15 Month Old Climbing on Table

My 20 month old, and now my 10 month old too, are BIG climbers. My daughter had to be put in a toddler bed at 10 months because she started climbing out of her crib at 8 months. I am sorry to tell you, it only gets worse if your son is truly a "climber". I have a couple of comments. First, we started time out with my daughter at 11 months. She is now 20 months. Best discipline we have found. The trick is to use the same spot or chair everytime. Put is somewhere that is not isolated, but where they can't watch tv, play, etc. Pediatrics standard recommendation is 1 minute for every year of age. So for the fifteen month old it would be just over a minute. Now we can say, do you want a timeout, "no" then we tell her what to do so she doesn't get one she responds "kay" and acts right, most of the time. As far as climbing, what worked for us is get something that is not as dangerous to climb on (ours is a little tykes table and chairs). We don't encourage her to climb on it, but we don't correct her if she does, everything else is off limits for climbing. If she falls off it, she will get hurt, not injured like if she fell off other things we have found her on, like the entertainment center! Hope it helps

We have the same issue with our 23 month old son. If you turn your back at dinner (getting water, or God forbid fixing your own plate) he will be on the kitchen table. We pick him up, say NO firmly and place him back in his chair. We may do it 10 times during dinner. He will try to do it while we are sitting there too. He is our little explorer. Our other son never did it. I think in time he will listen to you, but for now, I'm not sure there is anything you can do.

Good luck.

I think every child does this. All 3 of mine love to climb on something. I do agree with Debrah about turning the chairs up side down. That has worked with 2 of mine. My youngest is still learning to climb on the couch. They still climb on other things but at least it is no longer the dinner table.
Time outs do work when they are young but it only last a minute.

Good Luck! :)

I'm having same discipline problem with my 16 month old, but on different issues. After talking to another mom, I'm going back to the diversion method. Whenever I bring any kind of attn to my son's behavior, he wants to do it again and again. So how about just grabbing him and removing him to another play area or toy, just for the time being? Once he's a little older, like 18 months, maybe he'll understand more. Might not be much help, but I know what you are going through. Good luck!

Rather than telling him here he CAN'T climb, tell him where he CAN climb. I had to "channel" the climbing energy with my son as well. I turned the laundry basket upside down and let him use it to climb all over the living room furniture, put a step stool (the rubbery one by Kids II from Target) in his room so he could climb onto and off of his twin bed, piled couch cushions on the floor for a little toddler obstacle course (rather, I let him and his 3 yr old sister do this). I also let him climb onto kitchen chairs while I was in the kitchen, but it was to "help" me wash dishes -- he'd splash in the bubbles on one side of the sink while I hand-washed sippy cups. I put a couple dining room chairs in the middle of the living room floor once and let him have at it so I could vacuum in another room -- it's carpeted so I felt like he'd be a little safer there than in the kitchen. His folding booster chair makes a great climbing thing, too. I'll put it on the floor and he likes to jump off the seat. Since it's only about 2 inches off the ground, he's not going to get hurt. The good thing about young climbers is that they are really agile and don't fall as often as you'd think!
We also spent as much time as possible outside on the Little Tykes play things, at parks with appropriate climbing equipment, and went to the playgrounds at the local shopping malls (Denton and Lewisville) at least once a week.
Hope this helps.
Happy climbing!

Hi, my 2 yr. old did the same thing a few months ago. We turned the chairs upside-down right where they were, took him out of the dining room, and told him a firm no. We left the chairs upside-down for at least 2 months, every now and then turning them back upright to see if he was still going to climb them. Eventually, he stopped doing it all together. We did the same thing with our piano bench, too, but he still climbs it, so it's still upside-down. :0) Every child is different, so this may not work for you. The hardest part of it was how awful the dining room looked with upside-down chairs all the time. Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
D.