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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Help - 19 month old climbing!!

18 replies

wellieboot · 30/07/2008 18:36

Hoping for some advice please! dd's new favourite game is climbing up everything and then standing up balancing precariously on whatever it is (kitchen table, window sill, piano!) and looking v pleased with herself. I am taking her off whilst saying no firmly but she thinks it's a game and goes right back again - this can go on and on all day as if I remove her from one thing enough times she goes straight to something else. Distraction works, but only temporarily. What else can I do - she is a bit too young to understand 'naughty step' etc. Or should I just let her get on with it and ignore her? Hoping this new 'phase' won't be a long one - my nerves can't take it!

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Laugs · 30/07/2008 18:43

I'm going through the same stage wellieboot.

Half an hour ago I was making dinner and told DD it was ready. I heard her saying 'chair chair' in the living room and when I went in, she had somehow climbed all the way up into her highchair on her own, was sitting with her elbows on the table waiting for her dinner!

I don't think there's an easy solution - just as mush distraction as possible and quick reactions.

LuLuBai · 30/07/2008 20:36

Yup my DD (nearly 16 months) has just worked out how to get into her highchair all on her own. She's been getting onto the dining table for ages (and roaring to announce her conquest - how dainty!). She actually moves furniture to create steps for herself to help climb up to ever higher places and she's been able to shimmy up a ladder since before she could walk.

I can't offer much advice other than to take her to the playground to let her get it out of her system on the climbing frame.

Laugs · 30/07/2008 20:49

Also my DD has started saying 'careful' when she's climbing somewhere a bit unsafe and where she really shouldn't be. Quite handy, so if I'm not watching her at least I know quickly she's up to no good!

LuLuBai · 30/07/2008 20:55

Brilliant. I need to train mine to do that.

They clearly know they aren't supposed to do it.

Some days my DD just wakes up with the devil in her and I can usually tell fairly quickly(e.g. she has triumphantly climbed onto the dining table and roared 3 times before breakfast). I just have to get her out of the house to run around and burn off some energy.

Laugs · 30/07/2008 21:45

Yes. It has finally dawned on me (after 21 months) that if we do something REALLY EXCITING AND FUN in the morning, the whole rest of the day is so much easier. This morning she was running down little hills in our local park convinced, I'm sure, that she was being really naughty.

Original poster

wellieboot · 30/07/2008 21:55

Haha, brilliant - glad mine isn't the only one!

Interesting that both of you have DDs - I would have thought it was more a boy thing to climb??

OP posts:

funnypeculiar · 30/07/2008 21:58

dd did this too - at about the same age. Fwiw, she has pretty much grown out of it (well, sort of ) at 2.5...

LuLuBai · 30/07/2008 21:59

That's so sweet.

Occasionally, if I need to get other things done (oh you know - exiting stuff like the washing up) I accidentally on purpose leave a nearly finished kitchen roll where DD can get it. She knows she is Not Allowed to Play WIth The Kitchen Roll. In no time at all she is engrossed in ripping it to shreds. I know she is finished when she starts using the tube to roar through (probably while balanced precariously on a chair / her scooter / the television....)

Guadalupe · 30/07/2008 22:02

Some babies just climb on everything. You have to watch them, it's boody knackering. It's a phase and it will pass but it seems like forever. We've nailed some heavier things to the wall and I am forever lifting ds2 (18 months) down off something but ds1 was like this and it does pass.

Original poster

wellieboot · 30/07/2008 22:20

LuLuBai - what a funny picture that paints (tiny toddler with megaphone balancing wobbily on top of tv)!!!

I guess I'll just have to continue with what I'm doing then, whilst reminding myself that it is just a phase!!!

OP posts:

nct73 · 02/08/2008 23:35

my 19 mo DD is also going through sudden climbing phase. climbing, standing, balancing on everything. the buggy without brake on was a worry. i think those with boys often dont see it arrive as a sudden phase quite so much as more seem to climb as soon as can. (major generalisation but this is what i have noticed as we do hang out with lots of boys)

Weegle · 03/08/2008 10:59

I have a climber - who is now 26 months. His current passion is climbing some garden trellis, approx 6ft high! He was climbing before he could walk. My main tip would be - teach them to come down safely. Spend the time in safe environments explaining and showing how we come down backwards. It really pays off because at least you know they have the skills to do it safely. Second tip - make sure they get their daily climbing fix in a safe place e.g. soft play, climbing frames, steep slopes in the park etc. This really helps because it takes the edge of what they will be doing at home. Tip 3 - choose the "safe" items of furniture where climbing is allowed - so DS is allowed to climb over the sofas, over the beds etc but he's not allowed to climb the bookcases, the dining table or the TV unit! I know parent's of non-climbers probably don't understand that but I'd much rather direct his energies at the sofa where there's a soft landing! But I'll be honest - I think this is personality as much as a phase. DS started climbing at abouot 11 months, so it's a long phase if that's what it is!

onwardandupward · 03/08/2008 14:01

Weegle speaks sense.

find many opportunities for climbing. Set up little climbing obstacle courses with things you're happy for them to climb on. Lots of going to the park on the climbing frames.

My uncle once said that the thing he most admired about my mother's parenting style was that when we started climbing she simply scattered more cushions...

Climbing is a GOOD thing!

ShowOfHands · 03/08/2008 14:15

I sent 14mo dd into her room this morning to pick a book while I dumped some laundry on our bed. She was alone for about 17 seconds. By the time I'd got in there she was standing on her window sill, shaking a maraca and shouting 'row row row' which she would follow with 'your boat' if she had the language skills. I picked her up, took her downstairs and directed her to the living room whilst I refilled the washing machine. She was alone for about 17 seconds. By the time I'd got in there she was standing on the dining table waving a banana and shouting 'yum yum nana yum yum'. I could go on. But I won't.

Cushions.

Everywhere.

And lessons in how to get off again.

ArrietyClock · 03/08/2008 20:24

ShowOfHands - have you kidnapped our daughter? Even the song is the same?!

ShowOfHands · 03/08/2008 21:39

There are two of them?!

Batten down the hatches...

elmoandella · 03/08/2008 21:59

your all lucky to haven gotten so late. mines just turned 1 y o on wednesday. can...

already climb on bed (to jump off onto the duvet she has pulled down)

climb on coffee table (to jump on bean bag she's hauled over)

climb on sofa (to jump up and down on)

and then show ds (2.5yo) how to do things he's never even thought of. i.e all of the above activities and more.

PavlovtheCat · 03/08/2008 22:00

DD did this too.

Oh, and she still does!

She gets down sometimes now though at 2.1!

Good luck, a climber is a climber, and i have not found a great way to tame DD yet!

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