Going down the stairs?

leslies75

How do you show your toddler how to get down stairs?

desabean

We showed her to go down on her butt, but that really only works for a couple of stairs.  I think we should have showed her to go down on her knees, backwards.  Right now we still carry her or hold her hand.

JillRock96

I think we started due to necessity when the twins were born -- I needed to be able to carry one baby and help Ava down at the same time (our family room is in the basement).  I would have her hold on to the railing with one hand and hold on to my hand with her other hand.  She does it by herself if there's just three or so stairs, but I still help her down big staircases.  HTH!

choco_lab

We are struggling with this.  At first I had him hold the railing and my hand.  Now he tries to take 2 steps at a time! I'm afriad I'm going to pull his arm out of the socket.  We just started with him going down on his butt.  I'm trying to make it seem like that's the "fun" way to go down by saying "Weeee... isn't that fun!?"  He does it about 1/2 way and then wants to stand up again.  I can't wait until he can be trusted on the stairs.

dana316

I have been wondering this same thing.  Caroline does great coming up, and we need to work on going down.  We have to come up lots of stairs to get to the main living area of our house several times a day.

 

LoveMyGirlz

We taught her to turn around, and go down them backwards, on her knees and hands. We praise her when she does it, so she does it every time now and I feel pretty comfortable with it (although we still lead her and will for awhile).

eriness`

We taught DS to go down on his tummy/hands & knees. Mostly he uses his tummy, and thumps down at lightening speed. He can go down now by walking forwards, holding a hand or not, but much prefers the thumping, lightening speed method on his tummy.

leslies75

eriness`:

.... but much prefers the thumping, lightening speed method on his tummy.

This made me laugh!

 

Thanks for all the input girls!

GypsyEsq

LoveMyGirlz:

We taught her to turn around, and go down them backwards, on her knees and hands. We praise her when she does it, so she does it every time now and I feel pretty comfortable with it (although we still lead her and will for awhile).

This.  DH taught DD how to get down stairs and off furniture right away and this is the way he taught her.  It's been really great because she does it consistently whenever she wants down.

CMM05

LoveMyGirlz:

We taught her to turn around, and go down them backwards, on her knees and hands. We praise her when she does it, so she does it every time now and I feel pretty comfortable with it (although we still lead her and will for awhile).

This as well......for both boys.

We have never used any gates on the stairs. We have just taught them how to go down.

DS1 was going down on his own pretty confidently at around a year or so.

DS2 is doing it now on his own and has been for about the past month. DS2 is super fast and often I freak that he is just going to fly down, but he seems to have the hang of it.

I would say closer to 2 is when DS1 was able to walk down forward and hold the railings.

 

LIAngel

We taught Nicholas to do down on his butt. Then he started holding one hand and grabbing the railing with the other.  His new thing however (at least with me) is him wanting me to carry him down.   At 7 months pg, I really don't want to be carrying him down 15 steps.   So I'll sit on the step next to him and say "Let's go down together okay?" and we do.