20Mth. Old Son Fearless Climber

I have a daughter about the same age who does the very same thing. Sometimes I wonder if she will be a daredevil when she gets older. If you find something that works let me know. My others were never like this. It drives me crazy.

I was a climber myself when I was young. My favorite trick was to climb to the top of the swingset, drop the swings and hang upside down from the top bar. When I was 3 I fell and broke my arm doing this. My dad kept telling me I wasn't a monkey and I couldn't hang upside down like that. At the hospital the doctor (checking to make sure I wasn't abused) asked me how I broke my arm. All I would tell him was that I wasn't a monkey!
I don't know how to stop it or even if you should. Just make sure it is safe for the most parts and don't leave ladders up against the house.

My daughter is the same way - she's 19 months right now and has been doing this basically since she started walking at 9 months. She's actually fairly good with her balance and paying attention to what's going on.

Supervision, supervision, supervision!! LOL

I think it's important to let kids figure that stuff out - it just so happens my daughter (and many other kids) are doing it pretty early. Just yesterday we went to the park and my daughter climbed up the chain rope thing on the playground!! I was shocked, but stood right behind her, arms ready to catch - but I didn't touch her and she climbed all the way up. My son didn't do that until he was close to 3.

It's hard to keep an eye all the time - I'm lucky that I don't have to worry about the kitchen, a gate in the doorway work. But she's definitely taken a few tumbles off the kitchen chairs. They have to learn at some point. Those falls definitely haven't stopped her from doing it yet.

Use the advice about the kitchen appliances and get anything that can fall on top of the child attached to the wall. ((TV's, entertainment stand, bookcases - all very easy to climb, and quick to topple.))

GOOD LUCK!
-S.

I have a climber too. I bought an extra tall walk thru gate. It's slots run up and down and it doesn't have any bar or anything to leverage him to climb. He can't climb it and he's now almost 2 1/2. I bought it at Babies r us. I don't remember the name of it, but I think it was brand name summer or something like that. And since it's a walk thru you can leave it up all the time. It's pressure mounted to the wall, but I think it came with the option to screw it in otherwise. It's awesome!

My daughter is also a climber! My other daughter wasn't so this is new to me. She is nearly 20 months old as well and has no fear. I'm anxious to read your responses because I could use some advice too.

I don't have any really great advice, except that while my first son wasn't a climber, he was phenomenally curious and would go places and do things that made other parents (and his grandparents) really, really nervous. It was easier for us, because he was our first and not our fourth, but we just made sure to keep a close eye on him, and decided to work hard on being thankful we had a very agile, confident child. He's four now, STILL hasn't gotten hurt the way we surely thought he should have, and still is one of the most physically agile kids his age.

Although you can't block off the spaces you don't want him, maybe you can block of spaces you DO want him, for those times when it's just too much to keep a close eye on him? Our new house is proving to be not as child friendly as our first house, so our second son (9 mos) gets gated into his room sometimes when I shower or run downstairs for laundry.

I feel your pain! My son was a proficient and scary climber at this age too. Not much to do but ride it out and know that he will grow out of it. My son is 7 now and is actually quite cautious at this point if that is any comfort! Good luck! My life seemed much more sane once my son hit 3.

My son is 15 mo. and seems to be on the same path as your little guy...any object becomes a stepstool for him! What I've started doing is creating safe places for him to climb. So for example, instead of putting the babygate at the bottom of the steps (leading to the upstairs), I put it on the first or second step so he can practice going up one or two. He hasn't fallen yet, but if he does it's not *as* dengerous as the whole flight (and certainly better than the dishwasher...we've had that one, too!) When I get desparate (like when I'm baking something and need the oven open frequently), I strap him into his highchair with a snack or activity. In other parts of the house I've resorted to the exersaucer or playpen for short periods if I am doing something where I can't supervise as closely.

As far as your other kids, what if you put their chairs or stepladders where they can get at them, and make them responsible for putting them back? Or, get a pint-sized chair or table just for your little climber, and teach him that everyone gets their own spot, and that's his?

This is such a frustrating age when they are all curiosity and no fear. :) Good luck.

My daughter is the same way... she is now 23 months, so only slightly older then your son. She started climbing very early (like 13 months) and has never stopped. We have a pub style table so we actually put the bar stools upside down on the table (just like they do in the restaurants/pubs when cleaning). This has prevented her from climbing on the table (of course doesn't look the nicest but our daughter is safe). If you have the room & money get a small table and chair for him and let him know that this is what he can use and when he climbs or stands on it stress the correct way to use it.

As far as climbing ladders and slides, let he go at it and watch/stand by him to help if needed. The sooner her learns how to go up and down the less you have to worry about him hurting himself. My daughter was able to go up a ladder to a slide by 21 months. I just daughter her how to be careful and I am always near by just in case. If you don't feel safe with that find/give him something he climb that you feel is safe so he can feel like he is being true to himself and explore. My daughter loves climbing in and out of boxes and the laundry baskets... and up very big hills.

We have a dishwasher lock and oven lock, which can picked up just about anywhere. I think they are called appliances locks. They pretty much are strong plastic that works like a safety belt/strap.

Since my daughter is not even 2 yet I am not sure when it will end. I just let her explore (unless not safe) and help her along on the more dangerous stuff (like a ladder). She can go down just about any slide with no help, besides me waiting at the bottom for her.

Some kids are just fearless so try to help them explore everything safely. My daughter has me tired out by lunch because she is running to do that, climbing this. I am the same way, when I was 5ish I climbed to the top of a huge pine tree... my mom just said let me know when you are safely down.

