The first steps are one of the most memorable events in the life of a baby. A rare mother does not remember at what age her child went. The ability to walk independently is defined by many as the degree of development of the baby. Mothers of first-borns are especially concerned about the timing of the first steps, because, without their experience, they are very afraid of the lag in the development of their child.
First step
When children start walking on their own
Every child learns to walk in due course. Some become at the support at 9 months, others - only a year. Both the one and the other version of the term is the norm. Pediatricians note many children who took their first steps not at 10 months, and not at a year, but at one and a half. This is not a deviation. It all depends on how ready the body is for vertical loads:
- how strong the skeleton has become;
- Are the muscles able to support the back?
- whether the legs are strong.
First, at the age of 5-6 months, babies begin to crawl. This is a very important stage in the formation of the musculoskeletal system. Don't ignore it or try to skip it. It is during crawling that the baby's back gets stronger. The longer it is used in a horizontal position, the less problems with spinal health will be in the future.
At 8-9 months, babies usually try to stand up for the first time, holding onto a support. This picture can be observed in a crib or arena, when the baby has the strength to pull himself up, holding his hands on the sides. By this time, the legs have also become stronger and can support the weight of the whole body. It is very important not to rush the child and not offer to get up again and again. The body itself knows how long it can stand on its own at the railing.
Stands at the support
Attention! Forcing a child up to one and a half years old to stand or walk in order to satisfy his own conscience is unacceptable.
Optimal training period
Before 9-10 months, the topic of an upright position for a child should not be raised at all. For the first time, you can discuss it not when it seems to everyone that it is time, but when the child suddenly gets up by himself.
There is nothing wrong with the fact that the baby at 10-11 months has not yet tried to stand. It only says that his body is not strong enough. When the baby is already a year old, you need to responsibly approach the issue of moving to an upright position. The lack of desire in a child at this age to stand up at the support should alert. If the baby cannot get up, holding on to his mother's hand or the side of the bed, you should visit an orthopedist and neurologist to diagnose development.
When can you teach to take the first steps
You can think about how to teach a child to walk after he has already trained himself to stand at the support and move along it with an attached step. It is wrong to keep track of the deadlines for which the child must meet. If this does not happen in a year, you do not need to grab the child's hands and forcefully put him on his feet. It would be more correct to do gymnastics and physical education aimed at strengthening the muscular skeleton and training the musculoskeletal system.
Safety engineering
When preparing for the baby's first steps, one must first of all think not about how to help the child learn to walk, but about how to minimize the number of bruises and other injuries associated with the first steps. One of the most important and fundamental rules is not to use walker chairs in which you can put your baby. These devices not only do not promote development, but also cause severe damage to the health of the spine, as well as cause curvature of the legs.
In order for the baby to take his first steps correctly, his bare foot must become familiar with the hard surface of the floor. This does not happen in a walker, because the child's weight is concentrated not on the legs, but on the baby's bottom. The main danger of such devices is that:
- parents put the baby on the walker before his body is ready for it;
- the duration of stay in an upright position is regulated not by the child himself, relying on his own feelings and fatigue, but by the interest of adults in having their baby play himself as long as possible;
- uncontrolled movement of the baby around the rooms can lead to tragedy - very often children pour boiling water over themselves, just because they were able to reach the table and reach for the left mug of tea;
- the legs play an important role as shock absorbers for the back; walkers deprive the back of this physiologically important aid.
When the child learns to stand at the support himself, and then move with side steps along it, it is imperative to remove all pieces of furniture with sharp corners from the reach zone.
Interesting. On sale there are special helmets with foam rubber designed to protect the forehead of a young study from possible injuries.
Safe home for a child
The main task facing dad is to make the house safe as soon as the child begins to learn to walk. Parents, eagerly awaiting the first steps of the baby, do not understand how much their usual rhythm of life will change. The baby now becomes active, striving to see and touch everything and everywhere. The dwelling becomes a cluster of dangers for the child. The main focus should be on:
- the presence of a tablecloth on the table;
- reach of curtains;
- mugs with hot drinks on a coffee table or nightstand;
- interior doors;
- dressers;
- wardrobes and lockers;
- a kitchen stove, especially an oven;
- tripod chairs;
- forks and knives.
The most familiar and seemingly safe objects pose a danger to a child learning to walk. As soon as the baby has gone unsupported, each piece of furniture should be reviewed for potential injury risk.
Each corner of the table must be equipped with special silicone attachments that make the corners rounded and soft. Cabinet doors and chest of drawers need to be supplemented with clamps that will not allow the baby to get inside. The dressers themselves, according to the instructions and safety precautions, must be attached to the wall. This is important because when you open several drawers, the center of gravity shifts at once, which causes the chest of drawers to fall, covering the child with all its weight.
