Twin Climbers

S.,
My son was a climber too. As soon as he started climbing out of the crib (at 12 months) we started looking for a twin bed for him. I went to taget to find a gate with straight slats in it so he couldn't climb the gate. I put the gate in front of his door and when he got tired enough he just put himself to bed. It worked for me and now that he is 2 and daddy is deployed he is playing games again. So I just keep putting him back in bed the battle is taking less and less time each night. Good luck!

Yeah... I have 3 yo GB twins and it's the same thing!!! It's so bad I have to lock them into their bedroom at night because I am worried my female twin will let the both of them out of the house in our sleep. I do not want to wake up to my kids having been hit by a car, simply missing, or wandering around the front yard!!!!

My twins are in bunk beds. I started them together in the top bunk set on the floor because it already has a railing. When they learned how to climb out there were a few spills (we have hardwood floors in the bedrooms) we took a twin mattress and placed it so it was sticking out from under the bed and that way we only had to worry when they pushed it out in playing.

We would go into their room after they had gotten up, scold them and put them back into bed...But interestingly enough...once they got tired enough, they climbed back into bed and fell asleep on their own...

Now that they are older they sleep in their own beds and the bunks are together. They don't fall out and when they fall while climbing they pick themselves up and laugh it off...I always check on them if I hear a really loud fall but they usually just shake it off...

I don't know if any of this helped you to feel better, but at least you know oyu are not alone. Good Luck with your boys and I hope things work out!!! ;-)

Hi,
i know how nerve racking it is!! I thought my oldest son was part monkey. He would climb in my big rocker when he was 8 months old and could not get down. Would climb into his walker and cry to be let out! He never did quit climbing, but he never got seriously injured either. He is 29 years old today and still climbing. I never figured out how to get him to quit, but hope you find comfort in knowing he never got more than a bumb or bruise, no trips to the emergency room.

I have 2 1/2 twin boy, and we are going through the same thing right now. we put them in big boy beds so that they would not hurt themselves. But getting them to sleep is a whole diffent matter in its self! Let me know if you find something that works. Or if you just want a ear to talk to.

Hi, I have 2 sets of twins! they are older now! Boys are a
little diferent girls. Time to be FIRM! A liitle home training! Get twin beds and start teaching them to stay in bed
by taking away favorite toys plus TIME OUT! They will out grow their climbing when they discover something else to do.
My boy twins went thruough a stage of trying to fix things or
figure out how things work! Putting liquid dish soap in the dish washer! A MESS!

Hi S.,

I know right where you are! I have eight children, with two sets of identical twins. My daughter was 19 mos old when my twin boys were born. They were so different from her!
Here is what we did to keep them in their cribs. We bought crib tents. They are the greatest thing since sliced cheese. So they couldn't zip out of them, I would put a safety pin right at the zipper. Then, before I went to bed, I would remove the pin.
The boys loved them. They thought they were cool. I put some soft toys and books in there. They would wake up and "read" their books. You can also put a blanket or sheet over it, so it's more like a big boy tent. It really worked for us.
We also got safety gates and put those in their doorway. You can get the really tall ones or put two on top of each other. That way, if they are out, they can stay in their room and play till you get there.
We kept, and still do, a really consistent bedtime routine. Dinner, bath, read books, snuggle, prayers, then bedtime. Some kids just have a hard time settling in. As soon as they were in bed for five minutes, and figured out the couldn't get out, they would fall asleep.
Remember, they are only little for a short while. This will pass and they will be ten, like mine, before you know it. Twins are twice the work, but they are also twice the love, twice the hugs and twice the kisses.
I hope this helps. Take care and hang in there!
Momma of 8.

go to tot beds or trundle bed (you can set them to the lowest setting and when they are older you can make thm go all the way up)I did this for all my kids. It allowed me to relax more knowing that if they got out of bed they wouldnt get hurt. The only thing is that I couldnt keep them in bed for long until they understood that it was nap time and they were suppose to take naps.

