When are they old enough to do stairs?

[OnlySlightlyScary]

How do you know when your child is physically/ mentally ready to be allowed to do stairs independently?

My 17 month old dd clambers up the stairs at a rate of knots and slides back down on her tummy. My heart is in my mouth every time she does it and while most of the time I am right behind her, this morning I dashed upstairs while she was down in the hall to fetch my watch, and when I turned around she was almost on the top stair.

Obviously she thinks she can do stairs, but she has no concept of the fact that she might fall at that age.

I am reluctant to put a stairgate at the bottom as obviously she will have to learn some time...but is 17 months too soon to be allowed to go it alone??

Mine does it alone at 15m. He has fallen before though

Cadelaide, my mum reckons that I am over-reacting and that at that age, if they fall they go 'floppy' and don't hurt themselves. Was your ds OK?

DS has done it for a while - he is 19 months now but I would use a stairgate for ages yet still - sometimes he carries a toy down or turns and looks at something - I am always right there but couldn't let him do it alone because he doesn't understand fully that carrying 3 toy cars means he cannot hold the steps etc. Also at the MILs my DHs half brothers 2 1/2 year old fell down theirs and DH did a few times when he was that age - never ever has anyone put up a stair gate though. It doesn't hurt to have one up and let them do the stairs with you when you go up and down.

We moved to this house when ds1 was 16 months and the stairs will not take a gat at the bottom so both he and ds2 had to get used to going up and down stairs very quickly, which they both did. ds2 has fallen once. ds1 has fallen a couple of times but that was recently (he's 5) because he has to run everywhere!!

When they can do it they probably are safe - or as safe as is possible anyway. I don't think we had a stairgate at all with DD and DS#2 - we did for DS#1 but got rid once we discovered they could climb over them which was much more frightening! We kept one at the top for use at night in case of sleepy LOs wandering around. We had a few falls but none of them serious. In fact when I fell down the stairs 6yrs ago I did more damage than any of the DCs ever did

hmmm i think you still need to be careful with stair gates at top and bottom because sometimes they do get over excited and run around like loons

my dd fell down the stairs when she was three when playing with a friend - she was fine - but the sight of her lying soundless at the bottom is imprinted in my head - yuk yuk yuk

DD - 15 mths (pfb) DS - 12 mths. I noticed he didn't even attempt to climb down on his own until he was capable. I removed the stairgate when DD slammed it DS causing him to fall down the stairs!

Mine crawled upstairs from about 10 months and then walked, but I always walked behind them until about their 2nd birthday.

DS1 never fell down the stairs until he was over 4 and when I wasn't in the least worried about him going on the stairs.

Sixofone, yes he was fine, but we were all horrified.
It was the noise...bumpbumpbumpbump and then, oh the relief, a hearty cry.

Both boys were around 12 months when they started going up, very quickly on their own.

Ds1 started to come down, stair by stair, on his bottom much later, around 19m.

Ds2 has started sliding down feet first on his tummy. He is 14m. Much too little imo but appears to thoroughly enjoy it.

Ds1 came crashing down at the age of about 14 months when my arse was turned for a minute.
Ds2 came down a couple of months ago whilst he was on the stairs with DH whilst Dh was hoovering them.

I sound like a terrible mother don't I?!

Kids have very 'green' bones whilst they are learning to walk and right up till around 10 years old I believe, perfect for knocks and falls.
I'm not saying let them go and fall etc or anything but their little bodies are designed for rough and tumble!

Thank God, I thought I was the only one that allowed it, how very reassuring!

ds is 16 months and crawls up and down by himself.

my dd goes up and down if the gate on the door closest to stairs is left open (dp)
we have gate at the top as she likes to walk down the stairs not crawl if she has got to the top, she tumbled the other week keep turning to see her dad at bottom of the stairs she was alright though shhe 18mo was bout 9mo when she started climbing the stairs

Before you think they can, is the honest answer. If you've got anything hard-edged and non-movable at the bottom of the stairs, strap a duvet to it ( my brother, at the age of about 6 months, fell down the stairs and survived with nothing more than bruises but my mother was haunted for a while by the possibility of him having gone headfirst into the large metal immersion heater which was at the bottom).

My DS1 was climbing the stairs at 6mths long before he crawled at 10 mths. Obviously I wouldn't let him do it alone and he simply wasn't allowed in the hall by himself to have a try. I didn't let him come down by himself for a long time and we had a stair gate at the top until he was 16 months and we moved house. I always went first going down so I could catch him if he fell. However, at 2.5 I let him have a go by himself and he fell from the top to the bottom. It put him off trying for a long while and made me flinch for months afterwards anytime he went near the stairs.

I think we barely used the stairgate for DS2 because we couldn't, we were having building work done. He took a lot longer to start climbing but he always seemed more confident going down and wanted to come down on his bottom for a long time which suited me fine. Mind you he fell about a third of the way down once.

I think it is not so much the going up that is a a worry, although they can topple over backwards on the way up, it is going down so a stairgate at the top might be an idea until you are confident you can cope.

Db2 learnt (with some help from me) to go down the stairs backwards shortly after she started crawling, about 11months. As she could already climb up them she basically started wandering off alone from them. She's quite cautious and never fallen or slipped, but I have a stairgate at the top mainly to stop her from disappearing back downstairs when its time for her bath or now that she's toddling, I'm afraid she will stagger and fall. However she generally walks now and then turns round and crawls backwards when she gets to the stairs.