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Hi everyone, Our daughter is 16 weeks old and sometimes during the day/night we hold her under her armpits so she's kind of standing. She loves it and is always smiling really big. My Mum saw my husband do it today though and said he shouldn't cause she might get bandy/bendy legs or something. Has anyone heard this?
LOL, my beautiful son Charlie has bore weight on his legs since birth and he is now 18 months old...whenever he had the chance he would stand on his legs, and it made it really easy to wind him! He is now walking/running/climbing and not a bandy leg in sight.......
Newborns are supposed to have a "walking" reflex, which most grown out of by 6 weeks and should return by around 9 months. (Or in my sons case they it never goes away ever). Looks like your daughter is the same. My paed said it was nothing at all to worry about.........
Jovie is the same, loves being in that position... she will be crying and windy and we pop her up and she's smiling and cooing at us.
My three would all do it and loved it, especially when they were on my lap. Lindsay especially loved it and would bounce up and down for ages on my lap. I never heard any of the old wives tales about them getting bow legs LOL.
Ah phooey, it sounds like heaps of babies do it, and there aren't THAT many bandy legged people out there! River stands all the time too, always has, he just loves to use every possible muscle in his body at once! It's one of the only ways I can burp him too, I'm only just getting him to sit without arching his back!
The only thing I've heard about holding babies under the armpits is that you shouldn't carry them like that too often cos it might be bad for their shoulders - you should hold them a bit lower down to take pressure off. And I don't even know if that's true.
Good on you for having a strong baby! :)
Darcy's the same been able to stand holding onto something byherself since 8 weeks. My mum says the same thing.....some babies are strong. End of story. Like Nelle said how many bandy leg people do you actually see?
Go baby girl!
thanks everyone. Your experiences have certainly put my mind at ease.
Yeh, bit of an old wives take that one... Nina loves to do it. I was also told though that a study is out which supports the theory that walking without first crawling can lead to learning difficulties in the future...don't know the name of the study (my mother was telling me about it). I just make sure that Nina gets as much floor time on her tummy as she does when she stands to ensure she has a little crawl first!!! (Apparently it's important that they go through each developmental milestone in order to prevent any learning difficulty).
;)
Flynn loves to do this and I was told by the head of Infant Osteopathy at Victoria University that holding babies up like this doesn't harm them in any way - she said we would get tired of holding him up before he does himself damage.
Bandy legs is apparently a myth. Our paed said it was fine because our DS has been doing it since he was about 12 weeks. It's apparently good exercise and they love to get a different view of the world. The 'older' generation were told quite a few myths but they still like to pass them on to us.
Do do you know what, back in the olden days when there was not enough dairy or good food to go around, I bet there were chn who would get those bandy legs on account of their bones being too soft (rickets or whatever). I don't think that applies in our overnourished and affluent society today!
BTW, my DD used to DANCE in that position, in perfect time to whatever music was playing, she'd just rock on down. Still does for that matter (9 years later)!
:-)