Climbing

[Mishy1234]

It seems that DS2 (11 months) has discovered the joys of climbing and is currently scaling anything within his reach.

We've already had a couple of tumbles which have resulted in a bitten tongue and skinned chin (he climbed onto our wooden coffee table). DS1 didn't climb until he was much older, so we haven't face this before.

Is there any way to encourage him not to climb or is it just a matter of keeping a close eye until he grows out of it? He's always within my eyesight, but quick as a whip and I'm not always able to get to him before he's up.

All advice on this welcome.

Our DS was very similar. Obviously stairgates help with the big stairs issue but the furniture one is more tricky. We did screw all the shelves to the walls. We let DS climb on certain things and not others. So we let him climb in and on his toy boy and on the sofa (although that did lead to a couple of occasions of falling off backwards and bonking his head on the coffee table - even with supervision). But we said climbing on shelves or the coffee table was a big 'no no'. Any time he attempted it we'd say "feet on the floor please, no climbing on the table" and we'd remove him from the table. It worked for quite a while - but unfortunately recently (now 19 months)he's started climbing on the table again - often to reach something interesting in teh middle of the table - so we try to not put stuff out of his reach. As he is now very confident on his feet there is less chance of hurting himself so now its a question of whether we inforce the rule just because its gross to have outdoor shoes on the coffee table, or do we just leave him to it.