Talk to me about your bum shufflers

[AncientRainbowABC]

DD has just turned 1. She’s bright and meeting all of the non-physical milestones like words and pretend play and things. She’s never been very physical and I’m worried about her strange way of getting around. Hard to gauge without seeing other babies much these days.

She refuses to crawl, but bum shuffles very fast. When she does this, she moves like a lopsided spider: right leg out in front of her and left leg doing most of the shuffling, i.e. pushing off from the floor and setting direction. Has anyone had this?

Both legs work fine, i.e. when we put her up to stand the weight distribution is equal and she kicks with equal force e.g. in the bath or during nappy change. Is this way of moving a cause for concert or the beginnings of someone whose left side is just more dominant? She also prefers her left hand for self-feeding and crayons for example.

I guess overall I’m worried because she’s always been slower on things like rolling - did it around 6 months and now, while she can do it, doesn’t really want to, or pulling up, again did it for a few weeks age 8 months and now seems to have moved on and only rises to a half-squat while holding onto furniture to look at things. She does constantly bounce on her bum, as if trying to get up from the sitting position, so I think some limited interest in walking is there.

I’ve read so much online about showing them how to pull up/incentivising with toys but it mostly ends in whining so I stop.

Would be interested in experiences of similar please and in when this ended in walking. Thank you. 😊

[HildaF]

My bum-shuffler was just the same. She finally got up and walked around 20 months. She was always a bit lazy about things like rolling, pulling up and cruising - she could do it, she just didn't want to. We practiced with her, but whined a lot so it was just better to let her do her own thing at her own pace. She's 2.5 years now, she walks as well as any other kid her age.

[AncientRainbowABC]

Thank you! That’s really reassuring! 😊

[Flowersmakemyday]

One of my three dd's was a bum shuffler, never had any worries about her and she walked fine. Don't worry about it, I realised by the time I got to number three that they all have their own ways of doing things and they were all okay.

[summerinthecity22]

Mine was bum shuffler from 12 months...and finally walked at 22 months!



She seemed to have a massive development leap at about 21 months where she got really interested in crawling then pulling to stand and then pushing a walker...and then walking independently a month later!

It will happen. They get there in there own time.

It's great when they do as you can finally go to the park and play dates in the garden without loads of mud on their clothes from shuffling

[AncientRainbowABC]

summerinthecity22 oh yes all the mud is pretty annoying already! Was your DD quite talkative early on? It seems there is some anecdotal correlation between early talking and later walking. I suppose they can’t do it all at once.

Thank you for you posts above. All reassuring.

[HildaF]

Mud! I got mine a pair of heavy-duty waterproof rain pants (from MEC for about $30 Canadian). Excellent purchase: even with her shuffling about on concrete they didn't wear through, and really protected her legs and clothes.

[Ibizababyy]

My first was a bum shuffler and walked at 16 months- we were on holiday and he literally got up and walked off in a restaurant l, we were gobsmacked! As a result he was very stable on his feet straight away with little wobbling. I read somewhere that bum shufflers walk later as they already have their hands free so there is less incentive to walk than die crawlers. Interesting what is said re. talking/ walking. Mine has always been very sociable and has strong talking/ social skills but was later with more physical stuff such as jumping/ hopping and confidence with climbing etc which I much preferred anyway!

[ronconcoke]

Two bum-shufflers here - DS (now nearly 10) and DD (4). They both started walking around the same time, 16 months. As a PP said, bum shufflers tend to walk later as they're a bit lazy and have free hands while shuffling. I always liked the fact that they were different from most other babies who crawled everywhere.

[AncientRainbowABC]

Thank you, everyone. Really reassuring.

Also, I suppose, a bit of a blessing during lockdown since we didn’t have a super-early walker with all the associated tumbles.