Can your 3 year old use alternate feet on stairs?

[MamaRaisingBoys]

Just that really. Ds(3.5) still pushes up with his left foot and brings his right up to meet it for every stair.

He can push up with his right but seems more of a struggle. I suspect his right leg is weaker as he used to commando crawl as a baby with his right in the air and pushing with his left. Just wondering how normal this is

My 2 year old will use alternate feet easily going up on stairs but still does leads with one foot and the other one follows when going down.

I find it depends on the depth of the step. Sometimes DS legs just aren't long enough for bigger steps.

has he been checked for hip issues? are his legs the same length?

He’s had xrays to rule out hip issues and his legs are the same length.

I did think perhaps the depth of stairs was the issue but he won’t even do it at the park on the steps up to a slide for example. I don’t know if that’s habit though.

When he jumps off something he won’t land with two feet he tucks his right leg under and lands in a crouch with his left foot flat to the floor.

I seem to be worried more than the gp, which is why I was asking on here, to see if it is in fact normal

can you see a physio to get exercises how to encourage the weak leg?
assymetric use can cause issues later on scoliosis, back pain)

This was the one thing my eldest wasn’t doing when we had her 27month check...and she didn’t do it until nearly 4. My middle child is nearly 3 and not doing it either and I’m not concerned based on timelines for my eldest

I will ask about physio, I never realised it could cause him problems further down the line, thank you

We had this when my DD was around 3. HV and preschool were concerned but I wasnt too worried. I knew it was because DD was quite a cautious child and climbed the stairs with both legs meeting together to feel safer.
She corrected it eventually.

Ds is quite cautious so maybe there is an element of that as well

I would see if you can get to a physio. DS has issues on one side of his body and everyone said "ah, give him time" but it really affected him when he started school and the other kids noticed he couldn't do what they could. I wish we asked for a physio referral earlier, it's made a huge difference to him.

I wouldn't worry if it were 'just' the steps, but with the other description getting the weak leg checked out is a good idea.
a physio will have a good idea where this comes from (muscular, skeletal, due to pain).

good luck!

Mine could by 2

DD has dyspraxia - she is an adult and still tends not to do alternate feet on unfamiliar stairs - she couldn't do alternate feet when she was little,now she's ok in familiar environments.
She had other coordination problems but the stairs one was the most obvious one.

I couldn’t do alternate feet until I was about 7.

Another one with a dyspraxia dd - walking up and down stairs was one of the tests the OT did. She would do both feet on one stair.

I’m with greenelephants. If it were just the steps, I’d leave it be. But given what you say about the crawling and landing it might be worth getting a physio to check it out.

Yes my 3 year old 3 month old can but when she's being super cautious she doesn't