How do you teach them to go down the stairs

DS is a year old. He climbs the stairs now (which is a huge help on my back)

How/When do I teach him to go down the stairs? On his tush? Holding my hand?

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Teach him going down on his belly. NOT his tush. If you teach him on his tush, his feet will get tangled and he'll topple over. (my son actually did this and it was scary) That's how I taught my kids. DS has been going up the stairs since he was 6 months old (going down on his own before a year old) and DD was a pro before a year old. I don't have gates on either staircase in my house either.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

I would recommend teaching him feet first, either on his tush if he's big enough to easily do the steps this way, or climb down on his belly feet first.

I DO NOT recommend holding his hand and letting him walk down them. We had been doing this with DS and now he thinks he can just step off any edge because that's what we were doing before. This has become a MAJOR problem for us. I'm trying to get him to go down feet first now, but he just grbas my hand and tried to step off like he used to.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

DS is 23 months and still willl not go down stairs. He goes up them no problem but is afraid to go down.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Ok - so belly it is lol

Now - do I show him - or just place him that way and he'll get the jist? I think he would just go up - and not down

Message edited 7/22/2008 10:44:53 AM.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

I agree. On the belly ... like going down a ladder.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Posted by Diana1215

Ok - so belly it is lol

Now - do I show him - or just place him that way and he'll get the jist? I think he would just go up - and not down

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

I'm still trying to teach Emma to go down on her belly. She thinks she can do it all and tries to just walk! We have no handrails either, so I just don't allow her anywhere near the stairs. She did just finally learn how to get off the couch backwards though so I really should push working on the steps.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

DD learned to go down on her belly. I showed her once and she got it. Then she started going down on her tush at about 18 months all by herself. At 2, she's walking down while holding on to the bannister. She pretty much picked it up on her own. We only have 6 steps though.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Posted by luvsun27

Posted by nylisa

DS is 23 months and still willl not go down stairs. He goes up them no problem but is afraid to go down.

This is DD too! I have tried to show her, but she just stands at the top of the stairs and cries...or looks at me like "hey ma...you forgot something!"

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Milan does the scoot scoot. DH and I taught him to sit on his toosh and scoot down the stairs. However, now he is trying to hold onto the bannister and walk down the stairs like we do.

When you go down the stairs with him, sit down on your toosh and say scoot scoot and show him. He will get the hang of it.

Message edited 7/22/2008 12:35:09 PM.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Mine are 23 months. One still is too scared. Jack just started learning how to turn himself around and go down on this knees and belly. He can actually walk down better then his brother with a railing/hand help, but when he is by himself he goes on his belly. We didn't teach him, he does it himself.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

does he know how to get down from a couch by himself? I taught ds to roll on his belly and go down feet first, he got it within couple of days... I would assume that it would be the same for stairs...

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

We do feet first and while she can come down by herself - she is 2 1/2 I always walk just one step ahead of her looking back or she sometimes lets me hold her hand so that works too. Stairs terify me.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Posted by Diana1215

Ok - so belly it is lol

Now - do I show him - or just place him that way and he'll get the jist? I think he would just go up - and not down

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

We're still not perfected with the going down on his belly either. He's getting the hang of it, but he gets too excited and wants to dash down facing fwd . Going up is no problem.

For everyone that said "feet first"... no offense at all by this, but I was trying to think "feet first... as opposed to what, head first?? hands first ?
I can imagine my boys going down head first actually

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Posted by Shopaholic921

Posted by Diana1215

Ok - so belly it is lol

Now - do I show him - or just place him that way and he'll get the jist? I think he would just go up - and not down

LOL, show him.. but before you do it.. get Kim to take a video of you going down the stairs on your belly...

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

When Noah started climbing on the couch and up the staircases, I turned him around and reached for his legs and taught him to touch the floor. It took maybe me showing him 4 times till he "got" it and he now uses that method to get down almost all stairs, excpet for some reason our front porch stairs( the scariest of course with concrete at the bottom)..so I have been showing him to scoot down with feet first.

He will pick it up fast no matter how you show him at this age.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

I bought a lower handrail so they could go up with that. I needed them to be able to go down by themselves so I would not have to make 50 trips to get them both downstairs.

Re: How do you teach them to go down the stairs

Posted by Diana1215

Posted by Shopaholic921

Posted by Diana1215

Ok - so belly it is lol

Now - do I show him - or just place him that way and he'll get the jist? I think he would just go up - and not down

LOL, show him.. but before you do it.. get Kim to take a video of you going down the stairs on your belly...