Baby Safety Gates

With a 10 month old baby, I always seem to be shopping for something. We're obsessed with child-proofing the house these days. Safety has always been important to me, but with 2-and-a-half foot tall person poking his fingers into every nook and cranny, we really have to get serious about baby proofing.



Today the #1 item on my list is a new baby safety gate because the three we've tried so far were miserable failures, each for a different reason:

North States Superyard XT Gate Play Yard

It was nice and rigid out of the box, and seemed like it would be a good solution to keeping the baby somewhere safe while the grown-ups did their thing close by. Unfortuantely, it was really, really hard to assemble, could only be configured in the one hexaganol shape, and required us to climb over the side of it to get in and out (no swinging door). That's next to impossible with a baby in your arms, if you're wondering.

None of these have worked, but I've learned several things:

1. My baby hates to be contained, so anything like a Play Yard is a waste of money. Unless I'm sitting in there with him, he's miserable and just cries and begs to get out.


2. If it isn't easy to open, you might as well forget it. That first one was ridiculous, because it didn't even have a gate that swung open, we just had to take the whole thing down every time we wanted to walk through the door.


3. It is has a little threshold thing you have to step over, everyone (including the baby) is going to trip on it.

I'm hopeful now that this one will do better:

The First Years Hands Free Gate

It's got a clever little foot pedal that opens the gate, which seems like a great idea when you're carrying a squirmy baby in your arms. But I'm a little worried that the pedal is going to be TOO easy to use, especially for a little guy who absolutely loves things like buttons, levers, anything with a cause-and-effect action.

Any suggestions for a gate that works better would be most welcome!