There should be no tablecloths on the tables, because the child is tempted to pull the edge of the fabric, after which cutlery along with the dishes will fly from the table to the baby's head. Curtains on the windows are dangerous because a one-year-old baby can get confused in them, which threatens to suffocate. If he caught on the tulle during the fall, trying to stay on his feet, he can rip off the cornice, which will inevitably cause injury when falling.
Retainers for interior doors
Interior doors must be equipped with latches that protect children's fingers from pinching. They come in several types, so that you can easily pick it up for both classic opening models and for doors on runners that move to the side.
Important! Many parents hope that the trouble will not touch them. It is in such families that children under one and a half years old will learn what a boiling water burn, amputation of a phalanx of a finger by a door or a fracture of a skull bone with a corner of a coffee table is.
Preparatory stage
Before you start helping your child walk, you need to ensure the full development of his muscles, which play an important role in physical activity. Preparation should be done from the first months of life, regularly sending the baby to a large bath for half an hour, as well as strengthening the muscles during games.
Gymnastics to strengthen leg muscles
From the first month of life, the baby needs to be given a moderate load on the legs, which will allow him to get up and go on time. This requires:
- lay the child on his stomach, substituting support for the feet - reflexively he will push off from her, sliding forward;
- every morning it is useful to warm up joints and muscles with the help of gymnastics-bike;
- after three months, children master the "jumping" movements of their legs, for a minute every three hours, you can help jump, supporting the child by the body.
In addition to the benefits for the body, such exercises once again allow parents to establish tactile contact with the baby.
Early standing and walking near the support
If the child himself stood at the support at 7 months, this should not make the parents nervous. The popular pediatrician Komarovsky is sure that since a child at this age found the strength to pull himself up on his own, then a short standing will not hurt him. This means that he will be able to walk on his own before others. Much more dangerous are those situations when the baby does not have the strength to stand, and adults are trying to force him to do it.
The kid walks along the support
Attention! It is physiologically correct to start your first walk with side steps. Therefore, parents must decide how to help their child start walking sideways along the support.
How to learn to fall properly
If there are already the first attempts to walk forward, it is important to support the baby by the trunk, in the armpits. Since it is possible to properly teach a child to walk independently only with such support. In this case, the baby can put the arms forward when falling. This must be taught, otherwise the forehead will beat repeatedly. Falling backwards usually boils down to landing on the bottom. This is not dangerous, given the growth of babies, in addition, modern children have an additional cushioning system in the form of a disposable diaper.
Helping your child correctly when walking
Despite the fact that parents should not rush the baby in any way in matters of mastering walking, they can still help him. The whole point is in the formulation of the question: it is right to think not about how to teach a baby to walk, but about how to stimulate him to independent attempts.
Exercises to accelerate development
In order for the child to start to get up earlier, you need to deal with him from three months on fitball, visit the pool and engage in crawling from 6 months:
- the vestibular apparatus is trained on the fitball, the baby learns to control his body, the back muscles are strengthened;
- swimming in a pool or large bathtub speeds up physical activity many times over;
- crawling motivates the child to move, achieve goals on their own, and also strengthens the legs, arms and back.
Interesting! In order to captivate the baby by crawling, he must be put on the floor, which is previously allowed to be covered with a cloth, and large bright toys should be laid around him. The baby, having decided to take possession of one of them, will have to crawl to its goal.
Exercises for an early age
It is possible to correctly teach the child to walk forward without disturbing the physiological characteristics with the help of a movable support. It can be a special console on wheels full of bright buttons, or it can be a stable doll stroller or even a regular vacuum cleaner. The kid, holding on to a stable but moving object, will train his gait. Parents just need to be sure that the support is really stable and does not go too fast.
Moving support
Hand-walking
The desire of parents to help the baby walk should not be reduced to walking by the hand. There are several good reasons not to do this:
- When falling, a child chained to his parent's hand can dislocate his hand, especially if an adult tries to pull the child by the hand towards him.
- This walking technique interferes with learning to fall correctly, in which the child's arms must be extended forward.
- Mom's back will soon make itself felt if she endlessly leads the baby by the arms in a bent state.
Dangerous self-walking training
There are safe baby reins to support your baby's body while walking. Today on sale you can find two types: fastened only along the chest line and those in which an additional strap passes through the groin. Empirically, mothers found out that it is better to choose those who have support only with a strap on their chest. Models with an additional strap, when falling, shift the center of gravity so that when the mother pulls the reins up to prevent the fall, the child's body tends to take a horizontal position, which causes the baby to hit the ground with its head.
Safe reins
There is no need to strive to teach a child to walk early. The best that parents can do for timely and healthy upright walking is physical exercise as recommended by a doctor and long crawling. A healthy child will decide for himself when he can take the first step, which will certainly delight his parents.
