# When can I un-gate the bathroom?



## rockportmama (Jun 24, 2008)

What's the youngest you'd take the baby gate out of the bathroom door? My youngest just turned 2, and the gate seems a bit unnecessary, but I can't bring myself to take it down. Advice?

TIA,

-rockport-


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## Kreeblim (Dec 19, 2009)

We just kind of kept the door shut, so I went by when it became less of a "must do" type of thing. That was probably around 18 months? We just made sure to take his hands off the lid of the toilet and once the novelty of trying to lift it wore off we didn't have to worry about it again.

Our bathroom is on the top floor though, which means there is NEVER a time where he would be near it unsupervised. If it was directly off of the living room or something, and I would need to be out of eyeshot (like in the kitchen) for small lengths of time through out the day, then it would be a different situation. I probably would keep the door closed with a bell on the handle until 3ish.


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## elmh23 (Jul 1, 2004)

We never had a gate, just closed the door. We started leaving it open when they could open it themselves (so 2.5ish for dd and 1.5ish for ds1.) We have a gate in the hallway that leads to the bathroom (and bedrooms) right now for ds2 and it'll be taken down in a couple months (he's 10 months) and the bathroom door will close again.


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## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Y'know, I was about to vote for "never had a gate" when I remembered that we did in fact have one. It must've come down before age 2, because we moved last July and hadn't had a gate up on the old bathroom for awhile before we moved. I think I might've taken the gate down when she started walking because I think the reason we had a gate was that the older tile floor had rough patches that could hurt baby knees.

Actually, come to think of it, we had gates up to keep her out of the bedroom (bathroom lead into the bedroom, plus the door off the living room) so she couldn't access the cat food without supervision. She'd move all the cat food from the food bowl to the water bowl and then try to pour the resulting mess back into the food bowl.

Heh, so there you go, had a gate up because of cat food, but didn't bother to really make the bathroom child-friendly because the gate was up.

Hmm, the gate must've been down near 18 months, because by that time we'd changed out the drawers she could reach to be only stuff that she could play with.


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## dejagerw (Jan 5, 2010)

We never had a gate, nor shut the door. However, I never had any chemicals or medicines under the sink downstairs, and upstairs any cabinet with cleaning chemicals or medicines had baby latches on the cabinet doors. Downstairs bathroom, we had a toilet lock on the toilet for awhile. We took it off when he started potty training. He's never really attempted to play in the toilet or anything. He is a pretty mellow boy too. He's never been the kind of boy to find too much trouble.


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## prothyraia (Feb 12, 2007)

We had a gate when my oldest was little, but we never put it back up after his brother was born. He needed to get to the toilet when he had to go, I wasn't about to lift him over it every single time and wait there, nothing dangerous in the bathroom but the toilet which the younger one wasn't ever interested in.


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## lookatreestar (Apr 14, 2008)

no gates here. neither kid really messed with the toilet and i do not keep anything in the cabinets that would worry me (towels and tp only),


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## Drummer's Wife (Jun 5, 2005)

We never gated the bathrooms (with four kids); I'm sure we closed the door if we wanted to keep them out, but there wasn't chemicals/dangerous items within their reach anyway.


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## Polliwog (Oct 29, 2006)

I've never owned a baby gate. I just kept the door closed. Still do, most of the time.


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## rockportmama (Jun 24, 2008)

Thanks for the input, Mamas!

Our 5yo can't get the door to shut, so we won't go that route. The cabinet under the sink has a babylock, so that's not a problem. We have shelves over the toilet that DD likes to get into, so maybe I really just need to babyproof. 

I read once (somewhere?) that since babies are top heavy, that if they tip head-first into the toilet that they can't get themselves out and could drown. But no one has mentioned that so maybe it's just an old wives' tale? *sigh* I wish I knew where the line is between being vigilent and being paranoid!! LOL!!

-rockport-


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## lari (Oct 25, 2010)

rockport: drowning is definitely a valid concern. It could happen. We kept the bathroom door closed, but now he can open it and is in the process of potty training, so I just try to keep an eye on him. He's never tried to play in the potty, so I haven't worried about it too much.

kreeblim: that's a brilliant idea to put a bell on the door. I'm totally doing that and it being Christmas I conveniently have several bells laying around. Thanks!


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## starbuckmom (Aug 2, 2010)

No gate here. Well, we would have to have 2 gates as our bathroom has 2 doors, one that leads to the hallway and one to the kitchen. My kids would be pretty unhappy if I shut the doors cause then they couldn't play chase through the bathroom into the hall into the living room and into the kitchen and back into the bathroom







They love being able to run the circle! To be more serious tho, I never put up gates. I just taught my kids not to play in the bathroom. They've done really well except a few times and I have a picture of my oldest when he was about 15mos old and he had gotten ahold of the toilet paper and had it strewn all over the bathroom







.

