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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
shellpie84
member
Help me with my climber!
shellpie84
member
My lo is 13 months old and has recently started climbing everything. In the last few days I have found her on the couch, bed and the ottoman. Normally I try to stand right beside her so if she falls I can catch her but I can't do that forever. Last night she climbed on the ottoman so I thought I would just leave her and see what happens and yep, she fell. As soon as she was done crying she was right there climbing it again. She's old enough to climb but not old enough to know where edges are or to always get down safely. Should I ban climbing, or just try to be there to catch her? I'm worried that by always catching her I'm teaching her she's invincible because no matter what she does she doesn't get hurt. Any help is appreciated!
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Re: Help me with my climber!
We are going through the same thing! DD is climbing onto everything, laundry baskets, up into her walker (her dad let her do that one), into her stroller, and trying to get on the couch and INTO THE TUB (which thankfully she cannot reach). The funny thing is, she doesn't even really walk yet! She is VERY rough and tumble. She even bends over and wants us to help her do somersaults. I feel like you, I don't want to teach her she is invincible, but I don't want to hold her back either. I really want to encourage her gross motor skills. I even looked into baby tumbling classes around her but the description talked about "songs and fingerplays" and I wasn't paying for something we do for free at home!
I don't think we should ban climbing. Even though DD can't get UP onto the couch by herself yet, we did teach her how to get down the "big girl way" by turning around and putting her feet down first. She really caught on to it! She even tries to get down off of our bed this way too. Maybe that would help with the falling?
I empathize. LO climbs on everything too. He gets on top of the ottoman or coffee table and does a victory dance until DH or I get him down. He also tries to get in the tub too, which we definitely don't let happen...master of disaster!
I just try to monitor like PP said, we discourage it, but at the same time he needs the physical challenge and the accomplishment of it. We just need to be more vigilent now since he's working on becoming Evel Knievel.
I read somewhere that they have made playgrounds so safe that there are no physical challenges, or the feeling of accomplishment anymore, and I guess that's a big part of growing up. I remember when I was finally able to climb all the way to the top of the slide on my own...when I didn't need mom or dad to go down with me...or when I'd go further then two tiers on the jungle gym. Not that I want LO to fall...but I want him to challenge himslef and then know how great it feels to accomplish something he's worked at for a while. A physical feat...in a safely monitored environment.
As bad as it sounds, DS took a couple tumbles off things before he learned to get down. Most of them weren't on purpose. Before he learned though and I saw him trying to get down, I'd position him so his legs were hanging off. He eventually learned that he needs to back off objects to get down safely, although he does scoot backwards the wrong direction or tries it with something too high like our bed.
My advice would be to spend time teaching her how to get down safely. Position her so that the legs hang off and let her figure out that gravity will lead her down feet first. Try not to leave her unsupervised when she climbs, but sometimes a bump or two is what she needs to figure out that feet first is the ideal method of getting down. Banning climbing is probably a battle you don't want to fight. Plus it is developmentally appropriate for our LOs to learn climbing.
She needs to learn how to fall. If you completely protect her falls now, you're potentially in for serious injuries later because she never learned to fall correctly. That being said, it's reasonable to help her to learn to fall properly and to help her to learn boundaries. For us, that meant telling and showing him where ends of things were (since they tend to not notice those things), guiding him to safer options and even spotting him while he climbed. As he's improved on climbing and become more independent, I do this less and less. Because I've let him fall and try things on his own, he's confident in his own abilities and very rarely gets hurt. He still falls often (though a lot less than it used to be), but just pops right back up.
We also have safe places to climb and things that we don't climb. For example, he's not allowed to climb out of the tub, but he is allowed to climb on and over our living room furniture (well, all but the entertainment center). The phrase, "We keep our feet on the ground" is a common one around here. So, guide her to places that are safe for her to climb and away from places that aren't.
We also don't baby him when he falls. Kids fall all the time, so making a big deal out of every single fall is just going to make things harder for both of you in the long run. That being said, if he does get hurt, then I absolutely comfort him and check him over. I just don't freak out over every fall.