My son is active- I mean VERY ACTIVE. He is my second child and first boy. I am not kidding when I say he is so opposite of my daughter. We never had to block off these steps from her. We just arranged furniture in the living room to block even getting to this area and she never bothered. He climbs over the furniture and would be halfway up the steps before I could get to him. He makes me a nervous wreck. I kept looking for special gates to block it off and couldn't find anything to work the way we needed. It was a WIDE opening and one side had nothing for the tension gates to work on.
First I tried to get Y-spindles to screw into the side of a kidco gate and it didn't work. SO I returned them. That was all I could figure from any of my searches.
Well go figure a trip to Walmart for something else I noticed a gate that extended the length we needed and could be screwed in, and it was retractable instead of opening by pushing or pulling. So, we tried again and saved the receipt just in case. BUT
IT WORKED! It is simple to use, my 5 year old can do it to get up and down the steps. Pardon the stuff sitting on the other side. I now also use that area to put things he can't have out of his reach. This is such a relief to have done. He can't get up the steps and my living room is back to a normal set up instead of an obstacle course.
It attaches by being screwed in to the dowel and wall with these eye hooks and thread the metal hooks attached to the gate through them. Done. So if you have stair gate issues- check out the basic wood one at Walmart.
