21 Jul 😬Do you have a 19 month old child who is not yet walking? 🤔Wondering why your child is not able to take steps to walk by themselves when the doctors say there is nothing wrong with them?

Children need to be walking by 18 months old, otherwise they will be considered delayed in their gross motor skills. Here at My Favourite Physio, our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists 🤓see many little ones each day who are not taking weight on their feet and not yet walking. One of the first questions these parents would ask is “Why is my child not able to walk by themselves?”

3 Common Reasons why little ones are not yet walking:
👶🏻1. Babies who are delayed in their gross motor skills often have low muscle tone. This can be seen in the way they hold themselves, baby would feel floppy when being carried and feel like they would slip through your hands. Their muscles in their arms and legs would feel very soft and squishy when gently squeezed.

👶🏻2. Babies who are delayed in walking often have very lax ligaments in their ankles and feet, described as “double jointed”. When baby is in standing, their ankles will roll in, foot arches will collapse and their feet will tend to point outwards. Some babies will look like they are standing on the inside border of their feet with their little toes off the ground.

👶🏻3. Babies who are not yet walking will often have poor control of their hip, knee and ankle joints. When in standing, their knees will be locked backwards so that their knee joints are behind their hip and ankle joints. Babies do this to stabilise themselves and reduce the degrees of freedom in their joints when in standing.

To help babies learn to walk, we need to improve baby’s core muscle strength, correct baby’s ankle and foot posture and increase leg muscle strength so they can control their hip, knee and ankle joints to take steps.💪

If you have noticed that your child is not yet walking, ring My Favourite Physio on 📱(02) 9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists! Find out how we can help your child walk today!😊

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