If you are in the market for a baby gate for stairs then it likely means two things:
1. You have a small child
2. You have stairs
That’s obvious.
If you have a small child then it also likely means you are carrying that child; and often.
I happen to have 5 children. The last two are 22 months apart. So for the past 9 months it’s felt like I’ve had 2 babies because they both need a lot of help still, they both cry a lot still and they both need me to carry them a lot, and often at the same time. You know that saying, “you’ve got your hands full!“? Well, I do hear that almost every time I’m out with my children, and it’s true, and usually, quite literally true!
That’s why when we looked into the best baby gates for stairs for our home the only gate I considered was a hands free baby gate. I’ve got my hands full enough with babies, diapers, toys, bottles and more and don’t have time to mess around moving a gate back and forth in front of our stair opening. But I need to know that the stairs and my baby are protected by a good, reliable gate.
I also have 3 older children and a husband and friends that come over quite frequently for my children to play with, who are all constantly up and down our stairs. I don’t want to have to be moving my gate back and forth for them each time they need to access the stairs. But I need to know that my baby is safe when he is upstairs.
For all these reasons, I searched for baby gates for stairs that are hands-free and found a wonderful gate! It’s The First Years Hands Free Gate
. It is precisely what it says: totally hands free. After it is mounted in your stair space, or any other space, the little gate door that is on hinges is opened by stepping on the foot pedal, which is conveniently located on both sides of the gate. The gate door is not spring loaded but opens and closes very smoothly and easily enough for everyone in my family to operate, except my baby. Even my 2 year old can open it with a couple of bounces on the pedal(he doesn’t weigh enough to open it with just a step on the pedal). When both my hands are full I just step on the pedal and if the door doesn’t pop open automatically then I just give it a little nudge with my knee and it’s open. I like that it’s not spring loaded, that way we can leave the gate open during the times of the day that the baby is not upstairs or when he is napping.
Some other great things about this hands-free baby gate for stairs is that it mounts to the stair space by tension so there is no drilling into the wall to install it. It will not leave scars on your wall after you’ve removed it. It comes with easy-to-follow instructions that my husband used as soon as we got the gate and had it up and ready within a half an hour and with little use of tools. I bought mine on Amazon.com:
The First Years Hands Free Gate
I’ve seen a lot of other baby safety gates; the kind you remove each time you need to pass it, the kind you slide a button over and lift up the gate in order to open it, and the kind that is wooden and spring loaded that you can pop off easily. My problem is that I just don’t have time to be messing with a gate each time I need to pass through the area it is protecting. I don’t want to have to set stuff down or juggle things in my arms in order to perform a special push-and-pull-tab and lift-gate-door-open maneuver every time I walk upstairs. I need to be able to pass thorough that space as if there were no gate there, all the while keeping my baby safe from taking a nasty fall.
The First Years Hands Free Gate will fit openings up to 34 inches but you can buy as many as 2 extension kits to add to each side of the gate to extend it to as much as 44 inches wide. The home we live in was built in 2002 so the stairs are extra wide but with the added 2 extension kits the gate fit perfectly. Each extension kit is sold separately and did add to the price of the gate but for our active family it has been worth every penny!
Click below to check it out on Amazon.com:
When my baby is upstairs crawling around and I am downstairs cooking dinner all I have to ask is, “Is the gate closed?” And everyone upstairs is immediately on the alert to check and see if the baby is safe by looking to see if the gate door is closed. If it’s not closed, even my 2 year old has gone over and closed it, doing his small part to help keep baby safe.
If you are looking for the cheapest, least expensive baby gate possible, this is not your gate. I got one of those once as a promo from Babies R U and after experiencing how difficult and involved it was to use I quickly donated it to the thrift store. But if you are looking for a very well made, high quality, safe, sturdy, nice looking, easy to use, easy to install, low maintenance, hands free baby gate for your stairs or any other area you want to keep baby out of, then The First Years Hands Free Gate is totally for you.
But you won’t be able to buy it just anywhere. I love the convenience of internet shopping, but I am kind of old fashioned too in that I like to see and test out a product before spending over $50 on it! I searched all the usual baby supply places; Babies R Us, Target, Walmart, even the Children thrift stores and didn’t find The First Years Hands Free Gate available at any of them; or on their websites either. It was only available on Amazon.com when I purchased it. But since I had seen the exact gate in use at my friend’s house, I was confident that it would be the right gate for us, so I ordered it and had it within 2 days, and just in time because little Nathan decided to crawl that very next day.
Click on the link below to buy it on Amazon.com:
Buy The First Years Hands Free Gate Now!