As I was reading your request I was laughing out loud. Not laughing at you but laughing with you. You see I have a 4 year old son who was the same way. By the age of 15 months I had to put him in a toddler bed because he was climbing out of his crib and within three months we had him in a big boy bed because he would use his toddler bed as monkey bars and would bench press the bed. We too had taken away the chairs and locked them in our bedroom for safe keeping. There are so many numerous things that we did also. By the age of 2 1/2 we finally decided okay the chairs are coming out and we will start teaching him the correct way, which we did. We too had to shadow him in the kitchen for a long time but I assure you it will get a little easier. Just remember he will always be a climber but as he grows older he will become a confident climber. My daugther who is 7 was a climber as well but oh boy her brother out climb her at every step of the way and still does to this day. For now, you will have to shadow him at times, maybe have the older two help you out and keep him safe. I know this is time consuming but as he gets older he will be more confident and coorindanting in his climbing so less shadowing is needed. By the way, once a climber will always be a climber, my two are monkeys but their ability on the play ground and coorindation is awesome. Hope this helps!!!!

My 2 yr old daughter is a crazy fearless climbing child! You just gotta love them!! I'm not an overly protective mom and not high strung about her getting hurt so, I have tried to embrase her love for climbing. Call me crazy but I don't mind her climbing on the couch, kitchen chairs or our 5 foot tall cat tree. I obviously do not let her do things that are down right dangerous!! I firgure climbing builds muscles, body awareness and if she falls she'll know better for next time. I knew I wanted to get her involved in something that would give her an outlet and more (safe) opportunities for her love of climbing and I found a gym that has gymnastics classes for 2yr olds. Its called TAGS, they have gyms in Eden Prairie and Apple Valley. She has her 2nd class this week and she LOVES it!! She asks to go there everyday! There she can climb, jump, hang, slide, run, and flip! It's heaven for little kids like them!!

L.,

It sounds like my little guy. He is now 23mo almost 24mo. He is a very active climber and so far the only thing I have done in my house is to take him down from the counters when he climbs them and sternly tell him no, stay off the counters. He does this a few times until he learns not to. Outside, we live in the woods and have quite a few 'toys' in our yard. He has fallen off of many of them. Gotten a bump on his head, cried, and gets back on them. We try to stay by him when he is climbing and he is learning that when we say 'be careful' to pay more attention to what he is doing. As for 'growing out of it'? I don't know if he ever will. This is my first and only son. My daughter was nothing like this. I don't know if it is so much a boy thing as to he being more rambunctious. We just need to be more aware of where and what he is doing. He is exploring and learning and having fun. For me thats what counts. Good luck!

L.,

I can't give you much advice on how to stop him from climbing, but you might want to consider attaching some of your appliances to the wall. Apparently children are killed every year by things falling on them while they were climbing (bookcases, dressers, TV's, and ovens). Not to scare you, but we had a Public Health Nurse from Ramsey County visit our ECFE class this spring and she really stressed this as a danger to kids who climb. I think most of these products can be found online, or at Babies R Us.

Good luck to you.
J.

My 18-month-old is also a fearless climber. I bought a lock for the dishwasher (about $3 from Wal-Mart) and am prepared to buy one for the oven, too, if it comes to that. My 5-year-old was never this squirrelly!
My husband built the boys a swing set this year and I asked him to put climbing walls on instead of ladders to deter my little guy from climbing to the top. Guess what? It only took him a month to figure it out, so my husband showed him the safe way to get down.
We figure boys will be boys, and climbers will be climbers, so we try to teach him to be safe and NEVER leave him unsupervised.
Good luck!

My son's best friend was like this. The solution was to give him places where he could satisfy his urge to climb. They had floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves and he would traverse them like a rock climber. The mother child proofed all the upper kitchen cabinets, kept the counters clear of everything and then just set a limit of no climbing on the stove. She took him to playgrounds and let him climb to his hearts content. I know it is nervewrecking to see such a little kid climb up so high but as long as they are climbing something stable they generally know their own limits.

I would put the slide back on the play unit and just teach him proper slide technique. My son was sliding on his own by 14 months, even the big kid slides. If he was climbing something and I wasn't positive of his skills I would just stand under him to spot him until I was confident it was something he could handle. Little kids are very capable climbers and have an ideal strength to weight ratio for it. So instead of stopping it, just encourage it wherever there is a stable item to climb.

I'm not sure if my method would help you or not, but I put my little guy in time out when he climbed after being told where was appropriate and where NOT appropriate for that activity. Alex started climbing things shortly after walking (10 1/2 months) so we were old hands at pulling him off things early on. Bar stools were his favorite and if he could get to the top of one by himself without us realizing he was climbing, we could SEE his pride at the accomplishment. Our fear was that the stool wasn't sturdy and would fall, so we used our standard discipline for climbing just like any other bad behaviour or choice.

We told him that he chooses his actions and one (not climbing whatever was the object of interest) was a good choice and one (climbing the object of interest) leads to a time out. I'd also count to three before putting him in time out... to give him time to change his mind. At 20 months, I used 1.5 minutes... and didn't have to use it too often because he HATED having to sit still for that long. It empowered him to make the choice NOT to climb and it helped him understand what was appropriate or not. We told him what wasn't safe to climb and initially let him climb on our furniture thinking that was a "better choice" than the entertainment center for example... until people at other homes complained that he climbed on their furniture (so we squelched that). It was a bit confusing for him initially, but he understood that he was getting time out because he disobeyed mommy and daddy by doing something unsafe.

He's still a climber at 4, but we don't worry about him climbing the entertainment center, counters, stove, etc. any more. It worked for us... and he's still curious about climbing trees, rocks, etc. so he's getting the physical benefits of climbing! Of course we spot him for climbing outside so he's safe! ;o)

Good luck... and I hope he DOESN'T grow out of enjoying climbing! It's GREAT exercise, teaches them coordination, and gives them a great sense of self esteem and confidence... traits most kids don't get enough of these days.