Every parent loves their child to bits and wants the best for them in life. Taking the first steps is just one of many things that parents are longing for their babies to master ASAP. How can you help your baby to walk? Of course, you don’t want to be your child’s main transport. This is why we’re going to take you through all the ways that you can help baby walk. There are many ways you can help the baby walk. By the end of this article, you’ll become fully acquainted with how to teach baby to walk. Ready? Let’s get going.
What Age do Babies Walk?
Every toddler is different, but in general, one can expect their child to begin standing up at around 10 months of age. Before this, you’ll see that they’ll try using all sorts of things to help them assist their stride, whether it is your sofa or one of their toys. By no means should you have any fear if your toddler does not progress by the average walking age – many toddlers don’t start their walk until a whole lot later, so just keep reinforcing and encouraging their walking behavior in the meantime. Once they start walking, it will be hard to catch up with them!
Essential Tips to Help Baby Walk
1. No Pushing
This should be something that goes without saying. Sadly, there are far too many parents pushing for their child to walk before they are ready. You needn’t be alarmed if a one-year-old child isn’t making their first steps yet, they will do so in time. Most kids will begin walking by an age of 15 months, yet it’s not alarming if they don’t start before this. Any further time they’re not walking is time well spent helping their bones develop properly. Learning how to help baby walk is all about patience. Kids learning to walk isn’t about rushing and pushing for a goal. Rushing into things isn’t needed!
2. Cruising Opportunities
A lot of toddlers start their cruise as early as half a year, i.e. walking while holding onto something. When you’re helping a toddler learn to walk, be prepared for them and help them along their cruising path, making sure they don’t catch any dangerous furniture edges or fall over hurting themselves. There’s no need to go full out and baby proof every inch of your home, just keep them supervised and reward their cruising with positive reinforcement.
3. Cruise ‘N Kick
Similar to the activity mentioned above, how to make baby walk is by incorporating a kick into the cruise. While your child holds onto a piece of furniture while having a cruise, place a ball onto the floor right by their two feet. Its possible child kicks your ball accidentally at first but be patient and keep putting it back. After a while, it’s noticeable that your child will raise their foot so that they can kick this ball on purpose. By placing a ball on both sides of their body, you can stimulate them to kick with both of their feet. This is a great way of developing toddlers’ muscles. Balls are simply the best toys to help baby walk.
4. Assisted Walks
So, do baby walkers help walk? Of course, they do. Stand right behind your kid, placing your arms around theirs and pull your child up towards a standing position. As you gently begin pulling one of their arms forward, pull the next and repeat the motion. You’ll see that your baby’s feet start moving in a natural motion as they try rotating their hips to step. Practice makes perfect with this one, so keep it going until the baby has had enough. If you don’t know, which baby walker to choose – here is our recommendation:
When you hold a toddler in an upright position, you’ll see that they will begin to support themselves using their legs at the age of around 4 months. A lot of children will also begin bending their knees and give their bodies. A good bouncing up and down! Do encourage any movement in general. It’s good to give them as much assistance as they need to help them on their own two feet. Any aid will help them develop muscles in their hips and legs. It’s a good idea to provide aid if possible.
5. Good Shoes
When thinking about how to help baby learn to walk, think about what they’ll be wearing on their feet. Technically, indoors it’s best for children to learn walking barefoot, but toddlers should begin wearing their shoes with thick enough soles from a young age. So, do shoes help babies walk? Absolutely! Feet can’t just be any kind; they need to have a good amount of flexibility and need to be highly durable when they start walking outdoors. You won’t want to compromise any muscular development by getting inappropriate footwear.
6. Help ‘Em Up
If you’re ever thinking does leaving your child on the floor help my baby walk, it’s good to help them up if they’re struggling. Show the little one how they can bend their knees, getting back down towards the floor. By doing this, it helps ease any potential damage from falls as they start taking their own steps. Make a game of helping them up and down and you’ll get your child’s excitement roaring!
