How do I stop her climbing?

[flamesparrow]

DD is 2 1/2, and has sussed that if you stand on something, you can be higher and reach better stuff...

Found her balanced on her little chair in her room the other day, on her bed, trying to get teddies off the wardrobe.

So... removed the chair.

Since then she has used her dolls cot to stand on to turn on the light, and her stickle bricks box. She drags things round the house to reach things (the diningroom chair keeps appearing in the kitchen so she can "help" do dishes)... just spotted her standing on a stool to get to the dvds above the tv (still way out of reach) - she looked like she was about to clamber up the tv to get higher !!!

While I'm pleased with her initiative... we have already had one broken arm (not from climbing, but from independence and stubborness), I really don't want more!!!

What do I do, bar remove anything but teddies from the house??? The biggest issue is her room... I found her trying to get her dress out of the wardrobe this morning, and had visions of her pulling the entire thing down on top of herself.

~bump~

You all just want me to end up in casualty don't you??? Hmmmm??

I have no idea. I have a son who does exactly this.

my ds2 was a terror for climbing- my solution was constant watching when he was at home and lots of day nursery so I could get on with things - not much help am i?

God I hate this stage - ds is just beginning to climb, aided and abetted by his older sister.

Basically what we did is to remove temptation; videos, cds etc into cupboards and fit furniture straps to bookcases, wardrobes and the like. We also bought some padlocks and doorlocks.. Our house looks a bit strange with hardly anything below waist level but it's for a good reason.

Keep her toys, books etc at ground level though. Good luck!

The only thing I did was get her a really sturdy little step up box with rubber matting on the top (we made it ourselves) one for upstairs one for downstairs and she drags this, its safer than chairs and toys.
We touch wood have had no problems aside from trying to escape via front and back doors...chain lock sorted that one out!

on a more serious note - -try to put temptation out of her way - -don't put teddies on top of the wardrobe -- put them at the end of her bed or something. I also didn't have any tall furniture in his room. Hide the dvd's on a locked cupboard

For the kitchen, I had a step stool rather than a chair - -nice and stable, so if he did stand on it he wasn't going to overbalance.

oh I see Mercy and Piffle are there before me

No idea how to stop it either but my 2.1yr old does axactly the same. In the last month he has learnt that using other things means he can reach the stuff he wants. Constantly getting step stools or chairs brought in to rooms. To be honest I just let him do it as otherwise he would use other less safe things to try and stand on..caught him balancing on the sides of the toilet with lid up the other day so actually told him the stool would be better..lol

Iota

Also, beware the bottom drawer on a chest of drawers. They can be opened and used as another climbing aid. I think Mothercare sell cupboard/drawer locks and Ikea do cheap step stools

Mercy - -good tip a also secure chest of drawers and bookcases etc to teh wall rember the tragic case of the 2 children who suffocated when the c of d fell on tehm after they had climbed in the draweres

How do secure things like that to the wall? The wardrobe is really worrying me...

Ds1 climbs everything. He is 6 and severely autistic (very little receptive language, almost no expressive langauge). We've had to concentrate on making things safe, so for example a lock to the outside of ds2's room to stop ds1 climbing on ds2's windows. I was going to mention the catch things you can attach to chests of drawers/wadrobes etc but see others have got in first.

ds1s beginning to understand a simple "climbing = out of the room" so for example yesterday he did stop climbing the fridge freezer when I said "if you climb fridge, no kitchen". But he did it again this morning, and will probably do it again this afternoon. We now have locks on the kitchen door as well so if he repeatedly climbs then I can lock him out of the kitchen. We're now just saving money so we can get the single glazed windows with ropy glass replaced with double glazing.

Presumably at 2 and a hlaf your dd has more reasoning than my ds1/ So I would stick with a simple message of climbing=simple punishment (whatever you use, time out for 2 minutes, whatever- for ds1 being "shut out" of the room represents a punishment which is why he'll get himself out of the cycle even if it doesn't stop it completely.

We saw a clinica psych last week and I aksed her about this- and she seemed to think it was the right approach (and thought it was great that we could break the cycle with some very simple reasoning),

FS you can get a bracket in most diy shops and you screw one bit to the wall and one to the wardrobe. WE use a couple of these on most of bedroom furniture

Have a look at places like B and Q or the GLTC- they sell chain/catches that secure to the wall. We have screwed freestanding bookcases to the wall using massive masonary screws. Other favourite rooms for climbing (eg kitchen) can just be locked competely with a removable key lock.