ARGH how do you stop a 17 month old doing dangerous things?

[EyeballsandherSunburntNorks]

DD is driving me nuts. Her latest trick is the old one of running up and down the sofa right on the edge. She fell off last week and got a real fright although unhurt. I spend all day taking her down from the sofa and distracting, moving to another room, telling off and nothing works. She gets straight back on and does it again, grinning at me while doing it. If I sit on the sofa in her way she does it on the armchair. She's going to fall off again and it seems there is nothing I can do about it. It's driving me insane!

[drjane]

I've found that once they've fallen off something a couple of times they get a bit more careful! Try and make it a bit safer to fall off - put down cushions or something and then sit on your hands.

[Supercherry]

Eyeballs, I'm not sure how sensible this advice is but when my DS, almost 17mths went throught this phase the only thing that stopped him, in the end, was completely ignoring it. So I scattered cushions around the sofa and hoped for the best! It worked. They thrive on any kind of attention at this age, my DS clearly finds it amusing if I say 'No' and he wants to do whatever it is all the more. Distraction, like you said, is also good, but I find as they are getting older, they are also getting harder to distract.

[EyeballsandherSunburntNorks]

I didn't think of that, just put crash mats around the place and move all obstacles. Might be the only way as the more annoyed I get the funnier she thinks it is.

Thanks

[Peabody]

What Supercherry said.

[miniandme]

Our twins are 17 months and doing the same thing!! Distracting didnt work,telling them off didnt work,moving away or moving things away form them didnt work either so in the end we stopped paying them any attention when they were doing something they shouldnt be and almost immediatley they stopped it.
Jacks favourite was standing on their picnic table,looking round to see who was looking adn flapping and laughing !! We started looking the opposite way when he got up,he'd laugh but no one was looking so he got back down again,after a couple of days he stopped climbing up - RESULT !!

So yes if your heart can stand up to it i would go with ignoring her unless it obviously really dangerous i.e cooker etc