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When Will My Baby Start Walking?

Team AckoFeb 8, 2024

Are you wondering when do babies start walking? Or in particular, when my baby will start walking? Read on to know more about walking milestone of your baby.

Contents

When Do Babies Start Walking?
How your baby learns to walk?
Practice!
Minimize the carrying time
Introduce a push toy
Let your baby go barefoot
Avoid baby walker
Massage his legs
What to do if your baby is not walking even after 14 months?

A baby’s first few years are marked by many milestones. It is an exciting moment for all parents to see each and every milestone of their baby.

As a new parent, you keep wondering͞ when will my baby roll-over? When he will sit on his own? When he will crawl or when he will stand? At the top of this list is, 'When will my baby start walking?'

As you have now witnessed your little one’s rolling over, sitting up, and crawling phases of development, now is the time to check for his first wobbly steps. Every baby learns to walk at his own pace, however, so just because your neighbor’s toddler is already walking doesn’t mean yours should be, too!

Read on to find out when your child is ready to walk, how can you help him and more.

When Do Babies Start Walking?

As with every phase of a baby’s development, his first step will come whenever he is ready for it. Most babies take their first step somewhere between 9 to 12 months and are walking well by the time they are 14 or 15 months old. Many parents believe that the walking is just around the corner when their child starts standing with support. However, this is not the case with all. Some babies might start standing or walking with support at the age of 11 months but take their first wobbly steps at around 18 months of age. So, it’s important not to worry about it if your child is slightly behind.

Once he starts walking on own, there will be no stopping then! During the first year of your baby's life, he is busy developing the coordination and muscle strength in the body. Your baby’s road to walking starts as early as you let him practice tummy time, which helps him strengthen his head and neck muscles control. Tummy time also set your baby up to learn roll over and then sit up by himself and then crawling at around 7 months. He then moves on to pulling up and standing at about 9 -12 months.

This is the phase when he will try few tentative steps while holding on to something for support. One day your child might be cruising against the couch and next, he is tottering hesitantly into your waiting arms. Some kids skip the phase of crawling and they go straight from standing to walking and that’s perfectly normal.

What’s important at this stage is that your baby is developing coordination and muscle strength in every part of the body to learn to cruise, and then finally walking.

How your baby learns to walk?

Your baby is learning how to lift off one foot while balancing on the other, how to bend knees and how to sit after standing without hurting his buttocks– which is much difficult than you think!

In order to stand, he has to contract a lot of muscles. But to walk, he eventually needs to relax his hips and knees a bit. The challenge is to learn how to get the right amount of muscle tension in the legs and how to coordinate between the muscles of hips and two legs. How can you help your baby learn walking?

Practice!

You don’t need any fancy toy to help baby build those skills needed to start walking. Practice is the key and you need to motivate your child to pull himself up every time he falls down. Show him how to bend the knees so that he can sit down without toppling over.

Minimize the carrying time

Your baby will never be motivated to move more on his own if he never has the chance. Do not hold your child upright every time. Give him plenty of time each day to explore and develop his skills on his own. Leave him on the floor to help him learn walking process soon.

Introduce a push toy

Once a child is upright and cruising along furniture or walls, a push toy can help him learn to walk forward with support. If not the toy, just let your baby push the diaper box, plastic chair or any other easy carton.

Let your baby go barefoot

Most experts recommend letting the baby go barefoot at first so as to let him use his toes to balance. It allows your baby to make direct contact with the floor.

Avoid baby walker

Experts recommend to avoid baby walker as it actually slows down your baby’s learning-to-walk process. Walkers keep your baby in sitting position with hips flexed and using his lower legs to move forward. This is not the right position to walk. A walker can prevent your baby’s upper leg muscles from developing properly. Also, it is not safe for your baby as it can collapse any time.

Massage his legs

Massaging his legs while making him stand with support will strengthen his legs muscles. Also, massaging in the night before going to sleep will help him relax his legs easily so that he can cruise another day smoothly.

What to do if your baby is not walking even after 14 months?

Don’t fret if your child is taking time to walk. No two children can be exactly same even if they are twins. As mentioned above in article, it takes lot of practice, patience, support and encouragement to help baby walk. You need to also observe previous milestones of the baby. If your child doesn’t stand with support at 12 months and can’t walk at 18 months, bring him to the doctor. Keep in mind that every baby is different and takes different time to reach each milestone. If your baby was premature then you should date his milestone from your due date.

Walking will be the first step of your baby towards his independence. Once he starts walking, there will be no stopping then!

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Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only, based on industry experience and secondary sources. It is not a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a qualified expert for health or insurance-related decisions. Content is subject to change, refer to current policy wordings for specific ACKO details.

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