The Fearless Toddler!! WWYD?

[tracymom1]

Hi Mamas,

My 20mo DD has no fear.  She bounces around on the couch and falls off, smashes her face on the ground, cries for a few minutes and then does the same thing all over again.  We initially started with the "no standing/jumping on the couch rule" but it became impossible.  Every time I would turn my back for a moment she would be up there flinging herself around.  I literally could not get up to get a book off the bookshelf 5 feet away without her becoming a little super-monkey and hurting herself.

She is like this with all chairs and 'high' up places.  It has been a few weeks since she can get up on these items without help and it is making me a nervous wreck.  I tried putting pillows on the floor around the couch, but they slide around when she walks on them and that creates a whole new hazard!  

I have a 3yo, too, and he watches out for her but there is only so much he can do.  I can't drag them into the bathroom with me every time I have to pee (I am 27 weeks pregnant and pee A LOT) and sometimes I have to walk into another room to get something or answer the phone or what-not.  I am terrified that she is going to suffer a serious injury.

Am I overreacting?  Are most toddlers this adventurous?  DS was way more mellow so I haven't dealt with this before.

Any thoughts, mamas?

[CherryBombMama]

this would be my ds!

he is 2 now, and all ive been able to do to keep him from harming himself is tons of outside or park time, lots of jumping on the bed with me as a "catcher" following him around the edges of the bed, lots and lots of floor time (which is probably getting hard for you since your pregnant) with lots of tumbling, flip flops, jumping, throwing him in the air, etc.

we basically try to wear him out so he isnt a daredevil 100% of the time. pillows on the floor have never worked, if anything, he just tries to hurl himself onto a pillow and ends up bonking his head on the floor. just last night, he flew face first into our head board and smacked his forehead HARD.  

i dont think it would be wise to try to stop or slow her engergy, instead i would try to find ways to redirect it and wear her out. there arent too many baby classes that focus on that, but as she gets older, i would sign her up for seriously active sports. thats what im gonna do for my ds

[darcytrue]

My youngest is 18 months old and does this as well. She won't jump on the couch much but loves to climb up and then get back down. She has fallen off backwards a couple times. It worries me but I can't always be in that room and baby gates are OUT, they aren't used in my home. She also now opens the dishwasher and climbs up and stands in it. :(  I am going to buy a lock for the D/W today if I can find one, don't even know if they exist. She likes to move the chairs to the dining room table around and will climb up in them and then falls 90% of the time and bumps her head or chin on the wooden chairs. ugh. It's exhausting some days to keep up with her. She can also climb up on my bed in my bedroom now and it's about 2 feet off the floor. She gets a good foothold on the bottom part and pulls up with the comforter. it's always something around here! lol. My oldest two I do NOT remember them doing this kind of stuff although I'm quite sure they did. ;-)

[zuzunel09]

My ds is 20 months and also a daredevil.  He did the couch-flinging thing for awhile, and still likes to jump on the bed/us with no regard for where his head lands.  I second the idea of lots of outdoor time, but I too am quite pregnant and since I have to make frequent bathroom trips and can't really run anymore, the trips have to be planned carefully.  Yesterday I took ds to the library for story time, then let him wander around a furniture store pointing at lamps (his favorite), then took him to church in the evening.  A very busy day gives him stimulation, time to walk around, and then he'll sleep through the night.

[SubliminalDarkness]

My sympathies. My 4 year old's expertise is head injuries. He's a pro at getting his head stitched. Really. Without sedating him or anything he falls asleep while they do it now. 

[tracymom1]

Thanks mamas! I have noticed that when I ignore the crazy behavior on the couch then it tends to go away - for her I don't think it is so much an energy level thing as it is a general defiance thing! Its kind of like she is testing me and the boundaries I am trying to set up for her, and when I don't let it get to me, she moves on to something else.  Sounds like something I probably did at her age, LOL!!!