Woman in Tescos: "Ooh, if he's an early walker he might have cognitive problems"

[OovoofWelcome]

My DS (7 and a half months) has been crawling for a few weeks, and is now pulling himself up to standing against furniture and seems quite confident and steady on his feet. So I'm guessing walking might not be too far away (eeeek!), although who knows, he'll do it when he's ready

A well-meaning woman in Tescos was telling me that her son had been an early walker, and therefore had cognitive problems - and she felt it was her fault because he hadn't spent long enough on the crawling phase, which is apparently highly meaningful for cognitive development; said she'd made him 'too strong, too early' by putting him in his bouncer a lot

I don't believe that she could have had such an influence on his development with a bit of bouncer action - loads of babies spend time in bouncers. Besides, DS hasn't spent an inordinate amount of time in his so I don't think that accounts for his early(ish) crawling/standing. The only part I was interested in was the possible correlation between early walking and cognitive issues.

Does anyone have any idea of whether or not there is some truth to this? Slightly worried (please tell me I'm being completely daft! )

Thanks

I never crawled. I rolled for a bit then got up and walked at 9 months. My mother had just had another baby and was pretty cross about it. Absolutely nothing wrong with my cognitive development.

A woman once told me, whilst looking at DD asleep in her car seat, that her son was going to be very bright because he didn't sleep much

Heh! Oh god, bless all the lovely random people in shops, and their marvellously friendly/undermining comments that we know are rubbish (probably) but we still worry.....

She is right in a way, but its really about not crawling at all.
Dyslexic children often don't crawl.
My ds 16 never learned to crawl up on all fourss and walked at 10 months,has dyslexic problems, but is also on the g&t lists at school.
On the questionaires for dyslexia one of the questions asked is if they child learnt to crawl.

But its
a lot of dyslexic children don't crawl, rather than a lot of children who don't crawl are dyslexic.

I do think that crawling does help with the left/right brain thing and although ds didn't crawl, I took him swimming lessons from one year old and he had piano lessons from the age of 6.

DD is 12 and doing perfectly well at school.

She always did struggle though with those shaped wooden puzzles as a toddler.......

Thank her for her advice and ask how long she's been a paediatrician.

If she replies "a what?" then you should not heed her advice.

Still thinking about this - by what right to random people come up to and upset other people in shops with their random opinions. Even if I thought something like this I would never want to distress somebody by saying so. Honestly }

hahaha I heard this so many times DS started walking at 10 months.

Just to reasure you DS is now 10yo he has no leg problems whatsoever (perhaps the odd growing pain in his knee).

He his very active and is a massive swimmer so I'm sure I'd know if he had any problems

'Walk too soon
Brain like baboon'

I would so buy a Hully book of proverbs.

I think some people go to Tesco specifically just to piss other people off.

Ha Ha....

My first daughter walked at 9 months 1 week. My son at 9 months. Both of them were standing unaided between 7 and a half and 8 months and first sat unaided at 4 months 2weeks. I have a photo of my daughter sitting in her cot with a straight back albeit sitting against the headboard at 3 and a half months.

I walked at 9 months. My sister at 9 and a half months. It's often genetic. None of us are cognitively damaged. We just gained motor skills early. That's all.

Biggest problem was not being able to find shoes small enough and bitchy comments from some other mothers convinced we had them in training or something. I never 'boasted' about it because as I said, it's genetic. Not the sign of a super-brain.

atree wow you must have all been in bouncers since birth, right?

DD1 never crawled, is dyslexic, is now 21 and bright.

DD2 crawled at 7 mths, walked at 9mths, now 18 and is bright.

Walk too soon,
Legs like a baboon

at OovoofWelcome

Yep! Made our own from knicker elastic and a coat hanger...told you there's no cognitive problems in our family...

Seriously, I've never used them. Nor baby walkers. One child bypassed crawling, one learned to crawl in order to get to anything he could use to pull up to standing with.

DD was holding her head up on the day she was born - I wonder what the "Tesco Oracle" would make of that - mass murderer at 16 perhaps

rockin Yes all that upright LOOKING - a natural predator obv....

Although I feel a bit sorry for the poor old Tesco Oracle, and I started the thread! I think she was just trying to talk about her own (muddled) experience, and made me a bit without meaning to.

atree at knicker elastic and coat hangers. Sounds like one of Tracey Emin's creations...

I bet Tracey Emin walked out of the womb.....

Hully walked in the womb. Fact.

(note - this offer of a Fact only applies in selected Tescos)

grimma hahahahaha

You wouldn't get an offer that good in Scummerfield

Hully walked like a baboon out of the womb. Faction.

Hully no doubt passed her time in utero by embroidering her placenta in a beautiful floral design. And decoupaged her Mother's endometrial lining.

The correlation I noticed among her peers when DD was a baby was between height and age of walking. This did not mean that walking early stunted the growth; it was that the gangly babies couldn't balance. DD being much more nearly spherical was like a weeble.

'Hully's baboon' emblazoned in neon. Along a Fallopian tube.

I feel a bit dizzy.....