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Ok, my little daughter likes going down the slide. But the problem is that sometimes she wants to slide down head-first like in this picture, which is very dangerous.

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head-first, headfirst /ˌhedˈfɜːst◂ $ -ˈfɜːrst◂/ adverb

1 if you fall head-first, your head goes down first, and the rest of your body follows afterwards

dive/fall/jump/plunge head-first

I fell head-first down the stairs.

I want her to slide down with her legs going first like this

enter image description here

So, what should I say?

Sweetie, please slide down with your legs going first or please slide down legs-first

Also, what about other parts of the body going first such as "butt-first" or "hands- first", etc?

Note: We have the adverb "head-first" but no "legs-first"

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Personally I have no problem with “legs first”, but you’re right (to my surprise) that it’s well-nigh impossible to find in use anywhere. I think the word you’re looking for is feetfirst. Google Ngram suggests it has been in use since at least 1965.

P.S. I’m not an expert, but I do have kids (now grown) and they went down their similarly-sized slide head-first, feet-first, face-first, you-name-it-first, and it never did them any harm. 🙂

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  • also, what about other parts of the body like "butt-first" or "hands- first", etc?
    – Tom
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 4:35
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    @Tom Feet First or Head First are the usual idioms (BrE here). Bum/butt first would confuse me - unless you mean to go down facing backwards in the sitting position?
    – Smock
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 11:26

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