I just wanted to chime in with the same advice... I have 2 monkey-boys too. They are now 5 and 7, but the toddler years were TOUGH. I had 2 different types of child proofing on the kitchen cabinets, and all that did was slow them down a little (at age 12 months). My oldest broke his arm on the monkey bars at the playground (twice) and the day he got his cast off, I let him pick a special activity, thinking he would pick Chuck E Cheese or something. No, he wanted to go try the monkey bars again!
Some kids just are more active and rowdy than others. This is not the same as being a discipline problem. But consistency is really the key with these kids. A "look" or "tone" probably won't work as well. I don't have any real advice except that I spend a lot of time pretending to be deaf and blind so I don't have a heart attack!

Have fun and enjoy! Little boys are the best.

Get a zoo animal picture book and show them how the different animals move. Then play a game where you shout out an animal's name "Elephant!" and they stomp around or "Kangaroo" and they leap and hop.

Boys are SUPPOSED to be active! Wonderful isn't it? Mind blowing isn't it? Heart-wrentching at times isn't it?

I swear - those kids bounce when they hit the ground. *laughing* My son learned to crawl out of his crib at 14 months old. Yeah....I have a monkey too. At 2 years old we caught him standing on top of the fridge.

Momma - all I can say is hang on for the ride ..... it's going to be excited!

A. <><

Hi we have twins in our family too set of boys and set of girls... as far as climbing good luck and it is just safe to make it safer for them ... as far as the beds.. if the cribs make to day beds do that or if not take them down and just put the matteresses on the floor... or get them the car beds you can find them on ebay or craigslist cheaper and use the crib matteresses....and be thankful they are healthy... and have fun as boys do run jump and climb... have lots of fun just teach them safe ways to do it.. S.

I too have a wild climber/explorer. He's 2 and would climb out of his crib and into his baby sister's crib in the middle of the night. We nipped that quickly with a crib tent, though of course he has resisted by screaming up to 2 hours a night when we "zip him in." I hate to restrain my children, but know that it is for their own good. God has given us to our children to train them, knowing that we have more wisdom than they as to what is best for them. We have had to totally revamp the child-proofing of our home for my third son. My first two boys are active, but never tried some of the feats that my third son has tried. He will (and often does) try to get out of any restraint (carseat, doors, etc.), and is ingenious at figuring out how to work things, how he can move things around to get to what he wants, how to get out closed in spaces, etc. Please e-mail me if you'd like to hear more about my experiences with a "wild child" and how I have learned/am learning to child proof my home for him. I still have much to learn, and hope I can learn from other moms on this site. My little guy learned how to unlock our chain lock from the front door using a light saber. We have since replaced that with a slide bolt which he cannot reach, even with a chair. He is a wildman in the car...always runs to the front door once he is let out of his carseat to "drive!" He has put toys in the oven, causing a fire when we turn on the oven to preheat. He likes to put blankets over his head and pretend he is a ghost to his baby sister, and then tries to make her a ghost "suffocate her with a blanket over her head." I know where you are coming from. All I can say is keep them (little ones proned to exploring and pushing the limits) contained as long as you can, even if they protest. It's for their good. Once they are ready to sleep as a big girl/boy, then let them. Till then...don't push it.

Hi S.,
I encourage you not to stop the climbing. My youngest child, now 22, could scale almost anything. She used to put her feet on one side of the door way and reach across to the other side and go up the door frame. When the kids played hide and seek, she'd be up at the top of the door frame. Another time I found her sitting on top of the upright freezer playing with the playdoh I'd hidden up there. No ladder or chair around. She could climb up the side of a brick house or a rock wall with just fingers and toes. She was 2. She had many accidents but none were a result of climbing. The most dangerous thing she did was use a rocking chair for a ladder to unlock the safety latches we installed at the top of the exterior doors to keep her from getting out. She pushed a rocking chair to the door, held on with her toes like a monkey,waited patiently till the rocker stopped rocking then stood on the top rail and had that lock unlatched and was out the door before I could get to her. It was second nature to her. None of her 3 brothers and sisters did that. We lost more shoes because she would take them off wherever she was. On Easter morning my mother asked if I knew what that pink thing was caught up in the top of the pecan tree. It was Rachel, age 3, hanging swinging upside down on a limb at the top of the tree. If they are as much of climbers as what I had, they Will climb. They have an instinct. Being twins will make it double trouble, but they likely won't have accidents due to climbing. Please put your sons in gymnastics so they can use their natural talent and learn safety. We did not have that resource. They are natural performers. You might as well start laughing. They are going to constantly amaze you. LOL! C.

