Baby on the move...
This spring my "baby" went from hardly moving forward to "Whoa baby slow down!" Meanwhile of course he is looking less and less like a baby and looking more and more like a little boy/toddler. Our house is a tri-level plus basement meaning 3 sets of 7 stairs... which equals not good if he were to fall down any of them. We knew right away it was time for the gates for some piece of mind. We got one as a baby shower present... this one (Safety 1st Perfect Fit Gate) that we had registered for.

Only one area...
that really needed a gate. Our main floor has steps that go up and down in the main area of things. (The lower level doesn't need it because the steps to the basement has a door that can be shut and the upstairs isn't an area frequently played in). My husband and I were more concerned about the steps going down than the ones going up. We hoped this gate would solve some worries.

Safety 1st Perfect Fit Gate
This gate is meant for little ones that are 6-24 months old. The color we have is white and is big enough for door openings that are 28-42 inches in the pressure mount mode. The minimum opening is 30 inches with the hardware.

Set-up
The gate comes fully assembled for the pressure mount mode and has minimal assembly to do the hardware mode in which the hardware is attached to the wall. My husband and I didn't want unneeded holes in our walls so we stuck with the pressure mount mode.

In order to use for the pressure mount mode press the button on the side and lift up on the handle pressing that button down. Make sure that underneath the handle you see the yellow sign with the arrows. Place in the doorway as best as you can and then lock the handle into place. If you do it correctly the gate pressures right into the wall and the gate is secure.

The gate also has a hinge mode that uses hardware mounts into the wall. Then you remove the gate as needed when you go through that area. (This is not the method we chose in using this gate).

Our experience
We found that this gate was more hassle than what it is worth. Sometimes it took my husband or myself 10-20 tries to get the thing to lock into place. Plus if we were carrying our son...FORGET IT. This is not manageable with one hand. We even found that from time to time my son would stand by the gate and lean on it and it may not hold up if it is not on the perfect place on the wall. It really worried my husband and I that he may fall because this gate was so hard to keep secure.

It was a constant headache/frustration for us everyday, several times a time per day in trying to make the gate fit into the wall. Eventually we took it down when we got a different one.

Overall
This gate didn't really work for us. We still have it, but feel that there are much better ones on the market. We found a hands-free gate that worked much better for our situation.

For more information:
www.safety1st.com
1-800-544-1108

Recommended: No