. Ours (the pressure pads – not the walls) are white and are made of some form of rubber. Potential purchasers will need to note that tightening up the nuts (there are four) does indeed require some upper body power. This gate works best when a passing toddler cannot even shake it, so tighten away with the thing-a-ma-bobby.

The First Years Hands-Free Gate will squeeze in any entrance that is 29" to 34" wide. Gleam 5" expansion available that will make this gate fit openings up to 44" wide. The manufacturer states that users might have 1 extension on each side of The First Years Hands-Free Gate and it will still be secure. They do not recommend exceeding this number regarding protection reasons. Fortunately we didn't need an extension for JB’s small bedroom doorway. Of course, the extension is sold separately and possibly costs a lot so I was fine with not requiring one.

Ok, so you’ve got it in. Now how does it perform?? Oh this really is so cool. The best part is that even though your little ones see you opening the gate, they will NOT be able to open it. Why you ask yourself? Well, the First Years Hands-Free Gate is operated with a FOOT PEDAL! There's a grey 2.5 inch by 2.5 inch piece of plastic that the grownup who wants to open the gate steps on with one foot and "pow" the gate will open. The pedal is on both sides of the gate, so the “opening adult” can easily operate the gate from other side. This did at first cause a problem for us because we were using it in JB’s doorway and still wanted to be able to shut the door to her room. The foot pedal was keeping us from being able to shut the door completely. Repositioning the gate one more inch away from the door helped this issue.

Two awesome features of the First Years Hands-Free Gate involve that the gate swings open in both directions. From a mom with gates which are installed and can only swing one direction, believe me, this is actually a plus. The 2nd is that the gate produces a loud “click” in order to inform you the gate has locked. I really like this, except during the night time when I would like to be able to close the gate as gently as I possibly can. Never occurs. And the tiny stinker swears the “click” woke her up.

The mentioned click also should be rated a minus for that disturbance issue. I want to be able to lock the opposing force inside – and never have them realize. Another negative is that after several weeks of locking herself in her room, JB Houdini still doesn't get it. Both young ladies on a regular basis close the gate behind them as they enter the room and later complain that they are “locked in”. Duh – don’t close the gate. I don’t really mind, but at the first light when I am trying to find that last five minutes of rest, hearing “open the gate, open the gate” is totally frustrating.

Please remember, much like any gate you may purchase for your house, unless the gate may be MOUNTED to the wall with hardware, Don't use it at the top of a staircase. Again, the only form of gate that is suitable to use at the top of the stairs is a gate that is PERMENENTLY ATTACHED to the wall. This (and all other) pressure mounted gates (types that require no hardware) aren't safe to EVER use at the top of the stairs.

You might want to look at First Years Hands-Free Gate and several other great baby safety gates at First Years Hands Free Gate blog.

Which First Years Hands Free Gate Should You Use?