cruising and has no fear!! advice pls!!

[lilsmum]

dd 10 mths is crawling and cruising on everything she can pull her self up on!!! my question is do you let them fall to teach them or do you help them everytime? obviously i hate her falling (and she has fallen lots!!) but what do you do in this situation? this may sound a stupid question but how do they learn? getting herself up isnt a prob its getting down... i am a nervous wreck!!and i was worried a newborn would be difficult!!! this age is a nightmare!! lol

thanks xx

[Twiglett]

well as long as everything is out of reach .. and nothing can topple over (assuming you've done the down on your knees what can she reach from here test) then she won't hurt herself

really she won't

babies know how to fall

she is most likely to fall on her bottom which will be well-padded

maybe you could start off by just letting her fall on soft surfaces (carpets) then work up to totally ignoring her

[LIZS]

Remember that time with ds - drove me nuts and I started more activities with him such as swimming and tots groups. He otherwise seemed to be forever around my legs !

Agree with Twiglett you have to let them get on with it - nappies provide good padding. It is a relatively short period before they discover sufficient balance to not fall over all the time. ds liked being in the travel cot for short periods as he could learn to hand exchange along and across but still have a soft fall. I felt more secure and could still get on with hoovering and ironing (occasionally !) or drink a cup of tea without fear of him knocking into it. Do watch out for stairs now though. Both mine could climb them easily at this stage, given half a chance.

[moosh]

Agree with the other two. Ds1 now 5 yrs was crawling at 6.5. months and I fussed whenever he fell, so he began a pattern of whenever he took a tiny fall he would cry and fuss till I picked him up. My own fault really. So now we have ds2 8.5 months and he is not interested in crawling but is cruising the same as your little one. He has fallen tons of time, he occassionally yells out but is up again in seconds pulling himself up on anything and anyone! Normally if he falls he looks for my reaction and most of the time I'll give him a massive grin and say something like "All fall down" and laugh and he gives me a big cheesy grin and off he goes. As long as they don't smack their heads on something like a hard floor ar a hard toy as they fall they are fine. Best of luck, trust me there is more to come !