Stairs

[Deleted User] · January 2014

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diana.filipi · January 2014

Stairs ability depends on your home I suspect. With our DD, who was our first, we did a gate and let her crawl up them with one of us every night for bath and she'd come down with one of us once she could. We kept a gate at the bottom locked for a long darn time; it was still locked when DS was born (she was 2yr2m). I started leaving it unlocked sometime after that. With DS I only locked it for a little while after he was crawling. I'm a SAHM mom so I just managed it cuzz DD could pull it open. He's had unrestricted access since he was at least a year. He did fall down the stairs (with an ambulance transfer though he ended up ok) at 17 months. Stairs in our house are a MUST learn so there's that. He is now 22months and walks up and down them like a grown up.

diana.filipi · January 2014

We teach them by having them crawl up with us behind them for bed/bath. I teach them to come down (each kid has been different in how receptive to that teaching they've been) by giving them the chance to do it every day.

With DD I put each leg down a stair to show her how with her body. DS would NOT go for that. He was tough to teach.

jnnfrrose6 · January 2014

We didn't move into a home with stairs until DS was 12 months. Luckily the home already had gates on the top and bottom of the stairs (the previous homeowners had a 2 year old, so we asked them to leave all baby proofing in the home). Anyway, we just started with following DS up the stairs. One time I wasn't directly behind him and he fell down a few stairs, but for the most part, he's good with going up. Going down, he likes to try and go facing forward like he sees us doing, which is much more challenging, but we just make a point to go with him and hold his hand and slow him down when he starts picking up momentum. It's tough, but I figure he'll get there and if he falls a few times, it's just a learning opportunity. He has rolled down the entire flight of stairs before (DH didn't lock the gate behind him one time after them came up). Thank goodness little ones are so resilient!

vamomtobe · January 2014

Time and practice will get her there, and I agree with the PPs who emphasized "we don't play on the stairs" and positive reinforcement. She's still pretty young so I wouldn't expect her to get really good at steps for several months. It's kind of a work in progress with our LO, he's 21 months and while he was probably pretty solid at crawling up and down at maybe...15 months?...he's now practicing holding on to the railing and going up and down standing up.

She sounds fearless, she must keep you on your toes, lol!

tifdaski84 · January 2014

I agree with time and practice and that their comfort and skill-level with stairs will depend on how exposed they are to them. We only have stairs leading to our basement and we never go down there so my LO isn't a pro with stairs at 19 months. He can go up pretty well but he's nervous to try going down. It's something we should probably work with him on but we just don't deal with a lot of stairs in our day-to-day.

[Deleted User] · January 2014

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aglenn · January 2014

It depends on the kid, too. I still won't let DS (almost 2) go down the stairs without me right there because that boy has no fear and just tries to charge on down at top speed. DD was much more cautious and was fine on the stairs at a much younger age; probably around 15-18 months?

LimaD · January 2014

We have a short set of stairs in our house (like 5 steps) that DD loved to experiment with when she was learning to climb stairs. At first, she wasn't really aware of the whole falling thing. She'd sit on a stair and lean backwards and I would always be there to stop her from falling.
It took some practice on her part. I'd try to "show" her the correct way by moving her legs and such. I don't know if that really made much of a difference. But eventually she figured it out. When she does go down the stairs cautiously I clap and smile and give her some praise like "great job!" to let her know she's doing it right. She smiles and repeats. Give it time and she'll get the hang of it! Until then stick close by

pb_bride · January 2014

I don't know when kids learn to be fearful of stairs, but I don't think they know danger at this age.

I started letting DS climb upstairs (to his bedroom) when he was around 1. I'm always right behind him, of course. I haven't let him go downstairs yet, but I've taught him how to get off the couch feet first. Sometimes when he is at the bottom 2-3 steps of the stairs, I'll let him go up/down for practice, but I haven't let him go downstairs from the top of a staircase.

I'm trying to teach him to always WAIT for me before going upstairs or downstairs. So he knows he's not supposed to do it alone, but he doesn't know it is dangerous.

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