16 mo old - cant walk / refusing to eat / worried about his development

[marmiteandchocolate]

my 16 month old is still not able to walk unassisted. he has only just started walking if we hold his hand. we try our best to help him practice and take him to the park everyday as walking outside seems to be more of a motivator than when in our house. He just doesnt really seem to be interested in walking when we are at home and prefers to crawl. I take him to soft play as much as possible to help him strengthen his legs, but again he prefers to crawl and will only take 3 or 4 unassisted steps once or twice and then be done with it.

I know 16 months is well within the range medically, but this is getting so frustrating. He is quite tall and is about the same height as some 2 year olds so I'm getting strange stares from other parents when I go to soft play. I'm not sure what else to do to encourage him to walk?

He has also started refusing food. literally only ate breadsticks and yoghurt in addition to milk last 3 days. I thought it was texture and so started pureeing again but that doesnt seem to work. Overall, i'm worried i'm just not doing enough as a mum to help with his development. In summary, i'm concerned about

• he cant really self-feed well. fine with finger food (breadsticks/puffs) but cant scoop from bowl with a spoon. i have to help him load it.
• he cant really eat food unless mashed down. Except for breadsticks!
• his speech is ok (about 20 words, can fill in A is for Apple etc) but refuses to say yes or no and to point to show me he recognises body parts. he also refuses to wave.
• not interested in shape sorters or stackers. literally just takes the individual pieces and throws them about.

-refuses to hold his sippy cup unless he is really really thirsty. if i leave it on his tray he just plays with it and then tosses it off. endlessly frustrating for me.

I'm just really really worried about his development he seems to be delayed? THis is my first child so I have no real comparison except for those milestones charts :( Anyone can help please?

Sounds exactly like DS at that age! He did start to walk at 16 months at some point so you might be in luck. Unfortunately he barely ate until he was 22 months which I think prematurely aged me about 10 years, but ultimately, he was fine, weight and height stayed okay so I think he was just a little birdlike eater. He was still drinking milk.

I think that the red book is really more for when they are little babies but it's still nice to have one. I too found that they were pretty dismissive of me when I moved and DS was 13 months, I needed him weighed to see if he was over 13kg and had to move out of his baby car seat yet.

BTW DS is now 7 and very much not fussy and has literally just this second eaten 2x slices of toast dripping with beans and cheese, with some ham, cucumber and peppers on the side and he's complaining that he's still hungry

My boy is also 16 months. He's walking fine and is great at eating himself (we did blw so always has fed himself) but he really doesn't talk a lot. Mama dada papa baba occasionally nana. He says hello and woof woof. That's about it!!

All I'm trying to say is every baby is different!! Xx

I don't think children are "lazy" if they take longer to walk.

IMO if he CAN walk assisted he WILL walk in time so I would stop worrying.

Also they don't need an awful lot of food at that age so I wouldn't battle over it.

Nothing else seeks very delayed to me either really.

My DD is a bit older but was similar at 16 months. Couldn't walk (she was a bum shuffler and they are often later), v few words, little interest in puzzles. She was a good eater but she is my 3rd child so this probably helped. Now almost 2 she can walk, run, jump, had lots of words and is great at her shape sorter and loves drawing. They all develop at different rates.

I have a red book but since she was a few months old I haven't used it. I don't go to baby clinic (i did with my first child and maybe i would if i had a specific issue but more likely would go to my gp) Her weight is fine and vaccinations are recorded at the GP anyway so second record is not really needed. I know she's had everything that is offered and is up to date.

Try not to worry