We don't have stairs in our apartment. But J had no problem figuring out how to climb them any chance he got! Going down is a different story. We don't have many opportunities to teach him how, and now he wants to go down the stairs the same way as us, not backwards.
He is 16 months. He would definitely fall face first if I let him go down without holding my hand.
When did your toddler learn to navigate stairs?
honeydew / 7488 posts
DS is 21 months and can go down the stairs very slowly while holding onto the railing or going down on his bum. I think he has been doing it for a month and getting better at it gradually.
eggplant / 11287 posts
She goes down them backwards, on her knees. No idea when she will be able to walk down them.
pineapple / 12234 posts
B mastered walking down the stairs by himself right before he turned 2! From 15-22ish months, he slid down on his belly backwards.
coconut / 8279 posts
DS is 18 months and the same way, he wants to go down the stairs like us - and we have a three floor townhouse (open balconies, ugh).
For now, we've been walking down holding his hand and trying to get him to hold the rail when we're out (our stairs don't have a rail halfway up). I'm not sure how long it will be until I'm confident that he can go down them on his own. Baby gates all over my house. 
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
@Rainbow Sprinkles: I meant that, too. J won't do it!
@rachiecakes: does he go down backwards ever? J won't even try it no matter how much I encourage it.
pear / 1610 posts
@Mrs. Pen: we have this same problem! DS just gets mad when we try to get him to go down backwards... I am curious for everyone's answers!
pear / 1946 posts
We live in a 3 story townhouse, so she learned really quickly after crawling, maybe at 8 months. Now that she's walking she scares me somtimes, but she still will get down, turn around, and go down backwards.
grapefruit / 4823 posts
At 13.5 months DS is starting to go down the stairs on his bum. He's getting pretty good, he's been practicing for a week or so
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
She went down the first time at about 11 months. She slides down on her belly.
nectarine / 2085 posts
Walking down takes some time, I think. LO is really coordinated, and I was comfortable taking a hand off of him (and walking in front of him) as he went down the stairs at around 2.5 years. I still walk ahead of him and "spot" him at almost 3yo. I doubt I'll stop that anytime soon. The stairs he is on most often are concrete, which is scarier than wood or carpet in my mind (if not in fact...). He never got to crawl down any because I didn't have a practice set of stairs that I felt was suitable for crawling on. But he got lots of practice backing down off of stuff like the bed and sofa.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
@honeybear: I don't mean just walking down - going down in general. My son is 16 months and still won't go backwards or scoot down the stairs.
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
15 months, but we have a lot of stairs. We showed her again and again to go backwards an now she's fairly safe. She has taken a few tumbles, though.
pomelo / 5178 posts
DD learned how to go down stairs early, maybe 9 months? Her grandpa taught her to turn around and go on her belly. We didn't really let DS do it until we moved into our new house, though, so he would have been 13 months. Our old stairs were not safe for little ones.
cantaloupe / 6146 posts
THe day he started going up we tried teaching him to go down backwards. He can't quite do it yet but sometimes he'll sit when going up, then slide down one (on purpose). It's nervewracking!
It's only been a week or so of climbing though.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
@rachiecakes: that makes me feel a little better!! for the most part I don't worry about milestones - but this one is more annoying than anything because our apartment is on the second floor and if I have to carry things down to the car I have to figure out how to maneuver him as well.
GOLD / papaya / 10166 posts
She's 17 months and she can go down small steps on her own. For regular staircases, she holds on the banister and/or our hand. When she first started going up the stairs, I made it a point to show her how to get down by telling her to sit down on the edge of each step. That way, when she stood up, she was already on the next step. As she's grown, she doesn't always have to sit to go to the next step.
pomegranate / 3388 posts
DD started crawling backwards down stairs before 1 year, but I'm not sure that she will do full flights like that. I should try it out and see what she does...
pineapple / 12566 posts
We never had stairs until moving 8 months ago, and they are only the stairs in the building hallway, not out apartment. DS is almost 2.5 and just started going up and down the stairs unassisted about 1 month ago.
grapefruit / 4056 posts
We showed S how to go down backwards a couple months ago, probably 11 months? He fell down a few stairs, so we did stair boot camp.
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