When Do Babies start walking and how can I teach my baby to walk?
For most parents, the proudest and dearest moment of their lives is when their baby learns how to walk or talk. However, before a baby develops those skills, he or she has to achieve certain milestones.
For instance, a baby often starts by babbling incoherently to babbling consonants before he learns how to speak. It’s the same thing as walking. The baby has to learn how to cruise on their tummy before they can start sliding along a couch or holding onto furniture.
It all takes time, but the time when she or he starts walking into your arms is closer than you realize. As a mom, you can help your baby reach this milestone sooner. However, when should you as the mom, expect your baby to start walking?
When Should A Baby Learn How To Walk?
It is important to keep in mind that some babies often start walking sooner than others. So, do not conclude that there’s a problem with your baby if he or she delays a bit.
Most babies often start walking between 9-12 months. However, these are the months when the baby should at least take his first few steps. When your baby is between 14-15 months old, he should be able to fully walk without hesitance or support.
There are some babies that often start walking when they are 17-18 months old. So do not worry or panic if your baby delays a bit.
Tips To Help Your Baby Learn How To Walk
Start Early
Start strengthening your baby’s muscles early, even if they are a few weeks old. Hold them up upright with your arms placed under their armpits. You’ll notice that your baby will start kicking his dangling legs against a hard surface. This reflexive action should help strengthen their leg muscles.
Keep this up even after their 6 months old. By this time, the baby should be able to bounce himself up and down against a surface as you hold them up with your hands. This should be about the time when your baby learns how to sit up by himself, crawl and rollover.
On top of holding the baby upright, incorporate tummy time to help build and strengthen his muscles in his upper body.
Encourage Cruising
Cruising is when the baby holds onto a piece of furniture while standing so as to move. Once your child can stand by himself, encourage cruising by placing his toys a bit far. He’ll try and cruise to get to them. This task will help strengthen their leg, hip and thigh muscles.
Encourage Squatting
Once your baby has mastered the skill of standing and cruising while holding onto furniture, the next step should be squatting. Place objects or their favorite toys at their feet so that they can squat to get to them.
If they cry for you to help, then try and teach them how to squat while you are at it. When babies learn how to squat, they are actually developing and strengthening their hip and thigh muscles.
Offer Support
Offer support while holding onto their trunk while they are trying to walk. This will help the baby keep his feet steady and firm on the ground. Of course, this will help teach them to walk the right way.
One thing that definitely helped my baby to start walking is this Baby Learning Walker that I bought for him. It provided him the necessary support while walking and he was excited about the idea that he could walk around the house by himself while collecting toys into this shopping card.
However, it is important to note that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) strongly discourages the use of walkers because it might slow down Baby’s walking development and it can be extremely dangerous.
Therefore, if you want to purchase the learning walker for your baby, it is better to offer the walker after your baby has taken his first steps and of course, watch your baby while he uses it.
Encourage Dancing
Babies love to dance. By putting on some music with a beat to it, your baby is likely to respond to it. This works best when the baby is in a standing position.
The baby, while dancing, is likely to bounce up and forth while on his feet. This should help them learn how to squat and strengthen those leg muscles.
In case of any concerns about delayed walking in babies should be reported to a pediatrician. But keep in mind and don’t panic, since some babies may simply be late bloomers.
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