7. Practice Makes Perfect
In the way that you’d help your baby pull themselves up, let them hold onto your own fingers. Soon they’ll begin to walk for themselves. Doing this will give your child some confidence up to the point that they decide to make their first steps by themselves. You’ll see pretty soon that your kids will be running faster than you’re able to! Keep up with your toddler and treasure the bond between you and them while it lasts.
8. Incentives
It may seem strange talking about bribes in baby walking tips, but the situation of a baby learning to walk can be improved simply by helping them with incentives to walk. Have they done a good job? Give them a toy and encouragement. Also, place toys near them so that they will be motivated to continue their walk right up to them. Toys with bright lights and phones with bright screens work best for little ones.
9. Praise and Positive Reinforcement
When babies start walking, provide encouragement and give plenty of positive reinforcement. By doing this, your little one will want to keep on walking. When they reach any walking milestone, congratulate them for it and soon they’ll be the best baby walker on the planet. Anyone benefits from a bit of positivity in their life and babies are no exception to this.
10. Encourage Squats
We’re not talking gym squats here but get your toddler squatting on their own. After a while, they can then start standing on their own. By placing a toy at your child’s feet when a sofa supports them, it’s good to encourage, enabling them to squat and pick the toy up from off the ground. The motions of going down and then up again is great for developing muscles in the body.
11. Using a Stool
You may be surprised to hear, but a stool is one of those things to help baby walk because it ensures that the back has no support. Sit your child on a seat and let them get comfortable supporting themselves, but always be there for safety if noticing them start falling over and be there for the grab! Your child’s feet should need to touch the floor so that they’re able to push against the floor. Their knee and hip need to be at 90-degree angles. When your little one is in the position, encourage them reaching and pick up a toy from the floor and then tell them to sit down on their stool. This is one of many exercises to help baby walk. By moving the toys around in all sorts of different positions, this will help strengthen different muscles.
12. Repetition
Any infant trying out their steps will learn better by repetition. Whatever activity is chosen to try out with your baby, make sure it becomes repeated over and over. When repeating, you’ll foster your child’s confidence- and get them off to a flying start. Just remember – put shoes on their feet, so they’re not too sore after a long-time training.
13. Childproofing
Safety is important as babies can hurt themselves on a corner or ledge. One can minimize the areas for potential accidents with padding. You won’t want to do anything that can stunt a child’s confidence. Makes sure to put non-slip socks onto toddler’s feet too.
14. Play with Other Children
Watching others and copying is a large part of babies learning. It’s a good idea to arrange a few playdates with other children and parents. Soon they can push themselves to keep up with others. If your child sees another standing up, then they may follow suit.
15. Providing a Beat
Synchronizing movement with music is what babies love to do. Play some fun music and let them try dancing around to the beat. It is music that brings fun into bouncing up and down activities. As the baby moves with the beat, they will develop all sorts of core muscles including in their legs.
Wrap Up
We hope that these 12 top tips have been useful and encouraging, informing you about how to help baby walk. Remember not to put too much weight on age and development. To be honest, there is no real normal age to start walking. With encouragement and activities, your child will be up and walking in no time. Just watch them run out of sight!
Do you have a child? Got any walking tips that should have been here? We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments for parenthoodroutine.com below.
Contents
- 1 What Age do Babies Walk?
- 2 Essential Tips to Help Baby Walk
- 2.1 1. No Pushing
- 2.2 2. Cruising Opportunities
- 2.3 3. Cruise ‘N Kick
- 2.4 4. Assisted Walks
- 2.5 5. Good Shoes
- 2.6 6. Help ‘Em Up
- 2.7 7. Practice Makes Perfect
- 2.8 8. Incentives
- 2.9 9. Praise and Positive Reinforcement
- 2.10 10. Encourage Squats
- 2.11 11. Using a Stool
- 2.12 12. Repetition
- 2.13 13. Childproofing
- 2.14 14. Play with Other Children
- 2.15 15. Providing a Beat
- 3 Wrap Up
