Advice to help a late walker

[advicepleeease]

I'm looking for some advice to help with my son, who's 15 months. He was (relatively) late crawling around 10 months and he's 15 months and has absolutely no interest in walking. He is a super fast crawler and just likes to crawl everywhere or be carried. He cruises EVERYWHERE and can let go of furniture and stand alone, he can even go from crawling to standing and stand for 5/10 seconds alone but is very wobbly even when I try to hold his hands to encourage him to walk. He knows how to do it as he stands and cruises furniture all day every day, he just hates walking and wants to sit down and crawl as soon as I try to encourage him to walk. Is there anything I can do to try to encourage him to walk? It's driving me bonkers as when we are out he hates the buggy so I feel like I'm constantly either carrying him or bribing encouraging him to stay in the buggy without kicking off. I don't want to force it if he's not developmentally ready but if there's anything I can do to encourage him to walk then I'd like to try!

Thanks

[NewMum293]

Normal age for walking is 12-18 months so he’s not late at all. If he’s cruising but wobbly when holding only your hands, he’s just not quite there yet.

Can you use a toddler carrier when out at the park? I found a fabric sling helped me carry my daughter in a normal side hold but taking most of her weight.

[Jallebi]

My DD was exactly the same, late crawler and just no interest in walking. She had developed a complicated cruising route around the living room and could reach everywhere she wanted. The only way she would walk was if she was pushing her little cart. We used to encourage her to walk by putting her in a corner with her back to the wall and urge her to take a few steps towards us. Honestly I don't know if any of it helped. At 16 months she decided she was ready to walk and that was it. She is now 19 months and runs everywhere!

I know it can be worrying, but they will walk when they want to. You might as well enjoy your last few weeks of peace and quiet before you have to chase after him constantly!

[advicepleeease]

Thanks both, very kind messages actually and made me feel a lot better. I seem to get comments a lot from people recently saying "is he not walking yet?" and weirdly before that I hadn't actually put much thought into it. I just figured he's mobile, he's inquisitive and he can obviously support himself well enough so there's no issues in that regard. It's the comments from others that made me think he must be pretty late!

@NewMum293 a fabric sling is actually a great shout. I am pregnant with baby #2 (very new) but I'm conscious that I already find normal things pretty exhausting and carrying a wriggly little toddler at the same time is going to get tougher and tougher. I'm going to look into the side hold.

@Jallebi I'm going to try the wall trick! He actually loves standing up and is constantly either letting go of furniture or going from a squat to standing but anytime I encourage him to take a few steps towards me, he's so excited to get to me quickly that he plonks down and crawls over 🤣

I will try to relax and understand he'll get there when he's ready.