climbing and young toddlers - HELP

My 19m old is relentless and we have a very small house/yard. Since she's learned to climb, she's been climbing on everything she can get onto. Yesterday, she decided to climb into the infant swing we have for DD#2, she fell so bad (as DH and I were running toward her to remove her from it), she landed on her forhead with her legs over her head, arched and fell over backward (hard to explain, looked really bad) I swore she broke her neck. She was fine, I'm still not, the visual of the fall kept me up half the night. Her daycare was great in that they had an indoor play area. However, we hired someone to come to our house. I'm not sure what to do. Because of the danger involved in her actions I have tried the "firm" 'no, we don't climb on furniture (or whatever), tried even a time out (I'm not a fan at this point, and it was no help), I physically remove her (but my fear is I'll be changing the 5m old and my back will be turned). It's a ranch style house - so one floor essentially. Basement is for our offices and has a semi permanent gate she can't climb over. She climbs on her toy chest in her room and thinks it's fun to jump and land on her butt on top of it, she's scaring the crap out of me.

Any ideas? We have no area for a play room, her toys are in her room and she brings a lot out into the living room - she climbs on the sofa, the infant swing, got herself into the baby's exersaucer, and even the TV part of the entertainment center. I can't take her outside everyday - she's had fever's lately and the weather is an issue this time of year, so outside play isn't always possible. I know there are playgrounds and such, but with the other baby it is hard to get out this time of year, again inclimate weather is an issue and the sitter will not be driving the kids anywhere. I'm not sure that's the answer. How can you get this point accross to a fearless toddler with apparently her mother's gymnastics genetics (not in a good way). I almost fell down when she tried to go back in the infant swing this evening.... like "didn't you learn almost killing yourself yesterday?" She then started doing forward rolls all over the living room, which was fine, but clearly she wants to play this way. Her poor little head. We have mostly wood floors other than her bedroom. We are hoping to get a larger house next summer and already decided to have a playroom big enough for one of those little tykes slides and some other small playground items. She'll go back to gymnastics classes on weekends in the spring, but that's only one day a week. I really don't know what to do. I can secure stuff to walls and all that, but she climbs on everything. It's falls I'm worried about at this point.

Re: climbing and young toddlers - HELP

Time outs worked for us.

He never climbs as a result.

I strapped him into his high chair and faced the wall if he didn't stay in his time out area. Whatever the behavior was that got that type of time out ended very quickly!

Re: climbing and young toddlers - HELP

DS is 15 months and has been climbing for a few months now too. We do time outs too when it is really dangerous. I don't mind when he climbs on the couch or something like that, but when he climbs on our coffee table or his little table, that scares me. We just hold him down and physically restrain him from getting up for one minute. I started putting him in the high chair like the pp but then the high chair became aversive and he would kick and scream when being put in there to eat. So now we just sit on the couch with him and when the minute is up we say " we play on tables" or something like that.

Re: climbing and young toddlers - HELP

Time out definitely helped. She still climbs occasionally but now all I have to do is say something for her to stop. No normally works, if not I threaten time out and she typically will stop.

Re: climbing and young toddlers - HELP

we just started the time-outs over the past few days, not for the climbing as much for the standing at the tv and swinging his truck at it.... hopefully it will work... the climbing is annoying but he only does it onto the couch as of now...

Re: climbing and young toddlers - HELP

We do timeouts. I swear I gave birth to a monkey. She climbs on anything that is still. Her newest thing is to climb on top of her music table and sit there. As long as it's not dangerous we let her climb.

If it's something we don't want her doing we threaten a timeout. At that age we still had her playpen in the LR and we would put her in there for a minute and explain that we don't climb on whatever.

Now that we took our playpen down to put up the christmas tree we brought one of kitchen chairs in LR and that's where she gets her timeouts.

It took a little while for her to understand but now usually just threatening a timeout usually stops her from what she is doing.

Re: climbing and young toddlers - HELP

Unfortunately, my kid loves her high chair and if made her sit in a chair, she'd be happy. Not a good punishment for her in particular. Plus, I have one high chair and 2 babies... I can't promise consistency if the 5m old is eating when the 19m old decides to do something crazy.

I have to admit, but a little afraid to b/c I don't want this taken the wrong way (which I know it probably will be anyway). Look, I'm not advocating anything that isn't "hip" today in discipline, there are probably very good, solid reasons not to spank a child (although I know I was spanked and so was DH, I love my parent's and know they loved me - DH only has issues with his father b/c he essentially moved out of the family home and was never there for important things in his childhood). One thing I have to say is when my mom spanked me, after a few moments of crying... and everything passed, she would sit me down in the dining room and talk to me about what happened and why it was wrong/dangerous. Now, I'm NOT saying the spanking has to be part of that equation, but the reason I mention this is b/c there was such open communicaiton after. My mom was a "talker" and as we grew up, we probably confided more in her than she probably even wanted.

Now, maybe I did a time out "wrong", but I tried putting DD in a corner, when she didn't stay I walked away and "deprived" her of attention/affection. Honestly, it felt so wrong to me and I was a CIO mom (to an extent, my girls were good sleepers). CIO didn't make me feel bad, this did. I felt as if I was shutting off love from her. I mean, she ran behind me, chasing me with her arms up in tears saying "ma-ma, ma-ma", like begging for me. I swore i'd never do that again. So if I did this wrong, let me know. I hope I did, b/c if that's what time outs are about, I'm going to need to find a innovative discipline method. I want my children to never feel unloved or as if all communication is EVER shut off - they always have to know I am here for them as life becomes more complicated for them. That to me, was worse than a spanking. I know that last comment will be flamed and quoted, and maybe I'd feel differently if I ever tried that approach, but I am AGAINST time outs. I really need to know if they are supposed to be that cruel and if they are supposed to reinforce that I will not allow her to communicate with me. That is just wrong to me. So if I did it wrong, please advise. Again, to reiterate, I've never spanked my kids, probably never will (can't guarantee that if they ran into traffic or attempted to play with matches as being a mom we can't make guarantees), and I'm not advocating for it. I am just saying this is how I was raised and the message was always loud and clear and I never hit anyone else, never got into fights at school, had average self esteem for a girl (usual high school stuff in the 80's/90's) and now a pretty good one as a successful woman, I never feared my parents other than a "fear" if you will to not disappoint. Not sure that's a fear, but the type of wanting to do well that I would think most want to do. I think my mom's talking it out was the key, not the spanking, but I'm not sure how to get my point accross to a 19m old. Her behavior is often quite dangerous and the end result could be deadly. The little climging I am fine with, it's the stuff that she can seriously hurt herself doing I am concerned about or the times she gets up on something and starts jumping on it or things that are too weak to really support her weight. Anyway, just asking if this was not the proper time out procedure and if it's normally not this cruel or lacking communication. I am thoroughly against shutting off communication. There has to be a better way. I would love suggestions.