Teaching your baby to walk might feel like a daunting task, especially if you are a first time mom. Here are 5 activities to help as you learn how to encourage your baby to walk!
Once my baby started to crawl, he was moving all over the place! People around me kept telling me, “Oh, just wait until he starts walking! Then you’re going to wish he wasn’t!”
But the truth was, I was excited for him to walk.
Yes, I love the slug stage where they can’t go anywhere, but I was ready for him to be more active, and seeing him crawl made me more eager for the walking stage. I knew it would only bring more fun (and mischief) for the both of us!
I don’t feel like I was trying to force my baby to walk, but I also wasn’t avoiding it. Indeed, I encouraged it and was happy when it progressed as I implemented these activities, but I didn’t push him if I felt like he was tired or frustrated of trying, etc. I paid attention to his cues and his little milestones, so when my baby started to walk around 10 months old, I felt like it was a natural transition for him.
I remember going to a Superbowl party where an older woman was astounded that our baby was walking already. She told us about her granddaughter who was around the same age and just starting to crawl. She asked us what we were doing.
Then, when our little one had his first birthday, we went to the park and met a couple with a baby who was born on the exact same day as ours, just a few hours later (I know! Bizarre!). While our baby had been walking for a few months at this point, this baby just learned a week or two before.
I know it’s not a competition and I don’t treat it as one, but I do know that I incorporated a couple of activities that these other parents didn’t that I believe helped our baby learn to walk at 10 months old.
*Remember, every baby is different, and just because your baby doesn’t walk until they are 14 months old doesn’t mean that something is wrong. A baby usually walks between 10-18 months! That’s a wide range! If you are concerned about anything developmental, talk to your child’s pediatrician.
If you aren’t concerned, then just sit back and let your child explore the world and observe others. It will come naturally.
And if you want to try to jumpstart the walking game, maybe try incorporating these activities below.
This post is all about how to encourage your baby to walk.
How To Encourage Your Baby To Walk: 5 Activities That I Swear By
1. Jumper
My baby looooved the jumper! As soon as he could hold his head up well on his own, which was around 4 months, I put him in a jumper 1-2 times a day for 15-20 minutes each time. He’d bounce and bounce and bounce! I swear he would’ve stayed in that thing forever if I let him.
Now, the jumper is not for all babies. I have 7 nieces and nephews, and when they were babies, none of them liked the jumper in the slightest. So, when my little one was obsessed with it, people in my family were surprised.
Finally, after 4-5 months of jumping almost every day, he was ready to move on to bigger and better things as he grew tired of the little bouncing contraption. And one of those bigger and better things was walking. In my opinion and from my experience, the jumper was a great way for him to build strength in his legs. I mean, come on! After doing all those squats? My baby’s thighs are thick!
2. Walker
Okay.
I didn’t realize that there was so much controversy with a baby walker until I wanted to write this post. I debated on whether or not to include it, but decided that since we had a good experience, I would.
So.
I have read that babies have fallen down stairs in their walkers, touched hot stoves, pulled off table cloths, etc. People talk about how dangerous they can be.
I agree that they can be dangerous.
However,
I honestly think that this particular issue is a parental issue. I think that parents believe that they don’t have to supervise their baby as well because their baby is contained in the walker and in a “safe” environment. Parents let their guard down, they leave the room, they neglect to baby proof the area with the walker in mind. This is when babies tip over, fall down the stairs, pull objects off of shelves they otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach, etc. I truly believe that it’s the lack of supervision.
So if you watch your baby properly, with awareness and intention, as you always should, I really think the dangers of the walker are limited. We never had any issues with this because we still watched our baby very closely and made sure his environment was safe for him in the walker.
Other concerns I’ve heard about are:
When it comes to hip development, I can only see this being an issue if your baby spends a significant amount of time in the walker daily. And really, this can be applied to many other activities, like putting your baby in a baby swing for too long, confining them in a car seat all day, strapping them in a baby carrier, baby wrap, or jumper for hours and hours, etc. You could argue that all of these could cause issues to the development of a baby’s hips. I don’t think a walker is any different. I just believe that moderation is key (for most things in life). But hey, I am not a doctor, so what do I know 🤷♀️
Then with walking on their tippy toes and leaning forwards, I do see how that might happen.
When I first noticed that my baby would walk on his tippy toes while in the walker, I made sure to adjust the height as well as I could to prevent this as much as possible. Then when he would practice walking without the walker, the time on his tippy toes was limited. He seemed to correct it on his own since he spent more time out of the walker than in it. Being barefoot helped as well.
Leaning forward while walking was probably the biggest adjustment for him. His upper body would be moving forward faster than his lower body, and his legs couldn’t keep up. He’d fall a lot, but what baby doesn’t?
So really, we love the walker at our house.
In the beginning, my baby was in the walker for 15-20 minutes at a time, one-two times per day over the course of a couple months. Now that he knows how to walk, we only use it once in a while.
Allowing my baby to practice walking with the help of a walker seemed to help give him confidence. I think it really helped him find his footing and find his groove.
I acknowledge the concerns I mentioned above, but I think there are solutions. I’ll probably still use one in the future with my other kids, unless something changes my mind or there’s something I don’t know about. As for you and your kids, do your research and do what feels right for you 🙂
3. Help Them Use objects to assist them
We purposely set up objects and furniture that my little boy could hold onto as he practiced walking. He would step sideways along the edge of the couch, then to the coffee table. He’d move to the bookshelf, along our indoor baby fence, and back to the couch. We would create little trails like this for him to follow. It helped to make sure he felt steady as he moved along.
As he progressed, we would slowly move the objects or furniture a little further apart, so he would have to reach his arm out to take hold of his target. Eventually, he had to completely let go and take a couple steps in order to reach his destination. Of course there were a fair amount of times when he would drop to his knees and crawl instead. In time, he felt brave enough to walk from object to object.
4. Get Them A Push toy
Getting a toy that your little one can push around while they walk can be a fun way for them to practice. These are some things that we used/still use.
- There is a little handle on the back of our baby walker that my little one held onto.
- My mother-in-law has something like this at her house when he visits.
- We do have the corn popper, but this didn’t seem like a good option when he was first beginning to walk. It took some time for him to figure out and it seemed like he needed to be walking well before he could use it.
- This cute car was something he could push around and then ride as he got older.
5. Walking back and forth between spouses
The last thing my husband and I did often was encourage our baby to practice walking back and forth between the two of us. We would sit on the floor, just a foot apart, and show our baby how he could take a step to mom, then to dad, back to mom, etc. It became a fun game of cuddles and kisses and excitement.
If we felt like our baby needed a challenge, my husband and I would sit two feet apart. Then three. Then four, and so on, until one day, we were sitting all the way across the room from each other and our baby was waddling towards me with a huge grin on his face.
Such a great day 🙂
Let’s Wrap This Up
Welp, those are the 5 things that I really think helped encourage my baby to walk.
Again, babies are different and parents are different. Do your research, try all the things, and let me know what works for your little one! The day they start walking is really the day that takes them from a baby to a toddler, and it changes everything in a flash! And it’s fun. So fun.
Enjoy every moment, Mama! Your baby will grow up so fast, so don’t miss out on their littleness.
This post is all about how to encourage your baby to walk.
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