Review - Dreambaby Chelsea Swing Closed Safety Gate

It's safe to say that Holly is a very active toddler. Having taking her first steps at just 9 months to being a fully confident walker who would happily attempt walking upstairs at 10 months I am sure you can imagine that now she is 22 months she is into everything in the house. I literally cannot turn my back for a second!  She climbs anything and everything and has recently learned to jump from high objects too! It's definitely a scary time.

As you can imagine we have quite a lot of safety equipment in our house to keep Holly as safe as possibly. Up until now though we have only had one baby gate, which is fitted at the top of our stairs.   We never really needed a gate at the bottom of the stairs as we were simply able to keep the kitchen and lounge doors closed in order to keep Holly away from that area. However, due to a recent grotwth spurt Holly is now tall enough to finally reach the door handles (she has been trying to reach them for a long time) and can easily open all the doors now! So although Holly is easily able to use the stairs now I still don't feel it will be safe to let her near the stairs unattended! We really needed to find good gate for the bottom of the stairway as soon as possible.

I was therefore delighted when Tesco Compare home insurance offered me the opportunity to review a new baby gate!

The gate I received was the Dreambaby Chelsea Swing Closed Safety Gate.  I had already seen this product when browsing online for safety gates before and had really liked the features and design of this gate. Some of the features I liked best about the gate were:

• Pressure mounted. This made it very easy to put up (& to take down when the time comes). Also no drilling into my walls or woodwork! So no mess!
• 2 way opening and swing shut mechanism. This means you don't have to worry about forgetting to close the gate. It will close automatically once you have stepped through.
• It has a double locking mechanism (at the top and bottom) so it is very secure!
• Easy one handed opening for adults.

I will admit at first that I was unsure if a pressure fit gate would be sturdy enough. However I can say that once it was in place I can safely say it was extremely secure and just as secure as our other gate which is screw mounted to the walls. Also, fitting was extremely quick and the instructions were really easy to follow. My partner was the one who fitted the gate and he managed it in about 20 mins. He is not good with his hands at all, or good at following instructions either (I usually do ALL of our DIY). So I'd say the gate is pretty much foolproof!

Once the gate was in place we tried opening and closing the gate. I wanted to see how easy it was to open one handed. I have tried other gates that were impossible to open one handed so Again Imwas doubtful! I slid the button on top of the gate with my thumb, then lifted the gate slightly (the second locking mechanism) and pulled the gate towards me. It opened easily. It wasnt difficult at all. I tried opening it in the other direction too. It opened just as easily. In addition to this, the gate automatically closed behind me each time. I have to say, I was impressed.

I don't often gush about products but I would like to say this is a fantastic safety gate. It is easy and quick to fit (or remove). It's easy to open one handed for adults, but the double locking mechanism makes it extremely secure to keep exploring babies and toddlers out of harms way.

I would definitely recommend this gate to any parent.