At what age would you trust your DCs on the stairs?

[undercovamutha]

My DD was quite uninquisitive when she was a toddler, so I never had all the palaver of her climbing up the stairs when I wasn't looking, or in fact wanting to climb them at all really. Shw would only attempt them if I was right next to her, and was quite old before she wanted to go down the stairs herself.

DS (16mo) is a whole different ballgame. If the door to upstairs is left opeen for a second, he is halfway up the stairs before you can blink. I think he is totally too young to negotiate the stairs without me standing behind him in case he falls. I don't think he can understand the consequences.

However, on another thread the other day, a few people said their DCs were going up and down stairs on their own from just over 1yo.

What do you think?

oh goodness yes - both my DSes have been allowed free rein on the stairs from about 12 months.

16 months - yes for sure, no question. He can slide up and down all day, and does. I encourage him to go down backwards if I'm there, but I don't worry.

Having said that, we have a carpeted hall and a break halfway down the flight where it turns a corner. Not sure I'd be quite as relaxed if it was a straight flight with a tiled floor.

I think it depends on the worst case scenario. Worst case in our house is a lot of bumps and carpet burn. I can quite see that worst case in other houses is a broken neck.

Depends on the child and the stairs.

My ds2 didn't even take his first steps till 17mo so was much older before he could do stairs. My friend's ds, born the same week, was walking at 9mo and competent at stairs before my ds2 could even crawl.

Once they start showing signs of wanting to do stairs, I spend a few hours/days with them walking up and down till they're good at it! But my stairs are only half-height with a landing, and thick carpet, and a child-height bannister to hold on to. At the gps (victorian house, v steep tall stairs with narrow treads and no banister) I tend to follow even ds1 up and down (he is an unco-ordinated 5yo).

Oh yes, I do remember endlessly shouting "turn around and go down backwards"!

My stairs are ridculously dangerous.

In other's houses, my mum and sisters' it'a all fine, I'd trust him at 18MO, but he's 3.4 now and I still watch him go up and down ours, and he has a stairgate on his bedroom door because of them (I can't get a gate to fit at the top)

Our stairs are steep, carpeted, but there is a hard floor at the bottom. There is no way he could reach the bannister yet - he currently crawls up. He only started walking in June, so will probably have to put a good bit of work in getting him to practise going down before I can stop my heart skipping a beat!

DS is my 'baby', so do think I am being a bit P S B, if there is such a thing!!!

My DD was 3 years old before allowed walk up and down on her own. But this is down to us having a marble staircase with tiles at the bottom. No way could she manage a fall on them. I prefer to be over the top.

think probably about 18 months - carpeted stairs with wooden floor / carpet mat at the bottom so a fall would no be pleasant but unlikely to be a broken neck unless he hurtled from the top (actually not that unlikely )

Ds took bloody ages, even at well over 2 he used to stand at the top and cry until someone carried him down, he was the most careful child in the world. (Aged 3 he can now be found up the tree in the park ). Dd has been allowed for a fair old while now, she is 19 months and I honestly don't know when I last worried about her. She has never gone down backwards though, she refused point blank so there was a while where she went up fine but I had to watch her going down as she thought she could go down like an adult. She just slides on her bum now yelling "bump bump bump".

Your stairs (and your DS!) sound much like mine, and I'm currently having the same dilemma. DS fell down the stairs just before his 1st birthday, hitting the hard floor with his head. It still makes me feel sick to think about it. We spent a fun night in caualty, but he was fine. At the time he was only crawling.
He's now 2.4 and although he can walk, run etc. he doesn't really have the idea of being 'careful' and seems to have no sense of danger. We've removed the bottom stairgate and I have sometimes been letting him go up and down unaided and even unwatched.
Only today however, I was (fortuitously) standing at the bottom of the stairs as he was coming down. When halfway down, he turned to look at something, lost his balance and fell the rest of the way down. I caught him before he hit the bottom, but he still howled. I may have to persuade him to bump down on his bum.

Indith - been trying to catch you! and i've had to resort to stalkling you on here, which has been pointless as you've not been around :o
My phone is not working at all at home (orange has died in our area apparently) did i stand you up yesterday? didnt hear back from you in time

dd was fine from 14m (my dad taught her whil eon holiday ) but either bottom shuffling or sliding backwards on her tummy - not confident walking till 18mish

but like TYV our stairs are carpeted with lots of turns, so no fall would be bigger than 6 steps

Just did some 'bumps' practising with DS. He looked totally bemused, and had no concept of what I was doing! So I basically ended up dragging him down the stairs by his ankles, with him laughing hysterically!!

