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Baby Gates
Baby gates are the wooden, plastic or metal gates that you see at the top and the bottom of stairways and in open doorways to protect babies and toddlers from getting hurt or falling. They can also be used to keep pets and other animals or people at bay from entering in to unsafe or restricted areas. In the past we have discovered that not all baby gates are safe for infants and
toddlers. The US consumer product safety commission warns parents who and other care givers about the dangers and hazards of the different types of gates that have been proven to create less than safe restrictions for babies. The accordion style gate or the ones with a large v shaped opening have been known to be bad and the ones with the shaped top edges have been known to be hazardous as well. Many of these style baby gates have been off the market since 1985 but can be found at many yard and garage sales. Since there are still many of them in
circulation it is a good idea to become familiar with the dangers of using them. Here are some rules to consider when using baby gates.
If You are going to use a Baby Gate:
1. Select a gate with a straight top edge and rigid bars or mesh screen. Entrances to V-shapes should be no greater than 1 1/2 inches (38 mm) in width to put a stop to head entrapment.
2. Make sure the baby gate is firmly anchored in the doorway or the stairway it is blocking. Many children have pushed gates over and fallen down the stairs when not properly set up.
3. Set up gates that are retained with an expanding pressure bar with this bar on the side away from the child’s accessibility. If a child sees the bar he or she may use the pressure bar as a toehold to climb over a gate and fall down the stairs. Pressure gates are not recommended at the top of stairways for just this reason. CPSC is aware of a number of incidents where pressure gates have popped out of openings at the top of stairs resulting in children falling down stairs so make sure you use a gate that screws in to the wall or stair casing.
Expandable Enclosures
Spherical wooden enclosures that spread out, accordion-style, can present the identical entrapment and strangulation hazards as the accordion-style gates. Children have died in the past when they caught their necks in the V-shaped openings found at the top edge of the enclosure, it seems that as they were attempting to climb out they got caught.
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