How do you teach a 15 month old how to go downstairs safely?

[PickleMobile]

Dd can now climb stairs so I want to teach her how to get down but not sure how or what the best way is.

Help!

[CatThiefKeith]

I taught dd to come down on her bum, one step at a time.hands on the step behind til her bum was on the one below, then repeat.

My friend taght her ds to come down backwards, but I always worried about her not looking where she was going.

[SanityClause]

Get them to slide down feet first in their tummy.

It's the safest way, and has e advantage of being lots of fun.

[ZuleikaD]

Feet first backwards. They can control their descent much better than facing forward on their bum.

[LynetteScavo]

On their tummy, feet first. But it's best if they are wearing a pop- up vest, or they may have so much fun they get carpet burn on their tummy.

[MrsSpencerReid]

We did feet first on tummy as that's how they would come down if they slipped while crawling up, then on bottom one step at a time

[middlings]

Feet first on tummy here too. She didn't walk until 18 months, has just turned two and only now is coming down one step at a time holding on. On carpet her preference is still to go on her tummy.

[PickleMobile]

Brilliant thanks guys will be trying that tomorrow then!

[NoraRobertsismyguiltypleasure]

I agree with pp. My dd decided she was going to start climbing stairs when she was 12 months, so every time we came down I just said 'on your tummy'. She got it pretty quickly and has always been safe.

[Thumbwitch]

Feet first on the tummy is the way I showed DS2 when we were staying at Dad's in the UK over Easter (he was 18mo at the time) - we don't have stairs at our house, but Dad has 3 flights, so it was necessary!

On his bottom was too dangerous as he had a tendency to lean forwards - but he very quickly learnt to get on his hands and knees at the top of the stairs and go feet first over the edge on his tummy. He was pretty much tummy-surfing down them! I went down before him every time just in case - and the one time I assumed he would be ok because he was on the last but one step, is the time that he turned around and fell off face first onto the ground. He was shocked but ok - but it made me even more determined to make him go backwards ALL the way down to the bottom!

Word of warning - don't let un-nappied children copy the tummy-surfing, especially not boys - DS1 tried it and got a bit of a nasty bump!

[NorthEasterlyGale]

I got DS1 (around 18 months I think) to sit on the top landing, told him / helped him work out how to turn onto his tummy and then helped him go down feet first on his tummy, helping him get his feet and knees down a step at a time etc. He learnt quickly. Of course, he had already punted himself off the top landing, on his tummy, head-first, when he was 16 months....

Now (he was two last weekend) he comes down on his bum, or walking properly if he holds on to my hand and / or the bannister.

Our stairs used to be my one biggest fear as they're very steep (old Victorian terrace) and we can't have gates at the top or bottom, so I always worried about him falling down them; I fell down them while carrying him when he was a few weeks old (he slept through it) and then he went down them as mentioned above. Now that it's happened I don't worry so much!

DS2 still has to get to that stage though as he's only 15 weeks...

[Jaffakake]

It'll become clear fairly soon if they're naturally a tummy slider or a bum-bumper. Ds is a bum-bumper and we call it 'bump bumps'.
I almost always still go downstairs with him at 2.10 and talk him through it, making extra care when he's tired or stropping!