does climbing stairs begin at this age?

[GenT]

DD was at the bottom of the stairs and I was upstairs sorting clothes in the bedroom. Occasionally I did peek-a-boos motions to her and she cackled away. I gave her a toy to play with, then went for a shower, perhaps 20 mins.

There I am towel drying my hair when I looked down, low and behold, who was on step number 3, dd was on her way up to the next one!!! (DH who was working on the computer had no idea). She has never done this before although she does goes to the foot of the stairs. She wanted to be upstairs with me is all I can think of. DH got called his entire name, no shortened versions to come and check out the view and safeguard her falling backwards.

She will be nine months this coming week and I guess we will finally have to invest in a stairgate or block the doorway entirely. Is there another option for preventing them going upstairs?

[twiglett]

message withdrawn

[zebra]

Mine were climbing stairs around 8-9 months. Whizzing down them at high speed on tummies by.... 15 months?

[hercules]

Maybe a bit young for this but i was told it was good to let them learn to use stairs (supervised of course) but still need stair gate.

[GillW]

ds was climbing up the stairs before he was 8 months old - once they can crawl properly, then going upstairs doesn't seem to present a very big challenge if they've got an adventurous "I can do it" attitude. So in your situation I would invest in a stairgate pretty soon I think.

To be honest going them learning to down again is more hair-raising. DS did a sort of reverse superman style - on his tummy, feet first with hands and feet off the floor - by the time he was about 10 months old, and we took the stairgates down again when he was about 14 months as he had already mastered climbing out of his cot and was trying it with the stairgates too. I just figured that he was safer sliding down than going over the top stairgate head first!

[bobthebaby]

We only have 3 steps in our house so ds mastered going up them very quickly. We are moving to a house with no stairs next week so are trying to teach him to get back down before then. He is a year but has only been crawling for a month.

[GenT]

oh no, not climbing out the cot to look forward to.... that will surely end with a massive head bump, will have to keep an eye on that one for certain

she has practically climb out of the walker and no longer stays in it, pointless now, and the sectioned off playpen is a waste

as she moves into other phases I guess the house will be changed to suit her needs....

[suedonim]

One of mine headed up the stairs as soon as he could crawl, at 7mths, and my little great niece apparently fell down the stairs when she was only 8 mths old!! Her mum was in a worse state then dniece, apparently. It's definitely time to get a stair gate, though. Even if you teach them to go up and down stairs they are not reliably steady until quite a bit older. Don't worry about the cot just yet, none of mine ever climbed out.

[fimbles]

I live in a flat so obviously no stairs and my dd (20 months)still can't climb up the communal stairs. I know she will learn one day but it seems so far away. she does not pay attention to her climbing and I literally have to place one foot after the other on the step.

Just shows how important steps r in the household for the whole learning process of climbing.

[fisil]

When you get the stair gate, set it on the third or fourth step, if possible. That way your dd can learn how to come down again, and her mistakes won't hurt (too much).

We have stair gates on all four of our stairs. If we ever forget to close one of them, ds (13 months) goes straight over and closes it for us. I think he just likes standing and rattling a closed gate. But we know that he is fairly safe with stairs, because he just won't climb them without us there!

[GenT]

thanks fisil, good idea, better yet will put it on 2 so she can still hold on

[handlemecarefully]

9 months? - sounds about right for a stair gate

[zebra]

Whatever you do, please don't put a pressure mounted gate at top of stairs. I know a lot of people will defend this as somehow safe, but I know a child who fractured her skull pushing one down (and then falling all the way down stairs herself). Get the sort of gate that needs screwing into the wall, instead. Make sure it's strong enough that you can lean on it yourself. PLEASE*.

[GenT]

thank you for the other tip zebra, don't worry all this will be taken into consideration for gates/placement before a pound leaves me

[GenT]

thank you for the other tip zebra, don't worry all this will be taken into consideration for gates/placement before a pound leaves me

[AussieSim]

My DS is 13mths and has only been crawling for about 3 weeks and has displayed no interest in climbing the stairs - so I am feeling a little concerned after reading this thread. We bought the gates though last weekend and now I am worried about zebra's post as we bought the non-screw ones. We have already noticed that they don't seem to be all that stable. Oh well - back to the store.

[GenT]

maybe you can save it for the bottom of the stairs AussieSim, not a total lost eh

I wouldn't worry too much either, I always say enjoy the slow movements, she tires me out and I have to be constantly trailing after her, can't go into the other room without her following or she doesn't stay in the same place long enough for me to get a glass of juice