Understanding About The Benefits And Drawbacks Of The Extra Wide Baby Gate Designs
Kid proofing your place can become challenging, then, when you find that you need to have an extra wide baby gate it seems to get even more frustrating.
A lot of of us now have open plan living. This would often result in openings and archways between places which are wider than a standard doorway. If you are making an effort to baby proof then this might be a little bit tricky to deal with.
You pretty much have three choices for an extra wide baby gate. The first is adapting a standard gate. Many manufacturers have now accepted the need for extra wide baby gates, but they don't want to have to make and test a new product, so the basic option is to modify an existing product. The way this has been achieved is to have panels that can be added to either side of a regular gate so that it will fit a wider area.
This style and design is however somewhat faulty. When the gate is open you have restricted your opening to the equivalent of a normal door. This is not a major problem, but it can be intrusive and may not exactly add to the decor of your place.
The next type of gate available from retailers is a roll back gate. This looks the same as a roller blind which is fitted on its side. The benefit of this style is that the when the gate is not being used it may be rolled back and will not be in the way. The disadvantage of this design is that it is not as fast and easy to open.
The last option which you have is to get a carpenter to build you a bespoke gate. This may seem like the best solution, but there are lots of parents who have tried this and found that it was a bad investment. A bespoke extra wide baby gate will be extremely expensive. The biggest issue however, is the design. If this is your first child, then you will still be on the learning curve of child proofing, so to make this large an investment and then realise that there is a big flaw in your design will be quite frustrating.
Unfortunately there is no simple or clear solution for an extra wide baby gate. A good way to decide which will best fit you is to discuss to other parents and see what their experiences are of the different types available.
The other significant thing to have in mind is that an extra wide baby gate is there to protect the baby, but it is the grown-ups who have to use it. If you pick a gate which is awkward for you to use you are more likely to forget to close it and then you defeat the point of having a gate at all.