Friends 16mth old DS house wrecker.....................HELP!

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My friend who is very laid back is having a heck of a job with her 16mth old DS. At her house she contains him in one room where she has pretty much removed all ornaments etc so he just has his toys.
He's not walking yet, but is crawling at great speed :-)
The problem is when he goes to anyones house he obviously thinks that all other peoples' ornaments are to be played with and so chaos reins.
She tries to say "No" to him, but he just smiles and carrys on. I know she's at her wits end and gets upset when he causes havoc, and friends are now not inviting them over because of the mayhem that occurs!
Can anybody pass on any advice that I can share with her. Many thanks in advance!

I would not invite anybody's 16 month old over without removing ornaments to a childsafe height, nor would my mother, nor would my grandmother have done. Probably not my greatgreatgrandmother either. It's just age-old wisdom.

Either that or keep your visits so short you can hold toddler on your lap, or keep a constant eye.

It's not because of anything she's failed to teach him. You simply can't expect a 16 month old to understand the difference between an ornament and a toy. And they are geared to be curious and into everything, otherwise they wouldn't learn. It's the job of us adults to keep them safe in their curiosity. If I had a 16 month old coming I would also lock up all medicines and remove everything- including older children's toys- small enough to be swallowed.

When they get older it's a different matter.

small children and ornaments do not mix. It's quite normal to mover them out of the way.

At that age anything you think could be damaged or broken you move out of the way or block off access to. They are just full of curiosity. Everything and anything is of interest.

For dd it's ornaments and paper, for ds it was emptying cupboards & anything gadgety. He broke dh's then very expensive hd-dvd by posting the sky card into it and jamming up the works. And I wouldn't consider my two particularly destructive!

What the others said.

And hope for a good summer. Insist on spending any visits outside or meet on neutral territory. He'll be much better by next autumn. (Though still not what you might think of as relaxing)