Baby gates with cat doors

I had a crawling baby (now a toddler) and a cat.

With your situation, I suggest you install a gate that can anchor to the wall. As the little one gets older, they can climb/pounce on it and break any pressure mounting ones. This will be dangerous since you are installing to block the stairs.

If you install the gate a few inches above ground, your cat will be fine.

Back to my situation, my cat managed to climb around it.

tomtomtom wrote: ↑ I had a crawling baby (now a toddler) and a cat.

With your situation, I suggest you install a gate that can anchor to the wall. As the little one gets older, they can climb/pounce on it and break any pressure mounting ones. This will be dangerous since you are installing to block the stairs.

If you install the gate a few inches above ground, your cat will be fine.

Back to my situation, my cat managed to climb around it.

so you don't have a slot for the cats to crawl through, they just work their way around it?

A baby gate with a hole in it is of course a bad idea. Cat's can get around/below/jump over just about anything.

If I recall the building code for space between stiles on a railing is 4 inches. Take that into consideration and leave a 3-4 inch gap below the baby gate. Should be too small for the kid to squeeze under and more than enough for a cat to sneak through.

Experiment with some tape across the area to see how low you can go with your cats.

chowder wrote: ↑ so you don't have a slot for the cats to crawl through, they just work their way around it?

Under it. Mine do the same

Unless it is a very old cat, the cat should easily be able to jump over a gate. I've had a number of cats in my life, and a baby gate was not going to stop them. Especially if you turned on the can opener.

My cat just jumps over the gate no problems, some are pressure mounted for non-risk spots and others are screwed into the wall and taller. Not a problem at any point for her.

Our elderly cat took one look at the baby gate and walked through the stair railing beside the gate. Didn’t even slow her down.

chowder wrote: ↑ so you don't have a slot for the cats to crawl through, they just work their way around it?

Our cat jumps over the gate. It's a pretty easy jump for most cats. We do have one gate where the cat slides under.

my cat can fit thru the gate, the bars are wide enuff for a cat but not a baby

As others have said here ...
Don’t worry about the cats

Focus on what’s best for the kid
And that’s the gate firmly attached to the wall

Cats are both smart & resilient ... they’ll figure a way out

Dogs on the other hand, they are gonna treat it like any other door / gate ... and just wait around until a human opens it for them