To think babies are learning to walk earlier than a few years ago?

[Earlywalker]

I go to a baby group and out of 6 mums I know (babies age 9-10 months) 5 of them are walking!

DD was the first one walking out of her group 5 years ago and she started at 11.5 months.

Spoke to a mum at soft play today with kids the same age and weirdly she randomly said the same thing, that babies she knows seem to be walking by 10 months - way earlier now than when her oldest was young.

Just curious is this true for mumsnet? Or just a weird coincidence out of my friends. Walking at 9-10 months seemed unheard of when my eldest was born!

I walked at 8.5 months( 37 years ago)
Dc’s at 10 and 11 months

Maybe it's because babies are put into standing positions more than sitting, jumperoos are very popular rather than bouncy chairs.

I also thought this, based on nothing much. DD is 12 months and most of her friends are at least pulling up, one or two walkers.

My Dd talked at 10 mos no kidding but didn't walk until 17 mos is she evolutionarily bizarre
😂

My bank keeps insisting that babies "are not babies for long enough these days!" So I've found someone who agrees with your theory at least. My first was crawling at 5 months and walking at 10 months. My second is almost crawling at 5 months now. She's convinced that babies in the 50s and 60s didn't develop as early as babies now.

I'm really not sure that you could measure it in any reliable way. Interesting theory about being laid on backs more and the increase in walkers/Jumperoos though. There didn't used to be products like that.

My 4 were all walking before their 1st birthday. The first one was 8 months the last one was 11 months and the other two were somewhere in between. My eldest is now 28 and youngest 18.

jean my 2 relatively late walkers were early talkers too! Maybe the brain can do one or the other!!

I was walking at 7 months 30 years ago.

IMO babies focus on one or two development areas at a time. I had one DC who was very physical and did things early but then was slower to speak, the other DC was really good at speaking but slower to walk.

Unihorn that is very early. Mine were only sitting up in my lap at 5 months. Crawled around 11 mths/12 moths and walked at 15/16 months.

Funnily enough was talking about this with dd last night.

She started walking just after 9 months and by 10.5/11 she was pure belting about! Flaming nightmare keeping her out of trouble! She's a very active kid even now - she's 17, seems incapable of sitting still (seriously getting her to sit through a 90 min film is an achievement!) goes walking, to the gym, swimming, walks to and from work every day... Unfortunately she has a disability which meant she had to give up certain activities which hit her pretty hard, even at the gym she has to stick to 'low impact' stuff.

She hated crawling/rolling she wanted up and about. Although just remembering - this is apparently common with kids with her disability as the joints hurt so being on knees/wrists not pleasant for them. But she was undiagnosed at this stage.

So not a recent walker. I'm also a former nanny, childminder, babysitter - basically I've been looking after other people's kids for over 30 years, last regular babysitting arrangement ended about 2 years ago. Children and babies vary greatly on when they hit milestones, they're a rough guideline.

Of my dn's 3 walked early 2 were late walkers (both youngest and had their older siblings WELL trained in fetching and carrying for them - could that be a factor?) dn's don't have the disability.

Dd was also an early talker but I'm a right blether so no surprise there. She was a bloody nightmare for weaning though! Refused to eat anything that wasn't heavily puréed for AGES! I remember being really worried at the time as I knew chewing helped with speech and developing facial muscles and even hearing.

Just asked mum - I'm 46 I was 10 months when I started walking. She remembers cos I did it at her sisters wedding apparently. (Other sisters 1 married before her, 1 after her wedding but before I was born - mum was pregnant with me when she got married).

DS is a 15mo bum shuffler. Has never crawled, not ready to walk. Never been in a jumperoo (bought one but he was too tall for it). I figure he’s a big lad and he can get round with a hand free for carrying stuff so he doesn’t need to make that next developmental leap just yet as he’s getting along just fine as he is now.

I walked at 9 months apparently this would be 30 odd years ago. DD1 was 10 months and DD2 was about 14 months. I think there's always been a huge variation and you've just met a cluster of younger walkers.

My brother walked at 8 months (one of 7) and his grandson did the same. The rest of us all walked before our first birthday. She was somewhat annoyed when my two both walked the week after their first birthday as she was waiting to buy them their first shoes! :) DS1 could pull himself into a standing position in the open (i.e. not using anything to get up) and stand for ages, months before he got the guts to actually walk. DS2 wasn't so mobile as he was a bit chunky but just decided to get up and walk at 1 year and 7 days. They are 18 and 17 now. I don't really spend much time around babies now so no idea what is common at the moment.

@Everyoneiswingingit I was quite shocked at how strong she seemed to be physically, but she's on he 20th centile for weight and height, as is my second daughter, so not much to pull around I suppose she's now almost 2 and only just starting to get the hang of talking so I do think there's some truth in physical vs.mental development. I've also found that both of my children have been really fidgety and needing constant stimulation or they get really irritable.

Mine never had a stage whe they were just taking a few steps though and I don't count cruising. One day they could walk and then they just walked and ran about, it wasn't a slow progress thing.

My DS was crawling at 6 1/2 months, and walking at 10 months.

I was walking at 9 1/2 months.

My friends babies have mostly started walking between 10-13 months.

Every baby is different

My DD started walking at 15 months. I was worried as I felt like most babies were walking by 12 months. However since been told the average is between 10 to 18 months .

Apparently, I was 8 months...according to my nanny, She has the grey hairs to prove it.

I had a friend who told everyone that her ds could walk when he couldn’t.
From 11 months she told us he could walk confidently but didn’t like to do it in front of other people, or had a sore throat that day, or nappy rash that was preventing him from walking!
We spent hours with the child at baby groups and he wasn’t even weight bearing or cruising, let alone walking!
At 16 months we saw him walk for the first time!
Absolute madness to lie about something like that!
She’s still very competitive and her 4 year old plays tennis at secondary school level apparently and is getting scouted for the England under 11s team at football tots!!!

Mine was an early walker/ mover in general but she stood out at baby groups and there seemed to be a very wide range of normal.

DS, first child, started cruising at 11-12 months, was walking at 13 months. DD started cruising at 9 months and was walking at 11 months.

DD1 walked properly at 14.5 months, whereas DD2 could walk properly at 10 months. I remember that DD2 walked unaided for the first time the same weekend as a friend's daughter who was 23 months. They are 9 and 10 years old now and nobody would ever know that they started walking on the same day!

I walked at 8 months, my brother was 9. We were both small babies and my mum says that it used to freak people out. My children were late walkers however, neither walked before their first birthday.

I was a teenager when my brother was born so clearly remember the health visitor tutting after he walked towards her. She said my mum shouldn’t encourage it so young - but hard to stop really!

My first walked around 20 months ( never crawled), my second at 9 months (again, never crawled). No idea what it proves though!