Stairs and Car Seats

aravis121 · August 2013

Hi, all! Frequent lurker, infrequent poster here

So we are also part of the moving coterie, and we just moved from a tiny apartment in Manhattan to a big house in north Dallas. Since our lifestyle is sooo different now, I'm beginning to feel like I'm having to learn this whole parenting thing all over again! So, a couple of questions.

#1: If you have stairs in your home, do you let your LO go up and down them by themselves yet? Ours are hardwood and a little scary even for me, but she loves them!

#2: What snacks do you give your kid in the car? After cleaning up a melted fruit snack - our usual go-to snack to maintain the peace - from the car seat on only our second day here, I'm open to all suggestions!

And finally, if there are any December moms in the Addison/Carrollton/Farmers Branch area, we'd love to get together for a playdate sometime!

moosebaby2011 · August 2013

1. I also have scary hardwood stairs. If we have something to do upstairs we do allow DS to climb up them on his own (they are gated off otherwise), but either DH or I walk immediately behind him to lend a hand or to steady him if there are problems. DS isn't ready to go down the stairs completely on his own and always holds hands.

2. I don't usually give snacks in the car, so no help there.

Oasismomma · August 2013

We moved from no stairs to stairs in May. At that time, we put a baby gate at the bottom and the top of the stairs. DS is fairly steady go up and down the stairs on his own, but I like the gates to keep him a bit more contained.

We travel a lot (autobahn + Europe = lots of road trips) and DS eats a LOT in the car. We do pretzels, fruit (dried and fresh), string cheese, carrot sticks, etc. Not gonna lie, my car is a crumby disaster most of the time, but we do try to stay away from any snack that will make a *sticky* mess.

Leap08 · August 2013

1. I let DD go up the stairs all the time by herself. Sometimes she'll go down on her bottom by herself, but if she want to walk down she still needs to hold my hand.

2. I think I'm not going to be very much help - my kids car seats are such yucky messes. We do a lot of crackers and dried fruit. Sometimes I'll give her an applesauce pouch.

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aravis121 · August 2013

Thanks so much, everyone! I definitely have a good sense of what to expect from her on the stairs now, and somehow it never occurred to me to do dried fruit in the car

laken256 · August 2013

We have stairs in our house now, and thankfully they are carpeted. Both of my boys go up and down as they please. Their playroom is upstairs and I'm usually downstairs, so they want to go up a lot. We initially had the stairs gated on the top and bottom, to make sure they got the hang of it. We always make them go down 'on their butts' but lo loves to slide down on his belly. He thinks it's a game! And he climbs up them like a monkey, but it works! So far, no accidents! And they go up and down a hundred times a day! Just be consistent with how they are allowed to maneuver them!

As far as snacks, lo usually sleeps in the car, but if he does wake and want a snack, he gets pretty much anything. My car is a crumby mess too! But I do avoid things that he could easily choke on, even though it's not really an issue anymore and he eats everything any other time. Guess I'm still just a paranoid momma!

iluvmylab · August 2013

No help on the stairs.

Snacks in the car- usually cheerios, cereal bars or fruit pouches. He usually sleeps when we are going far enough for him to get hungry and I like to sit back there with him if he's going to be eating. I'm paranoid.

NNGnome · August 2013

1, DS does the stairs on his own half the time, and walking holding my hand the rest of the time, he just started going downstairs not holding on to anything this week, which scares me no end, but either way, I have gates, and I am below him in case he falls. We have a couple steps to the garage and garden, that he now goes down by himself without me though, which scares me but so far so good, and I would rather he fell a couple steps then all the way down the stairs while he is learning.

2, As pp said, mostly I give dry snacks like fish or a fruit pouch as that usually doesn't make a mess.

aravis121 · August 2013

We went shopping today and got some snacks mentioned here. Hopefully they don't end up as permanent fixtures to the car!

I've been trying to be really consistent with how we go downstairs, thanks to the suggestions here, and I think she might be ready in a couple of weeks. We went to a playground every day in New York where she got to practice stairs, so she's actually pretty good - just not good with the turns, and those are what scare me.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Ricola · September 2013

We don't have stairs, sorry.

Car snacks for us are pretzel sticks, teddy grahams, applesauce pouches (he's really good at eating them).

katykatykaty · September 2013

We don't have stairs and we don't really do snacks in the car, so I'm no help in either of those departments. We do live in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas, so welcome to the area.

That's quite a change, but I hope you enjoy the extra space!

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