Warning signs for children who are slow to walk

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Specialist Doctor II Le Thanh Cam - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec Danang International General Hospital. Uncle has 15 years of experience in diagnosis & treatment of pediatric diseases; She used to work at the Pediatric Department - Da Nang Hospital and Da Nang Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her strength is diagnosis and treatment of pediatric diseases; resuscitation, pediatric emergency.

Usually, after about 12 months, babies can stand on their own two feet and take their first steps. However, there are also babies whose motor development is quite slow, by the time they are 18 months old, they still can't walk. This phenomenon is known as a toddler.

1. The motor development of children from 1 - 36 months old

A healthy baby will have the following motor development:
A 1-month-old baby can turn its head; 2-month-old baby can raise his head and when sleeping can stretch his legs comfortably; At 3 months old, when lying on the stomach, the baby can support his hands and turn over, grasp objects and like to bring them to his mouth to explore; Babies 4-5 months old know how to crawl forward; At 6 months old, the baby can sit up, when lying on his stomach, he can turn over; Children 7 - 9 months old can sit firmly, crawl quickly, when holding hands on the bed, next to the table, the chair can stand and walk step by step; Children 10-12 months can learn to walk step by step, following the objects that they hold on to; Babies 12-18 months old can walk, grab to climb stairs and climb on chairs; 24-month-old baby can go up and down stairs on his own without being led, can jump on one leg and know how to kick a ball; 3-year-old children know how to run, jump and play.

2. What is the delay in walking in children?

Conditions for the baby to walk include: The skeleton is strong enough, the muscles, the nervous system and the brain develop normally. Usually, according to the growth chart, children need to climb up the ladder in order to reach the ultimate goal of walking. Accordingly, 3-month-old babies need to know how to roll over their body (practice stiffening the trunk and neck muscles). Babies 6-8 months need to know how to sit to exercise their body muscles. When the baby is 9 months old, the baby must learn to crawl to exercise the thigh muscles, at 10 months old, the baby begins to learn to stand and walk. By 12 months of age, children are able to walk quite proficiently, walk alone and sit down to rest by themselves. Such fixed timelines are based on multiple generations of tracking. However, depending on the condition of each baby, the time to learn to walk can move from the 10th to the 18th month.

According to research, a child is only considered to be slow to walk until the end of the age of 18 months (1.5 years old) and still cannot walk. An 18-month-old child who is not yet able to walk may be due to the fact that the motor nervous system has not yet developed to the level necessary for the baby to walk stably.

3. Signs your child is slow to walk

Medical experts advise parents not to wait until the child is 18 months old and can't walk before taking them to a doctor to find the real cause. Parents can look for signs to recognize a child's delay in walking earlier than 18 months of age to intervene early, bringing the expected effect.

The warning signs of a child who is slow to walk are:
The baby is slow to roll over, sit, crawl, ... more than the normal motor development scale; After 4 months of age, the baby still cannot raise his head to create an angle of 45 degrees compared to the bed surface, which is a sign that the baby's motor progress has been slow right from the first step. At this time, parents need to continue to monitor the child; At the end of 6 months, the baby still does not know how to stretch his arms forward to reach for objects. This sign indicates that the baby's trunk muscles are not as strong as expected, warning of future delay in walking; At the end of 12 months, the baby can't stand alone (sitting and standing up without the help of parents) is a sign that the baby is about to fall into a state of slow walking. If the child has the above signs, parents should take the baby to the doctor soon to intervene and help the child's learning progress to return to normal. Parents can take their children to Vinmec International General Hospital for consultation and examination. In addition, parents should also apply some methods to change habits and improve nutrition to support the child's teeth to develop better.
Besides, parents also need to supplement their children with essential micro-minerals such as zinc, lysine, chromium, selenium, vitamin B1, ... to fully meet the nutritional needs of children. The addition of these essential vitamins also supports digestion, enhances nutrient absorption, improves anorexia, and helps children eat well. Parents can simultaneously apply dietary supplements and functional foods derived from nature for easy absorption. The most important thing is that improving your baby's symptoms often takes a long time. Combining many types of functional foods at the same time or changing many types in a short time can make the baby's digestive system unable to adapt and completely not good. Therefore, parents must be really patient with their children and regularly visit the website vimec.com to update useful baby care information.