I have twin boys also (age 5) and yes they are out of control...lol. What one doesn't think of, the other will. And they feed off each other too, making it worse than normal. My grocery store trip yesterday was the worst ever! Get ready for the ride mom! Sorry I couldn't help you with sleeping issue as this was not an issue with mine. Take time for big sister as I know twins can take all of your time. I have an older daughter too (age 8).

Blessings to you!
Deborah

I learned as soon as my now 6yo son started moving around that I had to let go of my anxiety of him getting hurt or I would have already had a heart attack. He is a very rough and tumble boy. Thankfully, we have not made an emergency room trip for stiches or a broken bone yet.

Bumps, bruises, and cuts/scratches are going to happen. As parents we just have to keep them as safe as possible.

You are doing what you should with pillows and making their potential fall as short of distance as possible.

Children's bones are made to withstand more "pressure" from falling than adults. For example, babies are not born with knee caps, they develop them as they grow. The tail bone is not fused together until later in childhood as to protect it from the falls that happen.

Good luck and just keep protecting the area as much as possible.

I don't really have any advice for you other than to let you know you are not alone. My son, now 15, was climbing out of his baby bed at 10 months. We put a child approved top, sorta like a mesh up-side down tent over the top of the bed. He figured out how to take that apart and go out anyway, We converted it to a child bed and there was NO keeping him in it then. I used to sit at his door and when he got out of the bed, I'd put him back in without saying a word. NO INTERACTION - just back in the bed. That way he got no satisfaction by getting attention for his misdeed.

After about a month of this, he quit. But I sat there every nap and every night he went to bed to accomplish this. Obviously, we both survived but it was not an easy battle to win. Good luck. IF you have the patience, you might try what I did. Our problem was he had 4 older brothers and sisters that he wanted out to play with but that was NOT happening on my watch. LOL

He also used to climb his bookcase and his dresser. We literally bolted them to the wall and put a lock on his closet door. I made his room a virtual "safe room" so he would not hurt himself. When he was 13 mos old I lost him in the house. I had free standing book cases in my bedroom. He had crawled up on the top shelf and was laying on that shelf looking down at me laughing at my panic. We bolted those shelves to the wall after that. This is a child that could get the kitchen door latches open that I couldn't even work. He took is tricylce apart and put it back together when he was 24 mos old. The fun never ends with some of them.

Now I have a 15 month old and a 30 month old following in his footsteps. Oh the joys....................

Expect bumps and bruises! It happens. As long as the beds are low to the ground(you've already done that), no high dressers or shelves to climb on in their room, and nothing heavy that's going to fall over on top if they do climb on it, then don't worry. My middle son was a climber as well, and walked around with a goose egg right between his eyes for almost two years! Every time he fell, he managed to land on his forehead. The pediatrician quit asking! lol We spend ALOT of time at the playground so he could at least get energy out that way and climb to his heart's content on equipment that was meant to be climbed on. And truthfully? At 18, he still a rough and tumble boy! He still comes home with scraps, bumps and bruises.

I have twin girls that are 4 and they have been climbing since before they could walk. We put the girls in toddler beds before they were even a year old because of the climbing. I have both of them on video at 10 months climbing out of their cribs like they had been doing it for years. That calmed them down a little but we actually had to put a lock on the outside of their door for bedtime because nothing else would keep them in their room, they would end up trying to wonder all over the house. I know it sounds cruel and unusual but it actually is the safest thing we have done. We have a video monitor mounted in the corner of their room, almost like a surviellance camera because they enjoyed unplugging things so we had to put it up high enough they couldn't get to it. But it gives us the ability to make sure they are safe at all times in their room. They do not take naps so the only time they are in their room is at night with the door closed, but they have know if they call us for any reason we are right there. I don't know if it will help, but that's what we had to do. I also think you are right, because there are two of them it makes them get into more trouble than they would on their own. I also have a 9 yr old son, and he never did half the things the girls are doing or have done. Just remember the saying two heads are better than one. They will discover and do things that you never even dreamed would be possible.