Your toddling child
When your baby first starts to toddle he will have very little control over his movements. However, by about 19 months he'll be able to walk backwards as well as forwards and may even have mastered running. Once he can run he'll be able to jump.
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By two years old he'll be able to veer and swerve while he's running and will be able to glance over his shoulder without losing balance. He will be able to stop quite suddenly without toppling over and will have sufficient balance to be able to bend down to pick something up without having to sit down first. If you encourage him he'll be able to kick a ball, although it will be rather a dragging kind of kick because he can't maintain his balance on one leg for very long.
Your toddler will want, quite naturally, to race about as much as possible, but out of doors you'll have to be careful. He'll have no traffic sense as yet so you'll either have to hold his hand or use reins. I believe that reins are the most satisfactory solution for both of you: they hurt neither your arm nor your toddler's (like a wrist strap might) and they give him far greater freedom than he would have holding your hand
Although your toddler's strength will increase during this year, don't expect him to walk much further than a couple of hundred yards at a time. If you're in a hurry, or can't bear the idea of constant stops and starts to look at things, take a pushchair of some sort and use that when you need to.
If your baby has a set-back in the development of walking, don't worry. He's learning so much at the moment that it's quite understandable that he may slow down in one aspect of his development to concentrate on another; he may also suffer lapses after an illness. Just relax and let your baby develop along his own lines.
Safety tips
- Remember, that once your toddler can walk, he'll also be able to climb, so fit bars to all the windows, or fit special fasteners that allow the window to be opened only a few centimetres.
- Keep possible hiding places like cupboards or chests securely locked so that your baby can't disappear and get locked in.
- Be sure that any locks on room doors are out of reach.
- Do not allow your unsupervised child into a garden with open access to the road. Teach the road training drill as soon as possible.
- Teach your toddler how to negotiate stairs properly, by sitting on the top stair, putting his legs down to the one below and then following with his hands.
- Keep all the handles of pans turned away from the front of the stove.
- Never leave anything hot lying where your toddler can reach it: keep it out of his reach until it is absolutely cold.
- Glass doors should never be so clean that your toddler bumps into them. Fix coloured paper or transfers on the glass to make them obvious.
- Keep all medicines in an approved medicine chest, high up and always locked. Never carry medicines around in your handbag.
- Move cleaning products out of reach or store them in a locked cupboard.
- Don't put rugs on polished floors unless they've been backed with double-sided tape or carpet grip to stop them slipping.
- Don't let your child near anything that is small enough to be swallowed or pushed up his nose or into his ear.
- Keep all sharp instruments, including kitchen equipment, out of your child's reach.
- Never leave sewing or DIY materials around.
- Never leave your child alone near water.
New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard
Posted 03.11.2010
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