I thought babies walk around one year of age. Daphne did not bother to wait that long. She figured, my mom seems fit enough to bend in half all the time and chase me around, so let’s walk already.
Babies generally first manage to turn into their tummies, then sit, crawl, cruise and finally walk. Ours has ridden the express as she quickly turned and only briefly remained sitted. She was desperately trying to stand ever since she was 5 months, so when she managed to stand, a month later, it came as no surprise.
By month 7, she was cruising; holding herself from furniture she would try to go from one part of the house to the other- usually succesfully. She fell a lot too, mainly on her behind, harm and pain free. To keep the house safe (not entirely possible) we moved some stuff higher, put some barriers and stayed with her all the time.
The hardest thing about walking, the way I see it so far, is not really falling. They learn pretty fast how to achieve a good landing, if not avoid it altogether. It is gaining access to a number of dangerous things which easily end up in the mouth.The pebbles at the beach, the goat poo, that dead fly… you get the picture.
A good advice our pediatrician gave us is that D. should wear shoes for some hours daily. It seems that when babies walk really young, they run the risk of placing their feet the wrong way and having to deal with pronation (heel ankles ‘fall’ inward) and platypodia (flat fleet) later as adults.
(Tip: Remember your job is to make the world safe, not block access to it!)
