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Choosing the right safety gate for your home

With the arrival of a baby, all priorities and preferences get modified or even transformed to align with the infant’s needs and wants. Be it health, nutrition, occupation, travel, leisure or safety, everything now revolves around the infant. And in infancy too there are stages. The requirements of a newborn vary from that of a baby which is different from that of a toddler. This holds good when it comes to safety too. Very soon, the baby grows into a toddler and it is time to get safety gates.

Need for a Safety Gate

Safety gates represent exactly what their name says – safety. They are gates that have traditionally been erected at the top and bottom of a staircase to prevent infants and toddlers from toppling over. Today, these gates are used everywhere in the home to demarcate areas which are forbidden infant territory. These are places of possible electrical hazard, areas having water or simply places where you do not want your toddler to go into. Once your little one begins to crawl, you know it is time to get a safety gate. As for its removal, you can do this based on your own discretion.

Zones of Installation

There are certain zones that are accident prone. It is recommended that these zones be gated for the safety of your little one. The following would be top priority:

1. Stairs

It is not without reason that these have been the traditional place where the gates have been fitted. Injuries from crashing on the stairs could be serious and traumatic for the little one. It would be good to have one gate at the top and the other at the bottom so that the access to the stairs is completely cut off for the toddler.

2. Bedroom

Infants sleep when they like and rise when they like. Once they begin to crawl, they are weaned away from cradles and put into beds. This new-found freedom may be hazardous if they begin to move around in the middle of the night when the rest of the household is asleep. A gate at the bedroom door ensures that one need not close the door always. It also inculcates discipline in the baby.

3. Bathroom

This is another danger place with soaps, detergents and household cleaners being stacked. The baby even faces the risk of drowning if unsupervised in the bathroom, which it may visit out of sheer curiosity. Especially if there is no gate to the bedroom door, one becomes necessary for the bathroom door.

4. Kitchen

Hot appliances, electrical circuits, cleaning agents and chemicals abound in the kitchen and it would definitely be a good idea to restrict the entry of the toddler into it.

Categories of Gates Available

1. Pressure Fit

These gates utilize a ‘U’ shaped power frame for stability and strength. They do not need any drilling and screwing of walls. They are available in modular fashion and are ready to assemble and use. They allow for flexibility.

2. Wall Mounted

These types require drilling and fitting into the walls. They make up for that disadvantage however, with two advantages over the pressure fit gates. They are sturdier and stronger. They also are without the floor rail which presents a tripping hazard in itself.

Types of Gates Available

1. Alarm Pressure Fit Gate

Every time the gate is opened, an alarm sounds to alert you. And if the gate is still left open for a few seconds, the alarm volume is raised several levels to a secondary alarm too.

2. Auto-close Pressure Fit Gate

This leaves you with no choice to leave the gate open. Every time it is opened, it automatically shuts too. No ‘alarms’ here!

3. Extending Wall Mounted Gate

This gate fits on the wall and can extend from 60cm to 106 cm based on your needs. It does not have a bottom rail and allows you some flexibility. This is the preferred solution to be installed on top of the stairs.

4. Wooden Safety Gate

This is a wooden gate that is a available as a wall mount or a pressure gate. It is sleek and stylish in its looks. The same gate can be fashioned out of metal too for greater safety.

5. Travel Flexiguard

This is the perfect ‘travel gate’. It folds and fits neatly into a bag and thus, is portable. It is lightweight and strong. Make sure to carry one when visiting the grandparents or an uncle and aunt.

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