When do clubfoot babies walk?

Commonly 13 to 16 months, sometimes closer to 18. A little later than average, and the month matters far less than whether they are still moving forward.

Written by Heath, who has lived it: casts from birth, a fusion at sixteen, the US Army, and distance running.

It is worth naming what is actually going on when a parent asks this. Very few people want a number. What they want to know is whether a child who is not walking yet is a child something is going wrong with.

Usually not. And there is a straightforward reason a treated baby often walks a bit later that has nothing to do with the foot being wrong.

Why a delay makes sense

Babies learn to walk by doing enormous amounts of unstructured practice: kicking, pushing, rolling, hauling themselves up, falling over, doing it again. Thousands of repetitions, mostly on the floor, in the months before anyone sees a first step.

A treated baby spends part of that window in casts and then in a full-time brace. Not all of it, and not the walking-age part, but enough that they arrive at the same starting line with less practice banked. So they take a little longer to get going.

The delay is mostly about practice time, not capability.

What the studies found

Later than average, and not always fully caught up

At age three, about half of 45 Ponseti-treated children scored below average on a standard gross motor test. Children whose families kept to the brace were up to 80 percent less likely to score low.3

At ten, children treated for clubfoot took about 1,300 fewer steps a day than children without it.4 Neither study means your child will struggle. Both are reasons to keep up the bracing and keep the follow-up appointments.

The brace is not the problem

Parents reasonably assume the bar is what is holding walking back, and it is worth clearing up. By the time a child is anywhere near walking, the schedule has usually1 dropped to nights and naps. The whole day is free.

Children cannot walk with the bar attached, the feet are fixed apart, but they are not wearing it during the hours when walking practice happens. If your clinic still has you in full-time hours at this stage, that is a question for them and not an assumption to make.

Toddler standing on carpet pushing a toy lawnmower, wearing white shoes with metal uprights up both legs — **1986 · the author**Standing in mine: metal uprights from the shoes to a waistband, and no bar between the feet. My chart has me braced 23 hours a day and walking at fifteen months. That was 1980s bracing, not today’s nights and naps.

Toddler standing at an open pantry, a white harness around the hips over the diaper with a metal fitting at the side — **1986 · the author**Standing unaided in the same setup, with the hip harness the uprights ran up to. Braced 23 hours a day, walking at fifteen months.

Progress beats the calendar

The useful question is not what month it is. It is whether the last few weeks moved forward at all.

Reassuring, even if late

Pulling to stand on furniture
Cruising sideways along the sofa
Bearing weight through both legs
Standing alone for a few seconds
Getting more confident week by week
Bottom-shuffling or commando crawling as their own method

Worth raising sooner

No weight-bearing at all through one leg
Progress that has stalled for a couple of months
Consistently keeping weight off the treated side
Going backwards on something they could do
A foot that is visibly turning in again
Distress or crying on the leg when standing

Anything on the raise-it-sooner list?

Tick anything you have seen. If nothing applies, you are looking at the reassuring list above, even if walking is later than you hoped.

What it suggests Nothing ticked

Pulling to stand, cruising, standing alone for a few seconds and getting more confident week by week are all reassuring, even when the calendar says late.

What walking looks like at first

Early walking is scrappy for every child. Wide stance, arms up, frequent falls, feet pointing in odd directions. A treated child adds some toe-walking and a foot that may turn in more when tired.

Most of that settles over the following months. What is worth watching is anything that is one-sided and persistent. Toe-walking only on the treated foot, or a heel that will not come down to the floor. Those belong in relapse signs by age rather than here.

Video · 4:17For the parent counting months. Watch on YouTube →

Walking well is not the same as walking identically

Some children keep a slightly different gait, a smaller calf on one side, or a foot that sits a few degrees off. That is a normal long-term outcome of a well-treated clubfoot, not an unfinished job. And it is compatible with running, sport and everything else. The sports page covers what that means in practice.

Sources

Where this comes from

1 Diagnosis and Treatment of Idiopathic Congenital ClubfootAmerican Academy of Pediatrics, 2022 2 Clubfoot overview and treatmentAAOS OrthoInfo 3 Assessment of Gross Motor Skills in Ponseti-treated Children With Idiopathic Clubfoot at 3 Years Old: Insights from the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale 2Rice et al. J Pediatr Orthop, 2024. PMID 39004794 4 Community Ambulatory Activity in Children Treated for Clubfoot: 10-year Follow-upJeans et al. J Pediatr Soc North Am, 2025. PMID 41244142

Walking and milestones

Do babies with clubfoot take longer to walk?

A little, commonly. Thirteen to sixteen months is the usual range, sometimes closer to eighteen, which is later than average and not by much. The month matters far less than whether they are still moving forward, and a baby who has spent the first months in casts and then in a brace has had a different run-up to it than one who has not.

Does clubfoot delay walking?

Often by a modest amount. Months in casts and then a brace reduce the free practice time other babies get. Whether every gap closes is less clear: one study found about half of Ponseti-treated three-year-olds below average on gross motor skills, and good brace compliance cut the odds of a low score by up to 80 percent.

Does the brace stop a baby walking?

No. By walking age the brace is normally worn for sleep and naps only, leaving the whole day free to practice. Children cannot walk with the bar on, but they are not in it during waking hours.

My child is 18 months and not walking. Should I worry?

Raise it, but the pattern matters more than the number. A child pulling to stand, cruising and gaining confidence is progressing. A child who has stopped progressing, or is not weight-bearing at all, needs assessment sooner.

Will my child walk normally?

Most do walk well. Some keep a slightly different gait, a smaller calf, or a foot that turns marginally. Walking well and walking identically to everyone else are different standards, and the first is the one that matters.

Can my child skip crawling?

Yes, and many do. Casts and the brace make conventional crawling awkward, so treated babies often bottom-shuffle, commando crawl, or go straight to pulling up. None of that predicts later walking.