Stair Training

Mine might be way too young for this now, but since our house has two sets of stairs, DH and I were wondering when is the right time to stair train and how do you go about doing it? I have never met a set of stairs that I have not fallen up or down, so I am not sure that I am the best person to learn from Just one of the things that DH and I were thinking about in advance. Thanks for your advice!

 

We moved to a house with stairs when the babies were 15 mo. We just let them practice as much as they wanted! (With close supervision, of course.) They're really good at going up now, and almost never slip. Not so good at going down yet. It's hard to give both of them the help they need with that at the same time. (They absolutely will not go down backward - they have to try the "normal" way, and it's just beyond them at this point! For more than a step or two, anyway.)

Just go for it! They'll do great.

 

We started around 10-11 months, when they were solid crawlers, before they learned to walk. That way they would crawl up and down the stairs rather than trying to walk up and down them. They actually continued crawling up and down until close to 2 or 2 1/2, since it was quicker and safer that way.

 

A lot of people have said I'm crazy, but as soon as my girls could crawl, I let them crawl up the stairs. They were completely proficient at crawling up them by probably about 11 months, could crawl down backwards by a year, and were walking up and down by 15 months. By 18 months, they walked up and down without holding our hands. They put one hand on the wall and steady themselves that way. We had two full flights of stairs and three other sets of two or three stairs, so there was no way I could keep the girls away all the time. I never let them go up or down a full flight without someone nearby, but even with the adult supervision, we didn't have any falls or even near misses.

I don't think your kids are too young. As long as they're coordinated walkers, they'll do fine on stairs. As far as training, just show them the stairs and they do the rest on their own. You'll probably have to explain that they need to put two feet on each step instead of one foot per step like Mom and Dad, but other than that, it's intuitive.

(small aside: we moved last week to a house with no stairs what-so-ever. I am wondering if P & C will forget how to navigate stairs. I hope not!)

 

Hmmm...Good question! I would say 11 months or so we let them go up the stairs. That's how they go up for nap/bedtime, especially when it's just me bringing them. So-they are very good at going up the stairs. We have not practiced going down for the most part, as our stairs are narrow and steep. However, we went to the children's museum this past weekend, and there was a toddler area with stairs-3 total. Anthony shocked me by going down all on his own-backwards of course! Nicholas can go up the stairs with his feet-with help.

I say go for it!!!

 

Definately go for it. :good: You've gotten some great advice already. My son was in PT at the time and they had him climbing stairs at 10 months old, right after he mastered crawling. He did great and by 18 months he {and his sister} were going up and down alone. Good luck!!

 

Mine were going up at around 10months (they were crawling since about 6.5mnths), we just let them at the stairs and it was pretty instinctive going up, but we always have someone close by. We have not tackled going down yet, but will probably try over the next month or two.

 

T&T could crawl up and down before they could walk and they walked at 10 months. They were closely followed every time until they started climbing over the gates (a month or two before their 2nd birthday). I didn't have to do anything other than allow access and to remind them to go backward on the way down at first.