Let’s change channel..
It is really a challenge to juggle work and motherhood… to add to that, being a wife, a sister, a daughter… For this blog, let me talk about my second child- Amber. From the onset, you’d see the difference between Amber and her big sister, my eldest- Pauline. Amber moves around a lot. In Filipino, we refer to this as ‘malikot’. She is really super hyper that some people would say that she seems to act like a boy. Right about now, she has mastered the art of walking, even though, she still does this in a funny way. When we first noticed how odd the way she walks, I immediately searched the net to find out why… or if it is normal. When she walks, it seems like their is this huge rock between her legs. Now, when I say legs, I mean really fat legs. The size of her legs seems to aggravate the situation… seemingly making the distance between her two legs farther apart than they actually are. Now here is what www.parents.com say about walking skills:
Experts say that walking skills depend on temperament, body build, gender, and family environment. (With Amber’s super curious personality, it is no wonder that she started walking early. She seems to greatly benefit from walking, as this feeds her ever inquisitive spirit and inclination to explore and learn her surroundings. Now about walking skills being affected by family environment, this is probably the reason why the pedia asked if anybody else in the family walks like that.)
According to other Moms that I have asked, this is a baby’s way of maintaining balance while engaged in walking. Now the next question is how do we remedy this? I have asked some people about this and the following have been their suggestions:
1. My mom told me to massage her legs every night, kinda like straightening them out.
2. My friend said that when we carry her, we should like put her legs together, instead of wrapping them around our waist.
3. My other friends said, it is normal, hence offered no suggestions.
4. My co-teacher, who is also a Physical Therapist, said that her son also walked like that. She said that the therapy for that is to reverse her shoes- left shoe to right foot and right shoe to left foot. I did not do this yet because not many people will understand why… I do not like to be bombarded with questions and most importantly, I do not want Amber being stared at…
With all the suggestions made, I go for no. 3. The pedia was not alarmed so why should I be. I guess we’ll have to wait and see..
