Good for infants, good for pets too I suppose

As any family with a curious infant or toddler knows, there are some areas of the house that you just can't childproof.  That's where the Safety 1st Perfect Fit Gate comes in.  As our daughter began crawling, then walking, then running, and finally driving us up a wall (just kidding on that last one), we needed a way to block off rooms or hallways.

We purchased one of these early on.  And as Jessie became more mobile, we decided to purchase a second one for more flexibility.  We used one in the hallway leading back to the bathroom and bedrooms, and another in the kitchen area. 

These are light and easy enough to pack up, that we would take them along when we visited friends and family who were not prepared to "child proof" a house.  Now we keep them around for our friends with young children, for when they visit.

The Perfect Fit Gate is adjusted by depressing a button on the main part of the gate, and lifting the handle all the way up.  This allows you to easily slide the gate out to the desired width.  On one edge, there is a spring-loaded section that provides about 1" to 2" of travel or adjustment, and allows for non-parallel or stepped surfaces.  This worked fine for us; we have 3" or so colonial base molding.  Someone else mentioned a problem with their house in a review; they must have had taller molding or baseboard.

[Update 4/11/09] This gate will fit openings from about 27" to 42" wide.  If you are using the swining gate hardware, you need to add about 2 inches to these numbers.  Our hallways are about 36" wide, and the gate works perfectly.

There were two issues or areas of concern that we had.  On one occasion, the gate had left a little mark on drywall when some paint was lifted off by the rubber pad.  This was more likely due to poor paint adhesion than fault of the gate.  And I also had a concern that if you kept putting the gate in a hall way pressing on the drywall between two studs that you might eventually have a problem.  I thought the drywall would get soft or crack in that area.  But that problem never materialized.

These gates come with kits to allow them to be mounted as swinging gates.  They are all plastic, so we decided to use them outside on our deck, where we've installed them per the instructions at the top of the steps.  It provides another layer of safety with young children around.

We have been very happy with these and would recommend them to families with young children or pets.