We have a Houdini at our house! JB who'll be two in April received her big girl bed past September. She was making holes in the walls when bumping and sliding her crib in the room, so we threw in the towel and got her a twin bed – much like her big sister’s. Her big sister (A.K.A Gabster) had made the transition very easily and we were hoping for much the same experience.
JB figured out the first night that she could get out of 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".
Ok, I told The Man, you're in charge. Look for a method to hold JB contained in between the hours of 10 p.m. and six a.m. Preferably in her bed, but at least in her own bedroom. Before you propose simply closing her door, we did. We actually made use of one of those plastic child-proof doorknob covers. Small magician figured it out within few days. Luckily, The Hubby rose to the obstacle and arrived home with The First Years Hands-Free Gate.
The First Years Hands-Free Gate is sleek, white and easy to set up. It is also the 4th different style of gateway to come into our house, and so i approached it with a certain amount of skepticism. Other safety gates had failed before - just what might make this gate special?
Ooooh - no hands! How cool! No more juggling a sleeping baby to open up the gate. No maneuvering out of the way while the gate swings open. No need to have The Hubby make four trips to the hardware store simply to have this gate up and running.
This gate, The First Years Hands-Free Gate is pressure mounted. This means you put the gate in the doorway wherever you would like to use it and twist the ends until it is perfect and stuck! No hammer and nails, no power drill – even better – zero holes in the wall. In fact, there is a nut that twists to keep the little pressure pads in place. Lucky for us, came 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 type of rubber. Potential customers really should note that tightening up the nuts (there are four) will demand some upper body strength. This gate will work best when a passing toddler is unable to even shake it, so tighten away with the thing-a-ma-bobby.
The First Years Hands-Free Gate will fit in any entrance that is 29" to 34" wide. There is also a 5" expansion accessible that may make this gate fit openings up to 44" wide. The manufacturer suggests that users can have one extension on each side of The First Years Hands-Free Gate and it will still be safe. They do not recommend exceeding this number regarding protection purposes. Thankfully we didn't need an extension for JB’s small room entrance. Not surprisingly, the extension is sold separately and possibly costs a lot of money so I was great with not requiring one.
Ok, so you have got it in. Now how does it work?? Oh this is so awesome. The best part is that even if your toddlers watch you opening the gate, they may NOT be able to open it. Why you ask yourself? Well, the First Years Hands-Free Gate is operated by a FOOT PEDAL! There is a gray 2.5 inch by 2.5 inch piece of plastic material that the grownup who would like 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” can easily operate the gate from other side. This did initially create an issue for us because we were utilizing it in JB’s entrance and still needed to be able to shut the door to her bedroom. The control pedal was keeping us from being able to close the door entirely. Repositioning the gate an additional inch far from the doorway helped this concern.
Two great features of the First Years Hands-Free Gate include the fact that the gate swings open in both ways. From a mother with previous gates which are installed and can only swing one way, believe me, this is a really plus. The second is the gate generate a loud “click” to indicate to you the gate has secured. I love this, except during the night when I wish to have the ability to close the gate as silently as I possibly can. Never happens. And the little stinker swears the “click” woke her up.
The noted click also should be rated a minus for that noise factor. I would like to manage to shut the opposing force in – and not have them discover. Yet another negative is that after several weeks of securing herself in her bedroom, JB Houdini still doesn't get it. Both girls often close the gate behind them as they enter the room and later whine that they're “locked in”. Duh – don’t close the gate. I do not really mind, but at the very early morning when I am trying to get that last five minutes of sleep, hearing “open the gate, open the gate” is completely frustrating.
Please take into account, as with any gate you could obtain for your house, unless the gate can be MOUNTED to the wall with hardware, DO NOT put it to use at the top of a staircase. Again, the only type of gate which is ideal 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 (kinds that need no hardware) will not be safe to EVER use at the top of the stairs.
You can check out the First Years Hands-Free Gate and some other great baby safety gates at First Years Hands Free Gate blog.
First Years Hands Free Gate - Which are the Best
