6:04 p.m. - 2010-05-19
What Do You Know About Baby Safety Gate?
We now have a Houdini at our home! JB who will be two in May was given her big girl bed past October. She was creating openings in the walls when bumping and sliding her crib in the room, consequently we threw in the towel and purchased her a twin bed - the same as her big sister's. Her big sister (A.K.A Gabster) had made the transition effortlessly therefore we were longing for the same experience. JB figured out the first night that she could possibly get away from her bed and her bedroom and wander around the upstairs of our home. The Gabster alerted us to this when she screamed at 3 a.m. "Get this pest away from my bed". Fine, I said to The Man, you're in charge. Discover a way to keep JB safely contained in between the hours of 10 p.m. and six a.m. Ideally in her bed, but at least in her own room. Before you suggest simply closing her door, we did. We even utilized one particular plastic child-proof doorknob covers. Tiny magician figured it out in just few days. Fortunately, The Hubby went up to the difficult task and came home with The First Years Hands Free Gate.
The First Years Hands Free Gate is sleek, white and simple to put in. It is also the fourth different kind of gate to come into our house, so i approached it with some skepticism. Others had failed in the past - what would make this gate distinctive? Ooooh - no hands! How cool! No more juggling a sleeping child to open up the gate. No maneuvering out of the way as the gate swings open. No need to get The Hubby make 4 trips to the home improvement store simply to get this gate installed and operating.
This gate, The First Years Hands Free Gate is pressure mounted. Meaning you stick the gate in the doorway where you would like to use it and twist the ends till it is perfect and stuck! No hammer and nails, no electric power drill - on top of that - zero holes in the wall. In fact, there is a nut that twists to keep the small pressure pads in place. Lucky for us, provided with the gate is the wrench/lock-fit gauge thing-a-ma-bobby you need to make it all happen. The pressure pads are wonderful. 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 customers really should note that tightening up the nuts (there are four) may demand some upper body strength. This gate works best when a passing toddler can't even wiggle it, so tighten away using the thing-a-ma-bobby.
The First Years Hands Free Gate will squeeze in any entrance that is 29" to 34" wide. There is also a 5" expansion accessible that will make this gate fit openings approximately 44" wide. The manufacturer states that consumers may have 1 extension on each side of The First Years Hands Free Gate and it will still be safe. They don't suggest going above this number regarding safety factors. Thankfully we didn't need an extension for JB's narrow bedroom entrance. Needless to say, the extension comes separately and possibly costs a lot so I was fine with not needing one. Ok, so you've got it in. Now just how does it operate?? Oh this is so awesome. The good news is even though your kids observe you opening the gate, they may NOT be able to do it. Why you wonder? Well, The First Years Hands Free Gate is controlled with a FOOT PEDAL! There's a grey 2.5 inch by 2.5 inch piece of plastic material that the grownup who wants to open the gate steps on with one foot and "bam" the gate will open. The foot pedal is on both sides of the gate, so the "opening adult" may operate the gate from other side. This did at first create a problem for us because we were using it in JB's doorway and still needed to be able to close the door to her bedroom. The foot pedal was keeping us from being able to shut the door all the way. Repositioning the gate an additional inch far from the door improved this concern.
Two awesome top features of The First Years Hands Free Gate include that the gate swings open in both directions. From a mother with previous gates which are installed and can only swing one direction, trust me, this is actually a plus. The second is that the gate generate a noticeable "click" to indicate to you the gate has secured. I love this, except in the evening when I really want to have the ability to close the gate as silently as I possibly can. Never happens. And the tiny stinker swears the "click" woke her up.
The stated click also should be rated a minus for that disturbance element. I would like to be able to shut the opposing force inside - and not have them know. One more negative point is that after several weeks of securing herself in her room, JB Houdini still doesn't get it. Both young ladies repeatedly close the gate behind them as they enter the room and later complain that they're "locked in". Duh - don't close the gate. I do not really mind, but at the first light when I am trying to get that last five minutes of rest, hearing "open the gate, open the gate" is completely irritating.
Please take into account, as with any gate you may purchase for your home, unless the gate may be MOUNTED to the wall with hardware, Don't put it to use at the top of a staircase. Again, the only real form of gate which is acceptable for 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 need no hardware) aren't safe to EVER use at the top of the stairs.
You can check out the The First Years Hands Free Gate and some other great baby safety gates at The First Years Hands Free Gate
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