When do babies do things?

[crayfish]

I know i can google this stuff but I was looking for more 'anecdotal' information, and a bit of reassurance I suppose.

DS is 14 months. He can't walk and can't talk. He can pull himself up and cruise round the furniture and is an expert crawler but did these things quite late (after 1 year) and also rolled over/sat up later than other babies I know. He shows no interest in walking, won't walk with a walker or with you holding his hands and can't stand unaided. He also has no words at all, he does babble but no 'mama'/'dada' stuff which most of my friends babies were doing by now. I'm getting worried.

I know it's a spectrum and some babies do things later than others, I was a late walker myself but I did talk early. He just seems late with everything! He was born at 38 weeks so full-term and has had no health difficulties.

Any words of reassurance?

He is meeting milestones though - can sit, crawl etc just a bit later than some. It doesn't feel like it when your baby seems to be last but it really doesn't matter when they start to do each thing as long as they do it in the end. My dd was like yours but never went through the walking holding a hand stage just up and oh when she was ready (around 16 mo) also seemed to go from no language to loads in no time at all. I was worried as she is summer born and I wanted her to be able to cope at school but by the time she was 2.5 she was just as advanced as her peers - better at some things, less good at others. Now at school and she's fine.

Having said all that have a word with your health visitor if you want a professional opinion (assuming she's not one of the psycho ones you read about on here!)

Whilst there are plenty of babies that do all those things earlier that your son, your son isn't lagging behind either.

I can think of the top of my head of several children that didn't walk or talk until after 18 months are currently bright children or high achieving adults.

Chat to your health visitor if you're feeling concerned, but I don't think you need to worry at all at this point, just enjoy your lovely baby .

My DB didn't walk until 18 months and was an expert crawler (he just didn't seem interested). DM then realised that he wore long trousers all the time and when she switched him to shorts (and his knees got sore crawling all the time) he got the motivation to start walking

Dd walked at 18 months. She wasn't crusing or anything before this. She bum shuffled at 13 months but never crawled either. On the day she turned 18 months, she just got up and walked. No stopping her

Was talking about 15 months but didn't properly talk until after her 2nd birthday when her speech just exploded.

Ds was walking at 15 and a half months. He is now 18 months. He says the odd word but not talking talking yet. Mostly baby babble. He cammando crawled from around 6-7 months but didn't properly crawl until the day before his 1st birthday

Babies do things at really different ages. Babies will generally show preferences for certain skills and practice them more so show them more, especially when they're pre-verbal and you can't see what's going on inside their heads! DD was quite late with a lot of gross motor skills physical stuff like walking, she wasn't that interested in being up and about, but early with things like fine motor skills, so it just depends on the baby.

If you're worried you can look at the EYFS and find out what the generally accepted baseline is by age (ie below this baseline there might be cause for concern). It's what the health visitors and any childcare professionals will be using to assess progress.

He sounds fine.

For mine they were wildly variant on how they met early milestones-and how they behaved with them too:

Dd1: Sat up on the day she was 6 months old. Crawled at 10 months. Took her first steps at 15 months and 2 weeks after that never crawled again. Once she did something, that was it, she could do it well. She was never covered with bruises from falling, and I never put cushions behind her to stop her falling back when sitting because she didn't need it.

Dd2: Crawled at 5 months, walked at 8 months. However she would still plop down to crawl if she was ill, tired or had fallen over until she was about18 months. She was always covered with bruises from falling/crawling or walking into things. She first sort of sat at 10 months, but wasn't reliable until over a year, because if ever you tried to sit her down she threw herself forward to crawl off.

Ds: Crawled at 6.5months. Sat about the same time, but was wobbly for a good couple of months. He took his first steps at about 9 months, and was totally reliable walker by 10 months. However, when inside (or on grass/snow) he would still choose to crawl until he was about 19/20 months. I never worked out whether this was because he found it faster, he had ear infections and he found the balance hard or because he usually had a small car in his hand and he preferred to push it.

Thatk you everybody, I do feel better reading these responses. Like your DD1 Witchend, once he has 'got' something there has been no looking back so once he rolled once he could roll all over the room in all directions, once he sat up once that was him sitting up forever, same with crawling and pulling up. Maybe he will be one of those kids that walks late but then does it once and never looks back. Part of it is that he's such a fast crawler there isn't any motivation to walk because he can get where he needs to be anyway.

he's a lovely boy, really happy and a proper 'easy' baby but he's been behind on most things (eating as well) although he actually has very good fine motor skills and had a pincer grip quite early etc. He has been behind with things like waving and clapping and stuff too, so I've been worried I haven't stimulated him enough or something but I'm not sure what more I could have done!

I'm sure people didn't worry about this stuff so much years ago, but now there seems to be so much comparison going on between babies.