12mths not sitting or crawling, long wait for physio, any ideas what I should be doing?

[finalfive]

Hi all,
Dd3 is approaching her first birthday and is not yet sitting unaided or crawling. She rolls over but rarely. She reaches for things and grabs but no clapping or waving yet. No babbling either. Good eye contact and lots of smiles and she's an absolute delight, but we're getting increasingly worried. We've been referred to speech and language and also physio but there are long waiting lists for both. It'll be 14 weeks before we get seen for physio. Does anyone have any experience of what we could be doing with her in the meantime to help her build core strength and encourage her to sit and crawl? I'm trying to increase amount of tummy time but she gets tired after a few minutes and rolls over onto her back...
Thanks!

final - hsve you got a v pillow? You could use that to wedge behind her and build up more and more sitting slowly. I also used to sit DD up in front of me and kind of help arrange her legs for balance. She and DS are very tall so sitting and crawling were much harder for them than their smaller peers.

Good luck - she sounds adorable!

Does she have a jumperoo? I found that it really encouraged my 5 month old to be upright, jump, hold her posture for a few seconds etc. she started sitting around 6.5 months & hated tummy time. If say explore different toys to see which one she likes & gets her moving.

We also used to play with her by holding her hands (she holding rather) and getting her to sit up..and later to stand up. Just gets them motivated & gets the right muscles moving.

Your DD sounds beautiful, don't worry too much, try all play options until you see the physio.

I would think rolling over onto her back is good rolling practice. My baby hates tummy time, the only time he is happy to do it is at baby groups when other babies are doing it, then he lies on his front and chats to them.

With her sitting does it seem to be a ball emcs or a strength issue, I spent quite a lot of time letting my babies sit holding both fingers and then just one finger and eventually they let go and sat alone but they had the strength to sit before the ballence skills.

Thanks for replies so far. I'll check out the things you suggest. I've got a cushion thing for her to sit in but she tries to reach things and then flops forward onto her face. I've just got hold of a bumbo which she seems to like.

Anyone any experience of physio for this kind of thing?

No experience of physio but wanted to say tummy time is sometimes more enjoyable with a rolled up blanket under the torso so can see better and arms move.

Also tummy time is anything not on back, so on your tummy etc.

You can get a blow up ring for sitting, which limits falling over.

Hi
I am not saying your daughter has cerebral palsy or anything like that but this book as some excellent ideas for any child that has delayed motor skills. You certainly can't do any harm with the exercises in here. I would stay away from the jumperoo until she has built up some more strength.
www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Children-Cerebral-Movement-Disorders/dp/1890627720

Definitely agree that you should avoid anything designed for a child to sit in (eg baby walker or jumperoo). My DS did attend a physio for very similar issues to your DD, and the physio advised me that those kind of toys do all the work for the baby instead of teaching the baby to sit up themselves. My memory is atrocious but I will try my best to remember some of the exercises that she did with DS & I'll msg you with them. The one toy I found helped massively with sitting was a plastic freestanding playgym from smyths (I think it was called a sit-to-stand gym or something like that). I sat him with his back to a settee and he would keep reaching up to play with the toys.

Both my kids were late to sit/stand/crawl. My first didn't sit til 12 months, and crawled a couple weeks later from a sitting position. Hth

Hi OP. My Dd3 is 11m and has suffered from infantile spasms (a type of catastrophic epilepsy causing cognitive impairment) She is 3-4 months behind in all areas of development and we are still awaiting a community paeds appointment a month after an 'urgent' HV referral. It is beyond frustrating how slowly the system moves and how none of the services talk to each other. I've just booked a private physio assessment with a specialist paediatric physio which cost £45, and that changes it from an unspecified wait to "what time next week would suit you, madam?" If you can afford it, then it might be worth considering to get you started.
DD has just mastered sitting and rolls well, but is nowhere near crawling or pulling up.
We used a breastfeeding pillow called a Flopeze for sitting practice, it's soft so it's not really giving support but prevents her banging her head if she goes flop. They start to sit in a sort of tripod so an engaging toy on the floor in front of them, keeping the legs wide, seems to help, and " row, row the boat" also useful. I put DD in the middle of the floor with toys around the edge to encourage her to roll to reach them. She wasn't waving/clapping/pointing at 10m, and we have started sing and sign which I think is helping, particularly a rhyme to get her paying attention to your hands " two little hands, side by side, up they go, down they go, then..they.. hide, two little hands wave hello ready to play? Get, set, go (clap)"

Will report back what the physio says, they sound to be at a similar stage.
The other thing that has been helpful is a blog called Noah's Dad, about a little boy with Down's syndrome, but it includes videos of his therapy as he progresses towards different milestones. I picked up some ideas from there.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Do you think I should avoid using a Bumbo then, karazeb?
Perhaps I should look into a private physio, bakingtins. Did your other DCs have infantile spasms too? Sounds frightening for you. We're also bring referred to community paediatrician and I'm hoping the GP will refer to acute paeds as I'd like to know if there's a medical reason for the developmental delay, mainly to check if there are any other health implications.
Thanks all.

No, it was completely out of the blue, she was fine until she was 8m old. I've just been back on the phone to the community paeds secretary, they are "hoping" to fit her in during June. For an 'urgent' referral in March I think that's pretty crap

I think the main issue with baby walkers and other toys that use a sling-type seat is that they can do more harm than good (to the hip area, and in encouraging correct posture). They also tend to sit back more in these type of toys.

I'd say a bumbo probably would be ok to use in moderation, as one of the main things that the physio used during my DS's sessions was actually a basic highchair. She made sure that his bum was pushed tight up against the back, used only a fairly tight waist strap to secure him (she said that shoulder straps aren't necessary until baby is climbing, but obliviously you'd want to be present at all times) and rolled a small towel up each side of him on the seat so that he was sat securely / not sliding. Then you keep giving LO lots of different toys. The aim is to encourage LO to move forward and back by themselves, and raise arms up and down playing with the toys. This helps build strength around the back and upper body.

If a private physio session is an option, I'd say that definitely would be worth considering as they can show you the main exercises that you need to do with LO at home, and the little milestones that they would be watching out for as you progress through these activities.

My lo has mild cerebral palsy and was late rolling, sitting and crawling due to low muscle tone in her core. She had physio almost from birth and we spent a lot of time building up core strength by getting her to kneel up - supported if this is needed - whilst she played with toys or we read her a story. It really helped with building core muscle strength and helped to progress with her motor skills.

The book suggested above is really good for strengthening exercises. Agree a bumbo was good for short periods. All these things little and often will help and hope you don't have to wait too long for the therapies.

The www.mamaot.com blog/website is brilliant with advice on encouraging physical development - she's a paediatric occupational therapist so I feel she knows what she is talking about.

Just back from the private physio assessment and felt it was well worth the money. The physio assessed DD's range of movements and muscle strength as normal, and her motor skills as about 3 months behind, which was in line with what we thought. She has shown us lots of games to play to encourage her to move to the next stage e.g twisting to the side when seated, kneeling supported on one parent's leg and reaching for toys, using a gym ball for core strength. She said DD doesn't need physio as such, but since she has experience in treating development delay we are going to see her every six weeks to ensure DD is making progress and to be given new exercises to do at home. It was really helpful, she was very positive about what DD can already do and pointed out what she needs to work on to make the next 'leap' to crawling or pulling up.

Thank you to jess for the mammot website suggestion and kaffeine for the book, which I have ordered.