DD (2.6) is hypermobile and did not walk till she was 21mths.

I have just taken the bottom stair gate off today although tbh we have not used it in yonks.

She still cannot "climb" down the stairs reliably by herself and slides down on her bottom iyswim.

We took the stairgate down when DD was 2.5 (due to decorating) and never put it back up as by then she was fine on the stairs.

I taught DS2 stairs at 12 months - sliding backwards but only as we can't fit stairgates to our stairs. I had to watch him especially on the steeper loft conversion stairs probably until he was 17 months, but then he was fine.
Its totally different with every child. You probably need to give him a couple of weeks after you think its safe - just to make sure

I taught DS2 stairs at 12 months - sliding backwards but only as we can't fit stairgates to our stairs. I had to watch him especially on the steeper loft conversion stairs probably until he was 17 months, but then he was fine.
Its totally different with every child. You probably need to give him a couple of weeks after you think its safe - just to make sure

i've never had stairgates,but I did walk behind/in front of DD2 or hold her hand until recently,as the floor at the bottom is slate.She has been happily able to go up and down though from as soon as she could crawl up and she hasn't fallen yet (she is three).We have four floors in our house so stairgates would have been a complete pain.

Our stairs are tiled, as is the floor at the bottom, with scarily sharp edges. It's a rented house and there's nothing I can do about them, so we have stairgates at the top and bottom, and dd (18 months) will have to wait quite a while longer before she's allowed up and down on her own.

Currently she can crawl up and down them if I'm next to her (my hands hovering around her waist) and walk up them holding my hands, so the ability is there.

But if she fell, I dread to think of her head or back cracking on those sharp tiled edges... it makes me feel sick to imagine: I hold her so tight when carrying her in my arms up and down them!

I am conducting an experiment today with DD3 who has just turned two and left the stair gate open (might be safer actually just taking it off.

Part of it was for safety but part of it meant her sisters could play upstairs without her ruining their games.

I am predicting a lot of fighting today

I'm probably at the lax end but my DD just turned 14 months and crawls up and down stairs confidently. So I let her (while muttering prayers under breath etc).

I did supervise at first, but she has become noticably more competent and I actually don't think she will fall.

Depends on the child too. DD is quite level headed and does things slowly and deliberatly - not a great risk taker. If I had a boisterous little child who leapt first and thought later, my approach would of course be different.

I let DS do stairs independently at Christmas so he would have been about 2.2. I've always thought it was better to teach him how to do them safely and let him practice rather than always helping him. And it was so nice for him to be able to have free run of the house...and I could send him to fetch things!

Then, at the beginning of June, he fell down the stairs and fractured his leg. He's only just walking well again now (3.5 weeks in plaster and lots and lots of encouragement to get him standing up and walking again).

So, although he can manage the stairs again now, we're back to going up and down with him and saying "careful!" all the way. He is really careful now (learnt his lesson!) so it won't be long until he's allowed to go by himself again but stairs will worry me for a long time yet...

11 months here. We didn't know DS could do it but he was walking at 8 months and then we took our eyes off him for two seconds and he just got on with it.

I hovered for the first few times after that but he's completely safe and hasn't ever fallen. He's just turned two.

Nothing to do with the age of the DC and everything to do with their ability to negotiate stairs safely! And also the nature of the stairs (ours turn a corner and so if DD fell from the top she would only fall a few stairs rather than the whole stair case - obviously not ideal, but better than tumbling down the whole way)

Yes, our stairs have a turn so they are l-shaped with a half landing.

Does it depend on how they come down too? My DD comes down on her front on all fours and sort of clings close to the stairs so think she's unlikely to fall.

My worry though is that one day when I am not with her she will decide to stand up and walk down. Not sure what can do about that ..

Although she was on her own when she first came down on all fours very safely and cautiously, so perhaps attempting it alone makes them more safety conscious?

Says prayer that DD won't have fallen downstairs this morning while I am at work and DH was cleaning his bike or whatever else he got up to!

Our stairs are straight, steep and end in tiles at the bottom as well so I am a bit neurotic about them. I taught both DD's to go down on their bottoms but DD1 still managed to fall down them just before she was 4.
DD1 is now tall enough to come down holding onto the banister, but it is onyl on one side, the other is flat wall (weird enclosed stairs), so she does that veyr carefully as she remembers falling. DD2 has no fear and comes down on her tummy, which is very fast but much safer than any other method.