Why is a child afraid to walk on his own: how to help a baby

Why are children afraid to start walking on their own? How to help your child cope with fear. Advice to parents on how to help a child.

All parents rejoice at the success of their baby. This is especially true of the first, such still uncertain and touching steps. This greatly pleases all household members, the first steps are filmed in order to capture this significant event. However, it happens that after a fairly confident independent "walks" the child again goes down on all fours.

Reasons why a child is afraid to walk on their own

Most often, the refusal to walk is associated with the fear of falling. Perhaps during the first attempts, the child fell and hit hard. At the same time, further attempts were also accompanied by a fall and pain. The kid intuitively comes to a safe and familiar method of movement - crawling.
The second common reason for not walking on legs, which can be mistaken for fear, is childish cunning. The child begins to walk with pleasure and learn about the world in this position, study the surrounding objects. Soon he gets tired of it, especially if the space for study does not change over time or is limited (with the baby they go for a walk only along the same route or are limited to the playground). The child begins to understand that crawling is less tiring, and much faster, and returns to moving on all fours.
Parents often used the now popular walker, and the baby is afraid to walk on his own.
There are no apparent reasons for refusing to walk. The child is healthy, did not fall or hurt himself, but does not walk.

Parents' actions when the child refuses to walk

1. Fear of falling

Having found out that if the child is afraid to walk because of the fear of falling, then you should definitely support him in new attempts. Watch carefully the movement of the little man and, if necessary, gently insure him against falls.

It is not worth forcing a child to walk in the event of his categorical refusal.

It is necessary for the kid to forget his negative experience and then return to repeated attempts. In this case, it is advisable to start walking with funny children's poems or songs when walking on the street. Let the child first hold on to his mother's hand, then to his finger, and finally the moment will come when he will again walk on his own.

2. Laziness

Lazy and cunning kids, for whom movement on all fours is faster and easier, should respond in kind - with cunning. Favorite toys will come to the rescue.

When playing with a child, it is necessary to remove the toy higher, in order to get it, the child had to stand up and walk up to it. The main thing is not to give up the attempts to "put" the child on his feet and repeat the games over and over again.

3. Refusal of walkers

It is worth completely abandoning the use of walkers or using them to a minimum. Being in this device slows down the baby's motor development. He simply will not know how to walk without a walker and, as a result, are afraid to move without them.(Useful article on walkers: PROS and CONS of walkers - check it out!)

4. For no reason

With an incomprehensible refusal to walk, you should be patient and wait. When standing upright, a large load begins to appear on the child's spine. Perhaps your little one is simply not yet physically ready to move on their feet. Some time will pass and the child will not just walk, but will run with his little legs.

All children are individual, the most important thing is not to insist and be patient.

Helping Your Child Go: Tips

Compliance with a few simple rules will help parents quickly develop the skill of upright walking:

Don't show your excitement and fear. Babies are very sensitive and begin to worry themselves.
Do not scold the child. Children are stressed at the same time, and the fear of walking increases.
Praise your baby as often as possible. An affectionate word gives an incentive for further success.
Develop your child physically. Children with whom they did exercises, massage without fear begin to walk.
Give your baby room to move around. Children confined by a playpen or walker become afraid to travel long distances.
Show your baby positive examples of physical activity - walk with him. The child will see children walking and running, and he will want to repeat their movements.

We read a detailed article where we give 10 useful tips on how to teach a child to walk - https://razvitie-krohi.ru/razvitie-rebenka-do-goda/kak-nauchit-rebenka-hodit-10-sovetov.html
There are such problems when a child walks on tiptoes, here we wrote about the reasons.

The main thing when developing and raising a baby is not to indulge his whims. You should absolutely refuse to carry the child in your arms. Otherwise, up to three years old, the baby will not get off mother's warm hands and will start walking very late. (related article - how to wean a child)

We read further on the topic of fears in a child