Baby Gate Review

This is a review of the 3 babygates I used or tried to use in babyproofing our new house for the twins.

Safety First Baby Gate: The worst. Bad engineering, badly written instructions and super-bad installation. I bought 3 from BRU and returned them a week later. You get what you pay for with these gates. Available in Babies R Us, Walmart, Target and online

Summer Infant Baby Gate: This gate has travelled with us across Canada. It's my gate for the kitchen. The wood-metal combo is easy on the eyes and the price is decent. Installation was easy and it comes with 2 extensions. Only negatives are it doesn't stay put and has to be adjusted every few days. If I lived in a one-storey house, this is the only safety gate I would have bought. Available in Babies R Us and online

Kidco Center Gateway Baby Gate: This is the gate of choice for our staircase areas. I chose this gate because it's the only one with an attachement that allows installation onto staircases that only have one wall and the other side is a metal baluster. (Our 3 staircases fall under this category). It has a lot of different sized extensions that allow for it to be customized to fit any opening size. Unlike the Summer Infant gate, it has soft rubber at the end of the spindles which make it less likely to shift once in position even when used on uneven surfaces. Installation takes some time but instructions were very easy to follow. It's pricy but totally worth it. Available in independent baby stores and online.



Other Babyproofing equipment I like


I vote the Kidco door knob lock over the Safety First and the Amazon reviews back me up on this. Kidco is more expensive but easier to use. The Safety First door knob lock required putting your thumb and finger in the opening to turn the lock. After doing this 3 or 4 times a day, your thumbs start to hurt. Kidco is more than double the price of Safety First, but again you get what you pay for.