Like between 2 and 2.5? We only moved into a house with stairs ( we lived in a ranch before) when he was 21 months though. I needed a few months to be sure he knew what he was doing.
DD was doing them easily much earlier than this, but I stopped standing at the top/bottom around 2.5yo. It always worried me because we have a full flight of stairs with hardwood at the bottom. Plus she was easily distracted Now she is much better about concentrating on the stairs so I don't go over there to watch her.
Post by Emerald1486 on Dec 1, 2014 13:54:05 GMT -5
I didn't allow DS up and down stairs completely alone until 3. From about 2 on he could walk up and down them well enough, but I also taught him how to "bump" down the stairs on his butt. Saved me from having a few heart attacks
Like 13, 14 months? I know when we were house hunting at 15 months I was letting her do them alone and our realtor was shocked and pretty sure judging me. Once she knew how to go up and down I let her do them. We moved when DD was 17 months and our new house has a large staircase with 17 stairs. I think I watched her for a day and that was it.
ETA: Holy cow I knew I was breezy, but wow! I can feel all the judging coming my way through the inter webs. LOL
Post by dancingirl21 on Dec 1, 2014 14:07:12 GMT -5
J goes up the stairs (but only with us behind him) at 16.5 months and has probably done so since about 14 months. We haven't attempted to let him go down yet. We have steep stairs (13 in total) to our second level and they are hardwood with no carpet, so that scares me.
We still don't like to let J do the stairs in our old colonial alone. He is 2.5. He goes up ok but coming down is another story. He has some gross motor delays from hypotonia, is on the short side, and the stairs are just so steep. We prefer to just be there as a spot and keep gates at both the top and the bottom.
DD1 was around 2 or 2.5. DD2 has been able to go up and down for about as long as she's been walking. I taught her the scoot methods. At 17 mos I don't really follow her. She may have climbed under the baby gate and may have been found having made it to the bottom of the basement steps twice over the weekend. :\
DS is 20 months and he's been doing them on his own for a few months. We don't have stairs, so I'm talking about ones at the playground or things like that. I still stand there and watch him though.
E does it without holding hands, but an adult is there. Except last week, when H was changing over laundry in the basement and E insisted on going with him. I went to the bathroom (upstairs) and next thing I know E is pounding on the bathroom door. So... that time he came up the (steep) basement stairs alone. LOL.
Edit: And I'm talking about interior stairs. I hadn't thought about it, but pretty much all outdoor stairs we encounter have lower risers/deeper treads and/or are just a few stairs, so I've never been concerned with him navigating those alone. Our basement stairs built with 1940s building code are a different animal.
Since he started walking. Actually, he could get up them well before that. We have a lot of stairs to navigate in our house, and he showed an interest. I let him practice like crazy because I wanted him to get good at them early on. He's had one bad stumble, and that was down 2 or 3 stairs. Both he and the dog were looking out our front picture window (stairs go past it), got excited at the same moment and tripped each other.
Confession: I slightly side-eye a friend who still insists on her (edit: developmentally normal/advanced) 2.5-year-old going down stairs feet-first on her belly.
Post by thecatinthehat on Dec 1, 2014 15:15:48 GMT -5
DS goes up by himself, but can't go down. After I saw my friends 2.5yr old missed and fell on thanksgiving, DS will have some level of supervision probably until he is 3.5/4. Stairs scare me and DH is an extremely clumsy person so it is possible DS might have some of that
Post by penguingrrl on Dec 1, 2014 15:24:38 GMT -5
My first two were later as we didn't have stairs in our house then, so I can't remember what age they were. My son is 21 months and has been navigating the stairs in our new house since around the time we moved in, when he was 15 months old. I worried for a day or two then realized he was fine.