5 Tips to Encourage Your Baby’s First Steps

Watching our little one take their first steps is a milestone that brings so much joy and excitement. Our baby’s first steps mark the beginning of a new chapter in their development, growth, and interaction with the world. While every child reaches this milestone at their own pace, there are several ways you can encourage and support your baby’s first steps! In this blog post, we'll explore five tips to encourage your baby’s first steps so you can feel confident in supporting your baby’s development right at home!

Download this walking guide here to help you find comfort & confidence in encouraging these milestones with your baby!

Tip #1: Encourage Standing Play

Before our babies learn to stand and walk, they primarily engage in play in a sitting or crawling position. When our babies are learning to walk, they have to develop a ton of strength and lower body strength, specifically, is very important. Once your baby is crawling independently and pulling to stand, you can begin to place your baby in standing and encourage play in this position. This new play position will build lower body strength and encourage confidence in this new upright position. When placing your baby in standing initially, be sure to place their arms against a surface to support their body. For example, you can place them against a door or window with a toy at eye level. While in standing they can manipulate that toy and build the necessary strength for walking. Squiggs, liked here, are a great option if you choose to stand your baby up against the door or window in this way. These suction toys keep baby entertained while they complete this challenging standing position. You can also elevate a variety of toys to encourage standing. When they are not pulling to stand and cruising, they may predominently sit and play happily with their toys on the floor. By simply moving those toys to higher surface once our babies are pulling up will encourage more confidence and build the skills needed for your baby’s first steps!

Tip #2: Offer Support and Stability

In the early stages of learning to walk, your baby will need some support to develop balance and coordination. Holding your baby's hands or providing a stable push toy can give them the confidence they need to take those initial steps. I recommend using these push toys once baby is crawling independently and pulling to stand on their own. I have linked a few options here! Push toys are great, but we also want baby to become confident and balanced on their own for independence in their first steps. Holding their hand (or hands) is a great way to encourage baby to do more of the physical work if they are independent with the push walker. When holding your baby’s hands, I like to hold from behind the baby so excessive forward leaning is minimized. See this post here for a demonstration! You can also hold your baby’s hands from the front of their body, but be sure to stay nearby to their body so they do not lean forward alot. You also want to make sure they have plenty of room to walk forward, so this is another reason why I prefer and recommend holding your baby’s hands above them while standing behind. Once your baby can walk well with both hands held, you can hold onto one hand. I always hold one of my baby’s hand while standing on his side. This encourages him to balance and gives him ample space to move forward. You want to make sure you alternate the hands that you hold each time you practice this skill to allow strength and balance to develop equally on each side. As your baby gains more strength and confidence, gradually reduce the level of support you provide to help them build their independence. Another quick tip for reducing the amount of support is to have baby hold a toy in hand and you hold the other end. See a video here of this demonstrated. This will allow space between you and baby, but also allows you to support your baby through the toy when needed. Try a smaller toy that allows you to be close to your baby initially for more support, and use a large toy with more space between you and the baby to make the task more difficult. Offering support and stability in these ways will encourage your baby to take indpendent steps in no time! 

Download this walking guide here to help you find comfort & confidence in encouraging these milestones with your baby!

Tip #3: Barefoot is best

There are so many cute shoes on the market for baby, but did you know when baby is learning to walk barefoot is actually best? Your baby being barefoot encourages strength of the ankle, foot, and toes which is totally necessary for independent steps. When practicing walking with your baby initially, you want to make sure your baby is barefoot and they are wearing non-footed pajamas. This will ensure they are balanced well and there is nothing to cause them to slip and fall. When walking barefoot, you also need to consider the surface in which your baby is walking on. Grass or other unstable surfaces will require more balance and strength, so start your baby on a hard, level surface. We love encouraging our baby to walk on our hardwood floor or our play mat and he is able to walk 5-8 steps very well at the time I am writing this. In addition, when having your baby walk barefoot, be sure your baby will not have to face any obstacles when they are learning to take their first steps. Be sure there is no surface change or toys in their way. Put your baby in standing, and watch them require less and less support to take those first steps! 😍 Interested in shoe options once your baby begins to walk? I have linked a few here and these can be used when your baby is walking outside or within the community!

Tip #4: Encourage cruising and free standing

Cruising is a huge milestone once your baby learns to pull up on furniture and toys. You may begin to see your baby walk alongside the furniture or toy to the right and the left. This is called cruising and is a great activity to prepare your baby to take their first steps. When encouraging your baby to cruise, try placing toys along the surface to their right and left. You can also assist your baby by showing them how to cruise if they have not started quite yet. You can move your baby’s arm to their right, then assist in moving their legs that same direction to show them that cruising allows them to retrieve a nearby toy that is out of reach. Always complete on both sides. To make things more difficult, you can begin to have your baby cruise to different surface levels. Cruising from a higher to lower level surface is going to be more easy initially! Place a toy on a lower surface and watch your baby move! In addition to cruising, free standing is a great way to encourage those first steps for baby. I frequently would challenge my baby’s balance by having him stand freely in the middle of the room to encourage balance. I would support him at his shoulders or hips initially, then after awhile I would release my support and watch him stand for a few seconds! This is SO important in encouraging those first steps because before baby can walk - they have to stand independently! Lastly, to encourage free standing, you can have your baby standing at a surface. Once stable, encourage your baby to reaching UP with one or both hands. This will allow your baby to move from supported standing to free standing because they will want that item you are enticing them with (if it’s motivating 🤪). First comes independent standing, then comes independent steps!!

Tip# 5: Celebrate your baby’s successes!

Our babies are SO smart! Every milestone, big or small, is so exciting to watch throughout their first year and beyond. Being a parent is full of so many firsts and we want to make sure we don’t miss a single one! When our babies begin to walk and build confidence in this new development, be sure to be their biggest cheerleader! I know you already have that under control and you should be so proud of yourself and baby for reaching this huge milestone. When your baby begins to take their first steps, celebrate! If your baby takes a small tumble and isn’t hurt, celebrate! When your baby begins to stand without holding onto anything, celebrate! When your baby pulls up on the furniture, celebrate! Every little thing out baby does and every little “mini-milestone” they reach contribute to the BIG milestones! You are doing wonderful and your baby is SO lucky to have you in their life!

I hope you found this list of 5 Tips to Encourage Your Baby’s First Steps helpful! From encouraging standing, stability, and confidence to knowing what type of footwear is best, you are so prepared for your baby’s first steps! Enjoy the moments because soon they will be running and we won’t be able to catch them 🤪.

Download this walking guide here to help you find comfort & confidence in encouraging these milestones with your baby!

I am so blessed that this is my job - educating parents and giving them to the tools to help their baby. This is truly an honor.

Thanks for reading!

Brooke, OTR/L