Baby Standing up! A new development milestone

My son stood up on his own a few days ago which gave us such a happy surprise! Standing up is such huge milestone as it gives you an indication they are getting close to walking.

He’s so fast at crawling now and he’s been pulling himself up on everything he can get his hands on. We’ve been finding different pieces of furniture for him to pull himself up on and using things like handles on the side of the playpen to practise.

Image is of a baby using steps to help himself up

How can I help my baby practise standing up?

We first sat behind him and placed him upright facing the playpen with a handle in front of him, he immediately started to grab hold of it and would try hold on as long as he could. He had his feet flat on the ground and knew to keep hold of something to stay upright.

Together we practise this a lot before moving him to hold himself up in front of the sofa by placing a toy on the sofa that he’d want to reach for. Keeping his arms out in front of him helps him learn how to balance.

Using foam blocks is another great way to teach them to pull themselves up and you can build different heights for them to practise at. Foam blocks are also a way to entertain them when they want to crawl over something, which is also something my son loves doing at the moment!

Standing without support

My son started to pull himself up on the stairs for a few days with us sitting next to him encase he fell and eventually he got higher and higher until he can now do it by himself. Using things that are different heights can help teach them to pull themselves up and eventually stand up by themselves.

We researched a lot what we need to do for when he starts to walk and one of the things that stood out to me is that you need to hold the hips and not your babys hands. They need to have there hands out in front of them to balance and there leg far apart to start walking. You’ll find when they are holding onto the sofa they start to walk sideways which is the first step to walking!

Taking the first steps

My son has started taking his first steps and has learnt to turn himself around by going from his playpen edge to the soft and back again. He loves to do this over and over again to show me what he can do. Something worth noting is once they learn the skill of standing up they want to do it all the time so make sure you have nothing on the floor they can hit there head on!

We’ve bought his first pairs of shoes now he is standing without support as over the next few months/weeks I will be concentrating on teaching him how to walk.

He has a 3 in 1 Zebra walker for Christmas and I can’t wait for him to open it and use it for the first time. I think this is really going to help his balance and hopefully give him the confidence to walk around.

Have you got any baby tips for learning to walk? What helped your baby go from standing to walking?

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