8 Effective way to Help Baby Walk Independently
It’s a wonderful experience when your baby starts to hit the milestone of walking. Kids need a lot of encouragement, patience, and support to start walking independently. It is difficult for them to balance their body on their feet and lift them to take their first steps.
So they start to walk independently by crawling, pulling up, cruising, and finally independent walk. Many people use the best baby walkers to help them learn all these stages before they become independent.
There are many tips, tricks, toys, exercises, and games that can help them to walk without any aid. We have put together all the steps in the following section that can bring a deep insight into helping methods of independent walking for the kids.
Tips to Help Baby Walk Independently
1. Pulling up
When a child starts to pull up on furniture, it shows that she is ready to walk. Pulling up can be hard for many children at the start so you should not worry if your child is not ready yet.
Simply try to make her sit on your lap and let her bounce. This thing helps to build coordination between muscles and they get used to this mini workout that helps in walking at later stages.
2. Toys to help baby walk
Children start walking when they overcome their fear of taking their first steps. To motivate your child to play while they are trying to walk, always start by letting them bounce on your lap. Hold them and allow them to bounce while standing on your legs, they learn to put weight on their legs.
You can have a bouncy chair if you can’t have him/her all the time.
Use your child’s favorite toy to make him busy while he tries to walk and touch the toy. It can help to overcome the fear of falling.
3. Plan activities to encourage baby to walk
If your baby does not like to walk or even stand, you must learn how to trick your baby into walking. Babies like to play all the time and when they play, they forget everything else.
Try to play such games that help your baby to walk. You can play the pass-the-ball game with your baby. Just keep your hand with a ball at some distance from the baby and ask him to pass that ball to you.
The attraction of the ball is so high the child even forgets that he is moving towards it and he starts to take his first steps. Make sure that you don’t leave your child unassisted to avoid any injuries or head bumps.
Many other activities help in assisted walking. Give him a wheelbarrow that he pushes and walks. You can also use push-behind walkers for this purpose.
4. Physiotherapy for babies not walking
If you feel like your baby is not ready to walk and even not interested, you should try some physiotherapy exercises at home. You can start your child to help him stand first. If he stands for some seconds, it means his bones and muscles are getting strengthed and he might take some days to start walking.
Give a massage to your baby’s legs and backbone with some baby oil. The massage makes the bones strong and a child gets enough strength to start walking.
Read More | Best Baby Walker for Baby Girl & Boy
5. Exercises to encourage baby to walk
Many exercises can help your baby to walk by learning how to balance their body. these exercises include sitting on a stool and bowing down to pick up things, learning to cruise, kicking and assisted walking.
- Let your child sit on a baby stool properly and ask him to hold his favorite toy from the floor.
- Cruising a sofa, bench or cushions can provide the support to walk. It also helps to overcome the fear.
- When your baby cruises the furniture, put a softball in front of them. This scheme of cruising and kicking helps them maintain their balance during the walk.
- Assisted walking works great in your child’s confidence building. Stand in front of your child hold his arms and let him come towards you. This technique can do wonders to help your child walk independently
6. Learn how to strengthen baby’s legs to walk
Strengthening your baby’s legs is a key role in independent walking. A baby develops her strength down the neck. The early six months of life are crucial in helping a child to balance his head.
Fun message tips can help your child to have her physical development. Gentle strokes around the knees and down the legs also build strength in bones and muscles that help to build a strong walking baseline.
Read More | How to use Baby Walker
7. Encouragement
Encouragement plays an important role to build confidence. When a child is encouraged for her activities, her level of achievement increases and she does the activities enthusiastically.
It brings a sense of readiness and willingness towards walking on her own.
- Praising the actions: Watch your baby and look for her cues to progress. Extend a hand if the help is required or give applause if she takes her steps.
- Solace: Parent’s support is the only thing that keeps a child going. Don’t panic if your child falls. Hold her hand instead. Try to solace her and help her stand to walk again.
- Be Challenging: Challenges and planned activities are a way to keep a child during her walk. Try to spread different toys at a distance and ask your child to bring them back to you. You can also make a ramp and ask your child to walk up and down to it if she has mastered flat surface walking. This challenge brings great coordination of muscles to bring more power.
8. Consult a doctor if nothing works
It is really important to know when you should be concerned about your child’s walk. There is nothing to worry about if your child does not start walking until her first birthday.
It can take 18 to 24 months to hit this milestone. In case of any neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, a child may not walk after 2 years but that’s rare. Don’t make any assumption for the children with a low risk of autism.
Final Words
Early developmental stages are a big achievement for kids to have though they may look simple to adults. Even smart babies need good support and coach (either it’s you) to go along this journey.
A supportive and friendly environment makes learning fun and entertaining. Keep it simple and great. If you feel any kind of concerns or any signs leading to disorders, do consult your docto