Why do toddlers fall right in front of you and you still can't catch them?

[Moop]

My DD who is just 1 has started to take steps between the furniture - she can already cruise holding onto furniture or walls pretty well. However she does slip and fall and we have hard wooden floors and no matter how nearby I am I never quick enough to catch her fall.

We had a stupid incident at the swimming baths this morning that was entirely my fault - I was letting her walk up and down the length of the seat in the changing room - I was moving clothes off the seat out of her way and she went over my foot and banged her head - the sound is horrendous and I feel so bad when these things happen.

Somebody I met talked of having one of those protective helmets like boxers wear - has anyone ever used one?

Don't worry Moop, we've all been through it. You can only do so much, the rest is the learning process! They are very resilient, once your dd is walking it will be a lot easier, the cruising/not quite walking bit is always the worst!

They do it because they can. Because they don't know you won't catch them THIS TIME. Because they are always pushing their own boundaries.
They carry on doing it for a while. My boy JUST managed to NOT fall backwards off our bed today. That would have been noisy if hes done it, it was last time he did the same move, but hes getting better at it and today didn't fall.

they all fall over

u cant catch them every time and imo catching them every time does NOT help as they need to learn to do it and balance etc and if u keep catching them they wont learn this vital skill.

imo helmets are not the answer.... just accept that she will fall over and hurt herself hundreds of times in rhe next few years cause she will, as all children do, and they all survive!

Thank you for your posts - I know what you are saying is right but the sound of their head on a hard surface is just awful and I woke this morning at 4.30am and started thinking about it. I could kick myself as yesterday was my fault.

We have hard floors everywhere here and I just crave carpets!