I should add that I don't keep any chemicals in the bathroom. I don't have much for chemicals in the house anyways.


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## Kreeblim (Dec 19, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *lari*
> 
> kreeblim: that's a brilliant idea to put a bell on the door. I'm totally doing that and it being Christmas I conveniently have several bells laying around. Thanks!


LOL, I'll let my mom know it was helpful. It's actually something she does in the summer with her screen door so she can hear if her diabetic indoor cat is trying to get outside (it has a faulty latch).


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## JD5351 (Sep 13, 2008)

We bought a toilet lock thing...It attaches to the lid and the tank of the toilet so you can't just lift it up. You have to push a button and slide the latch to unlock it. We bought it because kiddo likes to splash water in the toilet everywhere..lol It's worked pretty good so far!


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## lactatinggirl (Nov 22, 2009)

We've never had a gate and my LO is almost 2. She's always gone in the bathroom with me, so I think she just doesn't find it interesting. I've also always made a point of playing with the toilet lid being a "no-no" and we always keep it down. We also don't keep chemicals or anything like that under the sink where she could get to them (really, I use vinegar to clean anyway so I don't think it would do much if she drank it). We do keep the toilet paper on the counter, but we're slowly moving away from that now that she's starting to understand the concept that it's not a toy.


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## Aliy (Jun 1, 2010)

never gated the bathroom. never had a problem... i'm generally where the bathrooms are ( main floor) so I'm always in earshot and I generally know where the kids are and which room they are in


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## just_lily (Feb 29, 2008)

We still keep the door shut (DD is 2.5) but mainly as a sanity-saver. She would be in there squirting an entire bottle of soap and an entire tube of toothpaste into the sink in two seconds flat.

From a safety perspective the only thing in the bathroom that really concerned me is the hot water. She loves to wash her hands and I was worried she would get the water too hot and burn herself. I had DH turn off the hot water to the sink (the cold still works) so that she can wash independently but without giving Mama a heart attack.


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## littlemizflava (Oct 8, 2006)

i never had a gate. never shut the door. but thats just me. i live in a apartment and never gated or shut doors for anyroom. i just always kept things i didnt want them to touch up. even the doors in the cupboard were never latched.


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## justKate (Jun 10, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rockportmama*
> 
> What's the youngest you'd take the baby gate out of the bathroom door? My youngest just turned 2, and the gate seems a bit unnecessary, but I can't bring myself to take it down. Advice?
> 
> ...


*Sigh* I love Rockport. Wish we could live there! Maybe someday.

DD is almost 2. We don't gate the bathroom, but we do close the door because she can't open doors yet (too short!). Once she can I think we'll use the bell idea, just so that we know what she's up to--I love it!


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## CourtBChase (Sep 11, 2006)

We kept the door shut, at first. Now at 18 months old we try to remember to shut the door, but mostly don't. Our house is 1000 sq ft ranch, so it is pretty easy to keep tabs on where she is, and she has never dumped anything in the toilet (my main concern).


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## KempsMama (Dec 1, 2008)

Never had a gate, never kept the door shut, initially because in our old house the litterbox was in the bathroom, and now I just don't see the point since DS1 is potty learning and sometimes doesn't have the time to mess with a doorknob.

Actual number of kids who drown in toilets each year? Less than four on average.


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## ecoteat (Mar 3, 2006)

We never had a gate on either bathroom. But dd was never really near the upstairs one alone--if she was upstairs we were usually with her and we kept a gate at the bottom of the stairs for a long time. For the downstairs bathroom, she just never really bothered going in there. It's in a corner of the house that isn't on the way to anything else, so I think it just wasn't on her radar screen.


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## rockportmama (Jun 24, 2008)

Update:

I've finally taken the gate down!! Baby Girl spent yesterday in underwear (she refused a diaper) with us running into the bathroom periodically. With wet underwear and only one poop falling in the hallway.







But I got to thinking how much more convenient it would be to not have a gate. And, more importantly, it occured to me how I could babyproof & still have access to the stuff I need. So, viola! We may try to keep the toilet lid down, or keep the baby seat in it. I'll also make sure the 5yo doesn't leave water in the tub. But other than that, I feel pretty comfortable with it.

Thanks again for all of your insight, Mamas!!

-rockport-

PS. justKate -- we love Austin! Well, the hanging out part, not the driving through part.


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## MJB (Nov 28, 2009)

My boys both potty trained at 20-21 months so it was definitely before then. I never had a gate but I kept the door closed when they were at the age where they might play in the toilet.

My daughter is 7 mos. and just started crawling but so far has free range of the house. When she gets faster we'll gate off part of the house (the kitchen, bathroom, and kids' room o' choking hazards) for a while.


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