learning to walk while babywearing

Does carrying your baby in a baby wrap affect when they learn to walk?

I don't want to spoil the ending here – but I can already tell you, even before I've started my post "Learning to Walk and Babywearing", the answer is no!

Why this myth persists so stubbornly, which factors are important for your baby to learn to walk, and why babywearing in a wrap or a baby carrier even supports your baby in this process, I will explain in the article "Learning to Walk and Babywearing".

Learning to Walk and Babywearing – no carrying, no cuddling, no spoiling?

“In the past” – and the past wasn't that long ago – it was generally thought that you shouldn't carry your baby too much. You didn't want to raise a tyrant. That's why all sorts of things were made up as to why it was bad to carry your baby and what should be avoided at all costs so that your baby wouldn't end up always having its way.

Learning to Walk and Babywearing: Keep physical contact to a minimum?!

Mothers were told to deliberately ignore their babies' needs – that's why newborns were simply left to cry alone in their own room in the evening, fed only every 4 hours (if they were fed at all), and told that physical contact should be kept as minimal as possible. So no carrying, no cuddling, and definitely no bonding with the child. After all, you mustn't spoil your child.

Why do I go into such detail about this in my article "Learning to Walk and Babywearing"? Carrying – i.e., physical contact – is a basic human need. For every newborn, baby, toddler, schoolchild, teenager, and adult. Because of these methods, which are still stubbornly entrenched in our society as "proven" and "correct" – especially among our older generation – we often hear phrases like: "It's obvious your child won't walk if you carry it all the time" or "Of course your child can't fall asleep without your breast if you don't just let it cry so it learns that it can't always have its way."

There have been many investigations and studies – for example, one that examined the war generation between 2009 and 2013. The study was conducted in Germany by psychologist Ilka Quindeau and her colleagues from the "Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences" on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The actual focus was supposed to be on the effects of the bombing raids and the flight from the war. But even in the initial interviews, it became clear that family was mentioned much more often, so the study was expanded.

It was concluded that the people showed a strikingly strong pattern of loyalty to their parents. No conflicts were mentioned at all – this is a sign of a relational disorder. Similarly, the Austrian-British psychoanalyst Anna Freud discovered as early as 1949 that children who had a good bond with their parents perceived the war as "less" terrible than those who had no bond or a poor bond with their parents.

I would like to continue my article "Learning to Walk and Babywearing" with this fact: Not only from our family or some acquaintances – no, even doctors, midwives, and other MEDICAL professionals – who should actually know better based on today's scientific findings – no, even they have no qualms about advising mothers to let their babies cry alone, to feed them only every 4 hours, and not to carry them, because otherwise the child will never become independent and will inevitably turn into a little tyrant. Relational disorders and the inability to form relationships with other people result from these methods.

Nature has designed it so that a newborn is carried. As soon as you pick up your baby, it pulls its legs up and waits for you to squat down so it can sit on your hip – that's what its legs are made for. The baby can sit on your hip bone, and the "squat-and-spread" position allows it to "wedge itself in" securely.

Learning to Walk and Babywearing – babywearing is completely natural

So why should something that is designed by nature be bad for your baby? Or for their motor development? We know today that babywearing is natural. That it helps your baby become more aware of itself and its physical boundaries. A baby that is carried a lot gets everything it needs: physical closeness, affection, integration into family life, and active participation – at eye level. Its sense of balance is trained, as it constantly has to follow and compensate for the movements of the person carrying it. This also helps develop its muscles!

Recently, I was allowed to hear my own mother (I still can't believe it) say: "It's obvious your baby won't crawl or sit up at 11 months if it's CONSTANTLY in a carrier. Other babies also play on the floor sometimes" – REALLY? As if my child lived in there. Wait – or does it? I'm just thinking about when my baby is NOT in the carrier or wrap: during diaper changes, when it joins the family at the table for a meal. When we sit and play on the floor with its siblings. When we visit Grandma and Grandpa, because it's so cool to crawl under the hanging shelves in the living room and chase the dog.

My baby is not in the carrier when it clearly shows that it doesn't want to be. And that happens very often at 11 months! I would say that, give or take, my baby (nowadays) spends about 2 hours a day in a wrap. What does it do for the other 10 hours it's awake during the day? Exactly: It also plays on the floor sometimes. Or in bed. Or sits in the stroller – which it has only recently discovered for itself.

