When Do Babies Start Walking?

Most babies take their first unaided steps somewhere around their first birthday. The AAP puts it plainly: many babies’ first steps come around twelve months, and starting earlier or later is normal. MedlinePlus lists taking a few steps alone among the things an infant may do between 9 and 12 months.

The outer edges usually quoted, roughly nine and eighteen months, come close to what the WHO Motor Development Study found. The WHO Motor Development Study followed 816 children in Ghana, India, Norway, Oman and the USA, and put the window for walking alone, from the 1st to the 99th percentile, at 8.2 to 17.6 months. It was one of the two widest windows in the study, and the WHO describes the windows as normal variation in the ages at which healthy children reach these milestones.

What makes that workable rather than useless is that the CDC splits it into two checkpoints. By fifteen months, most children take a few steps on their own. By eighteen months, most walk without holding on to anyone or anything. Those are different skills: three wobbling steps from the sofa to your knees is not the same as crossing a room and arriving intact.

One thing about the ages themselves is worth knowing. The CDC’s checklists describe what 75% or more of children can do by a given age. A milestone appearing at fifteen months does not mean fifteen months is typical; it means most children are already past it by then.

Walking is the last item in a sequence that starts months earlier. At around a year, the CDC’s movement checkpoints are pulling up to stand and walking while holding on to furniture. That second one is cruising. The AAP describes a baby first trying tentative steps while holding on for support, and cruising alongside furniture when your hands are not available. It adds one safety point: make sure whatever your baby uses for support has no sharp edges and is properly weighted or attached to the floor.

The AAP describes the first steps as shaky: a baby may take only one before dropping, in surprise or relief. It says most children advance from these first steps to confident walking within days, and that at first they walk with their feet wide apart to help their balance. That is a description of one child’s progress. The CDC’s two checkpoints, at 15 and 18 months, measure something else: the ages by which 75% or more of children show each skill.

Parents often ask whether a late crawler will be a late walker. None of the official pages read for this guide, from the AAP, the CDC, the NHS, MedlinePlus and the WHO, answers that in either direction. None of them uses the age a baby crawls to judge when they will walk.

The WHO Motor Development Study tracked both skills in the same 816 children. Its published abstract does not link the age a child crawled to the age they walked, but two of its findings are useful context:

The checkpoints the CDC gives for walking are about walking itself: a few steps alone by 15 months, and walking without holding on to anyone or anything by 18. Babies who skip crawling, bottom-shuffle or slither instead are covered in our crawling guide, with what the AAP and the NHS say about each.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has called for a ban on the manufacture and sale of baby walkers with wheels.

Its position on what they do is blunt: there are no benefits to baby walkers, and they can actually delay when a child starts to walk. That is the opposite of what the name promises. The AAP’s movement milestones page puts it more strongly still: walkers do not help children learn to walk, and actually eliminate the desire to walk. The alternatives the AAP names are a stationary activity centre, which looks like a walker but has no wheels, a play yard, or a high chair.

The AAP’s advice on falls is reassuring. It says that even in a safe environment bumps and bruises are almost impossible to avoid, and suggests being matter-of-fact: offer a quick hug or a reassuring word and send your child on their way again. Children will not be unduly upset by these falls, it says, if you are not. Clear a stretch of floor to practise on, and let the falling happen.

Shoes are for outdoors and not much else at this stage. The AAP’s position is that in the early months feet develop best when they are not confined in shoes, and that socks are all that is needed to keep them warm. Once your child is walking outdoors they need shoes, and the job of those shoes is protecting the foot from the ground rather than supporting the ankle or shaping the gait.

Eighteen months is the age worth remembering, because it is where the CDC lists walking without holding on to anyone or anything. If your child is not walking at all by then, talk with your child’s doctor.

The AAP is more cautious about an earlier age. Its page on shoes for toddlers says that if a 15-month-old shows no signs of getting ready to walk and little interest in moving about, parents should talk with the pediatrician to arrange an evaluation. The two sources are not saying the same thing, and this page does not pick between them: either is a reason to ask, not a verdict.

The CDC’s advice covers more than the calendar. If your child is not meeting one or more milestones, has lost skills they once had, or you have other concerns, it says to act early: talk with your child’s doctor, share your concerns, and ask about developmental screening.

The AAP’s condition from the crawling stage is worth keeping in mind too. It says there is no cause for concern about the way a baby gets around as long as they coordinate each side of their body and use each arm and leg equally, and that if you feel your child is not moving normally, you should discuss it with the pediatrician. None of this needs a diagnosis from you first. It means the question belongs with someone who can watch your child move.