Walking... roughly how old

[*TamaraP*]

A friend was telling me last night his daughter who isn't yet 5 months is starting to walk aided by holding his hands.

His wife went nuts at him!!! Telling him to be careful because her little legs aren't ready yet!

She apparently hasn't started crawling yet and definately isn't lifting herself up alone.

So I was just wondering personally, could this do some damage??

[Rouge]

MCHN's advice is to not let them do that until they are able to pull themselves up and hold their own weight as babies have bowed legs and and it has something to do with that I can't remember... shows what I listen LOL. We do it with seth now and have since he was about 6-7 mths but he was pulling himself up and standing at that age so he was holding his own weight.

*hugs*
Cailin

[~Raven~]

Cai I think the bow legs are from one of the bones in the lower leg (tibia or fibia???) being shorter than the other. The shorter one catches up by 12 months.

Babies like to stand up and the stepping reflex is one that they check at the MCHN visits but I think it would be bad for the legs to walk them around constantly.

[Fi]

Jenna always had super strong legs, and loved to bounce in our laps from a very young age. She was just starting to crawl at this age (fully crawling at about 6m). We had her in a jolly jumper from I guess this age? Can't really remember, would have to check.
Some kids have really strong legs and want to be on them, but its still probably not great to extend them beyond their capabilities. Ie - if they are pulling themselves up, they can obviously cope, but maybe not a great idea to "assist" them too often

[Rouge]

No no no LOL! I meant as in it can cause more damage because their legs are more bowed at this age LOL! I know that it corrects itself

Ditto what everyone else has said

*hugs*
Cailin

[barbie-up]

The quick baby at my first mothers group walked at 8 months. She's five now and still in a hurry !

Cait walked at 15.5 months - not much pulling up or cruising, just got up (finally) and went. Alex is 12.5 months and I wish I had $1 for everytime someone asked if he was walking !