I also don't want to withhold this from you in the article "Learning to Walk and Babywearing": Our baby was infected with a virus during pregnancy, which I "passed on". Even back then we were told that it was POSSIBLE that we might need physiotherapy support. And that is exactly what has now happened. But of course it's clear. Babywearing is to blame (once again).

My article "Learning to Walk and Babywearing" continues with this: What factors are now important for your baby to develop motor skills? What does it need to be able to turn, scoot, crawl, sit up, and eventually walk?

First of all: Your baby starts moving in the womb. At the latest when a mother in her 38th week of pregnancy no longer knows how to sit because the baby is spreading out in all directions and trying to kick its ribs out of the way, you know that.

But motor development isn't just about turning, scooting, and walking. Your baby must learn to open its eyes to see, and move its mouth, otherwise it won't be able to eat, laugh, or speak. Therefore, social interaction is also extremely important for motor development: finger games, singing songs, and interacting together encourage your baby to develop physically and mentally.

Learning to Walk and Babywearing: Motor Development

Unlike the innate reflexes that ensure the newborn's survival, such as the rooting, sucking, and swallowing reflexes, which are important for feeding, there are some other reflexes that accompany your baby in its motor development during the first two years of life: the grasping, crying, clinging, and neck reflexes. During the mother-child health check-ups, the pediatrician also examines your baby's motor development. This can determine whether there is a possible neurological disorder or a disease of the nervous system, which are usually the underlying causes of a later start in crawling, sitting, walking, etc.

A low birth weight – for example as a result of premature birth, cerebral seizures, or brain damage, or mental health problems during pregnancy – for example because it was unplanned or because it was a mental strain for the mother – are factors that can impair your baby's motor development.

Gender, siblings, the type of birth – i.e., spontaneous or cesarean section –, but also social status have no influence on how quickly a child reaches a "milestone". What is actually much more important than these so-called milestones are the "boundary stones". They indicate the age by which the vast majority of "healthy" children acquire a certain skill.

The following questions regarding fine motor skills, gross motor skills, etc. now continue the path in my article "Learning to Walk and Babywearing":

How can you now promote your baby's gross and fine motor skills? How can you motivate your baby to move? For gross motor skills – i.e., body motor skills and locomotion – it is important that your baby has space to move and play. It is also important that its balance is well developed (which, in turn, is stimulated, promoted, and trained during babywearing). Let your baby walk barefoot – even in winter. With the right clothing, your baby won't get cold – it's best to check the body temperature at the back of the neck. If it's comfortably warm there, your baby isn't cold, even if its feet might be. Walking barefoot promotes balance and helps your baby stand securely.

Normally, it is perfectly sufficient if your baby can move freely in a room: Are there things to pull itself up on or scoot/crawl over, and does it have the opportunity to explore everything? Great – then you've done everything right! If your child really is noticeably behind, you'll be in good hands with a pediatric physiotherapist. They will show you targeted exercises to help your baby develop.

With these tips, my post "Learning to Walk and Babywearing" continues as follows:

Simple pony rides, baby swimming, and baby massage can also help your baby with its motor development. Fine motor skills – i.e., everything that involves "small" movements with the hands and feet – can be promoted with finger games, motor skill toys such as an O-ball or motor skill cube, stacking towers, and peg games.

Learning to Walk and Babywearing: Walking aids are unnecessary

Door walkers, baby walkers, and so-called walking aids are completely unnecessary and even dangerous! Not only do they damage the entire musculoskeletal system, but your baby can fall down the stairs, tip over headfirst in a door walker, etc. Experts even agree that the use of such devices permanently damages and hinders the child's motor skills and the development of the entire musculoskeletal system.

As you can see – a baby's motor development is such a complex process that many factors are involved. To some extent, you can promote and positively influence these processes. Towards the very end of the article "Learning to Walk and Babywearing", I would like to briefly tell you how it was with our middle daughter: She was also carried just as "much" as her little brother is now – and she walked safely and freely a week before her first birthday.

To conclude the post "Learning to Walk and Babywearing", I would like to leave you with the following quote:

"You cannot teach a person anything, you can only help them
discover it within themselves."
Galileo Galilei

So help your baby discover itself and everything within and around itself – with love, joy, and the closeness and physical contact your baby needs ♥ I hope I was able to convey all of this well in my blog post "Learning to Walk and Babywearing"!

The blog post "Learning to Walk and Babywearing" is written by Tatjana Kirchweger from LIEBEVOLL GEBUNDEN