DD learnt to climb the stairs about 8 weeks ago and got very confident and competent. She never went up without me or DH behind her because obviously being so small she couldn't manage it on her own. She was very keen to climb and each time we opened the gate to go upstairs she'd be right there and head up with us following. Tuesday last week we were upstairs and the doorbell rang. I picked DD up, trotted down and answered the door. I didn't shut the gate because she was in my arms and I expected it to be a 'no thanks', door shut, back upstairs thing. It spun on a bit longer than that, DD got restless and I put her down completely forgetting the gate was open. Next thing I hear is a series of thuds and turn round to see DD tumbling down the stairs and ending up in a heap at the bottom. She was pretty bruised and cried for about 4 hours.
She now won't go up the stairs at all, if I open the gate she'll stand by the bottom step and cry. If we try and coax her up she'll do it very slowly and cry the whole way up. If I take her halfway up and sit with her on my knee on the middle bit she'll cry. She's fine if she's being carried but if we stop on the stairs she'll cry.
Please don't flame me, I'm usually very careful with stairs and I feel really guilty about this. How can I help her get over this?