This week's review :
Safety 1st Squeeze ‘N Go Gate
By Debbie Vasen
When my first-born child reached the age of four months, my progression began toward safety proofing our home. Determining an appropriate safety gate was a necessity with the stairs, pets and other potential hazards. As a new mom and completely naive about different types of gates, I went to a supermarket baby supply store to test out the various models.
Overwhelmed by the shear assortment of safety products, I zeroed in on the most inexpensive of the gate selection. The Safety 1st Squeeze ‘N Go gate appeared to be an excellent value at around $20. The trouble started while trying to learn to use the opening latch for the Squeeze ‘N Go system. I cherished the concept of opening and closing the gate with one hand, as I knew many times I would be juggling the gate and the baby. The saleswoman showed me numerous times how to open the latch, but it took a couple weeks at home before it became automatic.
After employing this gate in my home for many years, I conclude that the only redeeming value is this latch system. Older children are powerless to open the latch, but an adult with reasonable arm strength can open and close the gate with a baby in tow. A huge safety feature in itself, as the other gates we tried were difficult to open, tempting us to climb over while holding the baby. We found this activity to be extremely dangerous after a few falls and complete luck that no one was hurt.
Unfortunately, everything else about this gate is negative. The pressure fit design system has two main flaws. The press on structure never truly secures to the wall and therefore was easily knocked over, especially when kids would lean on it. The second flaw was the damage to the walls from the clamps pealing the paint and even the wallboard off. The concept of a pressure gate appealed to us, as our initial impression was there would be no wall destruction. Actually the opposite proved to be true; pressure fit gates do damage walls and additionally they do not provide the security a hard installed gate does.
Two other main safety issues of the Squeeze ‘N Go gate generated from the hard plastic design. Filled with holes that little feet could use to climb over and a ridged structure providing installation on only perfectly straight walls, limited its ability to be utilized in a variety of places and around older children.
Baby Product Weekly
