The six-month-old baby who learnt to walk before he could crawl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcVllWpwGsendofvid
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Child prodigy: Baby Xavier is tottering unaided at the age of just six months


A baby has stunned his parents and medical experts by wobbling to his feet and walking unaided at the age of just six months.

Baby prodigy Xavier can now walk over six feet without any support - a feat most one-year-olds still struggle with.

His parents Mary, 30, and David King, 27, said they knew their son was going to be a fast learner when he started sitting up on his own at three-months-old


But they were astonished when little Xavier first started tottering around the front room in January.

His precocious walking ability is all the more surprising considering he is only just learning to crawl.

First-time mum Mary, from Cambridge, said: 'It was such a shock. We couldn't believe it.

'I never thought for one moment he would be walking at six months most children don't until they are a year old.

'Xavier is more advanced than most babies his age. We go to a day nursery and the children there can't even walk and they are older than him.

'At the moment he can walk about two metres unaided it was just amazing when he got up and start putting one leg in front of the other.


Mary and David King say they always knew their son would be a fast learner as he could sit up from the age of three months

'The only problem now is that I can't leave him alone so have had to buy a play pen so he doesn't get into any mischief.'

Xavier, now aged seven months, was born in July last year weighing 9lb 1oz.

By October he was sitting up by himself and he started walking unaided last month.

Mary said neither she or David, a shopping centre manager, started walking until they were at least a year old.


The comedic value of babies walking before they are meant to was realised in the recent Evian TV advert. It featured computer generated images of babies break-dancing in a park


She added: 'It was amazing but we always knew he would be a fast learner.

'I think using the bouncing chair has built up the muscles in his legs but it's funny how he learned to walk before he learned to crawl.

'I always thought it would be the other way around.'

Child development experts confirmed it was 'extremely uncommon' for a child to start walking at such a young age.

Dr Martin Ward Platt, consultant paediatrician at Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, said: 'It's very unusual to be walking at such a young age.

'To be quite so precocious with your walking is extremely uncommon, but with 700,000 babies delivered every in the UK it will happen from time to time.

'For his parents, having to cope with a much more mobile child much earlier than expected simply brings forward the moment you need eyes in the back of your head.'
And here's what some babies can do with a little computer jiggery-pokery...
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