- Babies are super inquisitive and they soon learn
that when they hold our fingers,
they can actually stand and walk.
Now, although this is an extremely fun activity
to do with your baby,
some parents become concerned
that they're actually causing their baby harm
because the baby isn't yet able to walk independently.
And other parents are under the impression
that by holding them by their fingers,
and helping them to walk,
they are actually helping them
learn the skill of walking quicker.
So in this video, we're going to cover
if you should actually hold your baby by their hands,
and what it is actually doing for your little one.
But before we do, make sure you click
on that free PDF document in the description box below,
which covers the developmental milestones
you can be expecting for your little one
in their first year of life.
This will give you an invaluable piece of mind,
as you'll know when to be expecting certain skills
and when to be concerned.
To learn, to stand and walk,
your baby needs to be able to coordinate their arms and legs
so that they can actually maintain their balance
as they shift their body weight from one leg to another.
What you will notice is when your baby first learns to walk
or start to stand,
their legs are really wide apart
and that's to try and give them a wide base of support.
You will also see that their hands are up near their face,
and that is to help them with their balance.
So as your baby starts to lean to one side,
you will see those arms automatically adjust
to try and correct that posture
and bring them back up into an upright position.
When we are holding our baby by their hands
and helping them stand and walk
what we are doing
is essentially automatically correcting their balance.
Because let's be honest,
we're never going to let our little one fall.
The other thing is you're stopping them
from being able to use their hands to correct their balance.
Because essentially they're holding onto your fingers
and your hands are really up high.
So their hands, instead of being by their side
are up really high.
That is actually stopping them
from being able to work on their standing balance
and their walking balance.
You will also see their body is tilted forward.
And that is because our hands are often
in front of their body,
which is what they're encouraging us to do.
But by tilting forward,
you're encouraging your baby to actually stand on their toes
and walk on their toes.
Also, when you are helping your little one walk around
by holding onto their fingers,
you'll see their little feet walking really, really quickly.
And that is because they're trying to keep up
with their center of gravity.
So they're trying to bring their feet forward
so that they're directly underneath their body.
So as you can see,
holding your baby by their hands
and helping them stand and walk,
isn't actually helping them develop
the skills required to walk independently.
What you are doing though is just playing with your baby.
So it's an activity that you can do with your baby for fun,
but it's not working on their overall development.
Now, if you haven't yet started
to hold your baby by their fingers
and help them stand and walk,
I would genuinely encourage you not to do it
because once your baby starts to do that,
that is all they're going to want to do.
So you are going to be walking around the room,
doing lots and lots of laps with them.
And your back is going to get really, really sore.
And it's going to stop giving your baby the opportunity
to do those other activities
that are going to work
on their foundational gross motor skills,
like the floor time play and tummy time.
If you are already helping your little one,
walk around the room by holding their fingers
and it's something your little one just will not give up,
or you want to keep doing this activity,
then you can think about
the way you are actually providing your baby with support.
So instead of holding them by their fingers,
what you can do is actually provide support
around their rib cage.
So you put your hands around their rib cage,
and that means that your baby will not lean forward
or tilt forward when they're walking or standing.
And it will also encourage them to have full contact
on the ground with their feet.
Now, if you were under the impression
that holding your baby by their hands
and helping them walk around the room,
was actually helping to develop their skills
in standing and walking,
then I would recommend doing the next activities
that I'm going to talk about.
So the very first activity
that you can do with your little one
is encouraging them to play in standing.
So how you would do this
is you place some of their favorite toys
on a coffee table or a couch.
Placing the toys up onto the furniture,
encourages your baby to get up off the floor.
So pull themselves up into standing
and then stay in that position
while they look at the toy and start to play with it.
As your baby gets comfortable in standing,
you will notice that their legs
start to come closer together
and they're happy to reach out.
Now you can encourage your baby to start to cruise.
So if they're standing in the middle of the couch,
you would place a toy to their left-hand side,
which is out of reach, but not too far,
because we want them to actually be motivated enough
to try and attempt that activity.
So you place it just out of their reach
and it will encourage your baby to take a step to the side,
to reach out and grab that toy.
And they might shift their weight completely to that leg,
to then lift the other leg and move across.
Once your baby is really happy, cruising along furniture
this is really a great time to introduce a baby push walker.
So that's those trolleys,
which might be the plastic or the wooden trolleys
that your baby holds on to
and can walk in a forward direction.
The push walker itself gives your baby the confidence
to attempt to walk because it's giving them support.
And then as they get really comfortable
in this position and walking,
your baby will start to let go of that push walker
and might take a few steps independently.
So those are the reasons why I would not recommend
holding your baby by the hand
to walk around the room
when they haven't yet learned the skill
and also activities that will help your baby learn
to take their first steps.
And if you're wanting more information
on how to help your baby learn to take those first steps
and some activities to do with your little one,
then check out this video.
Make sure you click on that free PDF document
in the description box below.
And hopefully I'll see you next week
where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.
(bright music)