Do you close your child's door at night, and if so, all the way?
Natalie is still in a crib (19mths) and we have always closed her door at night. Then I hear about people using gates when they switch to a toddler bed, twin with rails whatever, and I never understand why other than the door was always open before.
I guess this is just a curiosity question.TIA

By Kate on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 10:45 pm:

Yes, we've always closed the door all the way. Leaving it open is unsafe if there is a fire. Fire will spread to the easiest places to get to. If going down the hall, it will go to the open room before burning down the door of a closed room. If people put gates when kids go in real beds, it's because they're trying to keep the kids in their rooms instead of wandering. If someone does this, the gate should go OUTside the door, not inside.

By Hlgmom on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 10:46 pm:

We have always closed dd's door! Still do! She is in a twin bed! We are in a one story house though...if there were stairs I would use a gate but still close the door!

By Kate on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 10:47 pm:

Let me clarify...if someone needs a gate so their toddler doesn't wander in the middle of the night and hurt themselves, close the door first, THEN put the gate in the doorway on the outside (hallway side) of the door, so that if the child opens the door in the night he can't get past the gate. His howls of frustration will wake you, don't worry. But never leave the door open and simply put a gate in the doorway.

By Kate on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 10:51 pm:

Heather, just so you know, we were typing at the same time and my response wasn't aimed at you. I think you are saying you'd gate the stairs though, not the outer part of the doorway. Your way is a good idea, too...the child couldn't really go anywhere except other bedrooms, altho the bathroom could be a hazard I suppose.

By Kaye on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 10:56 pm:

With Kate here. I always close doors do to fire safety. If I need a gate (and I have) i gate after the door is closed (sometimes that is in the room, sometimes out of the room). I never had issues with hearing them cry, but could always use a monitor if needed.

By Hlgmom on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 11:27 pm:

No- I meant gate the outside of the door!

By Emily7 on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 01:14 am:

I always close the door, but leave it unlatched so that my dd can come to me at night- she can't turn the knob yet.
I close & latch my ds door because he can open it to come to me.
We don't have to worry about stairs & I have locks high on the outside doors so that they can't reach them. I also still use monitors in their room because of the layout of my house and I do leave my bedroom door open.

By Amecmom on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 08:45 am:

I also keep the door closed. I don't want the cat napping with Helen or Randy. We use a baby monitor. Never had any problem. Helen is in a crib and Randy is in a double bed. Our bedroom door is closed as well. If they need us, the are not shy about calling.
Ame

By Heaventree on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 09:02 am:

We never close the door all the way even when he was in the crib. The doors crack when you open them and I like to peek in.

The reason we use a gate is because he can open his door and I don't want to lock him in completely. I have to use a gate because he will not stay in his bed at night or when he goes down for his nap. I would spend hours just trying to keep him in his room. He will stand at the gate for awhile and play or complain then eventually he will go back to his bed and sleep.

That's why we use a gate.

By Trina~moderator on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 09:05 am:

Doors closed with gates on the outside. We couldn't put a gate at the top of our stairway, which isn't far from the DK's bedroom doors. They do eventually figure out how to open the door. Besides the danger of falling down the stairs, we didn't want night wanderers. We used baby monitors so we could hear if they needed us.

By Vicki on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 09:42 am:

Bedroom doors are always closed tight here. My dad was a fireman and he drilled that into my head!! LOL We were lucky that dd always just stayed in her bed and never had to use the gate, but it would have been on the outside of a closed door if we had needed it.

By Kate on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 09:58 am:

Vicki, can you ask your dad something? We have four bedrooms and a bathroom off our upstairs hall. Three of those rooms are used at night and two (extra bedroom and the bathroom) are not. Is it better to shut ALL the doors upstairs, or is it better to leave the extra bedroom and the bathroom doors open so that the fire will roar into THOSE rooms and give us more time to get out safely before the fire gets to our rooms?? In other words, does it give us stalling time, OR, does it roar into the open rooms and just gather more STRENGTH to get thru our bedroom doors? I can't figure out which would be the safer thing to do. It seems like it would give us more time to get out if the fire was spreading into the opened rooms, but it also seems like in doing so it gathers more 'soldiers' to come and get us in the closed rooms. Am I making any sense??

By Boxzgrl on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 11:55 am:

I can't close any door in the house. I'm too afraid of something happening and me not knowing. I think it stemmed from the fact that when DD was 2 months old I closed her door to keep the cat out and the monitor got bad reception and I couldn't hear her. I was dreaming that she was crying and when I woke over an hour later I realized she actually was crying. I felt so bad because she looked like she was crying pretty hard. I havn't been able to close a door since then. Now I just fear someone stealing her while i'm sleeping. I'm crazy.

By Imamommyx4 on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 02:00 pm:

I don't close doors at night either. My fear is that the fire would start in her room from a night light or ceiling fan malfunction or something else and I wouldn't know until it was too late. My hearing isn't the greatest and I'm afraid I wouldn't hear the smoke detectors go off if the doors were shut. And they go off at almost nothing. My dh was grinding a piece of metal and the little bit of smoke from that set off the alarm. I was standing under the detector and couldn't smell or see the smoke.

By Reds9298 on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 02:52 pm:

Thanks everyone! I never even thought about the fire situation, just always closed the door because of noise mainly. We have a ranch-style home and our bedroom is right next door as well. We watch TV in bed at night and our dogs are always busy, so we just shut the door.

I guess I had just assumed that people were only using gates and not shutting the door at all.

We have monitors, too, and as I said are right next door, so I've never had a problem keeping her door closed. Thanks everyone - I was just curious and now I understand better!

By Nicki on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - 01:29 am:

Melissa, you're not alone! I have the same worry about someone coming in and taking my dd. I didn't think anyone else would have the same fear!
Needless to say, our room is always open, and Lara's is left a crack open. I honestly didn't think about the fire hazard.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - 09:32 am:

We never close the door. My kids are afraid to be in their rooms with the door closed (i'm not sure why). We leave their doors open a crack and ours are open too.

I also just feel better with the doors open, that way i can hear them. I'm also paranoid of someone taking them in the middle of the night.

By Trina~moderator on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - 09:53 am:

I never feared of my kids being taken during the night, but our bedrooms are on the 2nd floor, the windows are always locked and our house has a security system, of which we arm at night.

By Tayjar on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - 10:59 am:

We sleep with the doors closed usually. And, for our second floor, all of the bedrooms have a fire extinguisher and a metal escape ladder that can be used to get out of a window. These can be found at home improvement stores and fit neatly under a bed.