I'm running out of things to do. My daughter doesn't really try to climb everything, just the changing table. Which worries me because it's probably one of the least sturdy things in our house. We have had time out 3 times today and all 3 were for climbing the changing table. I've made each time out a little longer than the last but it doesn't seem to do any good. She knows she's not allowed because when I walk in the room she gets down and runs away from it. Any ideas of what to do to get her to stop?
Re: I have a climber...
Yeah, the changing table should be strapped to the wall anyway as part of babyproofing. And then I wouldn't allow unfettered access to her room alone. Set her up for success and redirect. The timeouts obviously aren't effective, she's getting too much out of the selfrewarding behavior.
My daughter will be 2 in a couple of months. I've heard to do time out for the age they are so we typically try time out for a minute and a half to about 2 minutes.
I will be strapping the changing table to the wall but I don't see how I can possibly not give her access to her room. She sleeps in a toddler bed now. Her room is completely baby proofed except for the table.
And redirecting for this table thing doesn't work. We tried that before the time outs. If she doesn't climb during the day because we keep her from it, she does it at bed time or in the morning when she gets up.
I'd take her to the park to let her climb her little heart out everyday but we don't have a (safe) park near us in walking distance and only one working vehicle at the moment which my husband needs for work. And we have a one story house. I figure the climbing is due to her wanting to get out more energy. I've gotta figure out some way for her to do that at our home until I can get out of this house with her daily. I guess I could just let her do it and she'll learn on her own... but I don't want her to get too hurt.
Ugh.
We've never had a changing table - I sit on the floor and change him.
We have a big cushy chair in his room that he loves to climb on, and that is how he gets his climbing in when we don't go to the park. He also climbs on the sofa if I'm not looking, I let him climb out of his high chair, and he just recently started being able to climb into the car and get into his car seat. We also have a couple of songs that we do motions to, and that is a good energy outlet for him. He really misses our old house because it had stairs, so I always let him climb on stairs if we are somewhere with stairs.
All of this. You can also head her off at the pass when you see her going for it. Distract her into doing something else.
Thanks guys. I guess we'll go ahead and get rid of the changing table. It was going to be gone out of the room in a few months anyhow so might as well go ahead and do it now for safety.We needed to move it out and get another dresser instead for the baby since they'll be sharing a room and it's a tiny room. I haven't even changed her on the table in the last week because my sciatica nerve pain is so bad it's hard to pick her up constantly so i've been changing her on the floor. Thank you for the advice. Now that other people have said it I kinda feel like "duuuh. why didn't i think of that?" lol. I appreciate it. Thanks.
We do this too with my little climber. I set up obstacle courses for him and give him safe things to climb. It helps to get the wiggles out when we're not able to go outside or to the park.