Can walking on tiptoes be normal?

[JulieJones22]

Ever since a psychiatrist told me at 29 weeks pregnant there was studies showing a risk with taking Citilopram (anti depressant, I was on 10mg) and autism I have been so worried that he will get it and it’ll be all my fault.

Anyway he’s 20 months old. Loves playing with other children, very social, always making eye contacting and smiling, watching tv and turning round and smiling at me to see if I’ve seen what’s happening too, his vocabulary is fantastic, he can count to 10, knows his shapes and colours. He’ll give us all cuddles and kisses. Loves his family. He gets upset when I leave the room.

The only wanting signs I can see is that he is obsessed with cars and trains, walks on his tiptoes sometimes, isn’t interested in building towers (he’d rather knock them down), not bothered about painting or drawing.

My husband thinks I’m mad as I keep worrying but I just want to feel like he’s ok and I haven’t affected him by taking antidepressants. I still can’t believe the psychiatrist would tell me that.

I don't know about the other things you mention, but tiptoe walking is very common apparently.

Ds2 was a tiptoe walker and entirely NT.

However you need to encourage your ds to walk 'properly'- we've had to have lots of physio and ds still has exercises to do to encourage his Achilles tendons to stretch as we left it too long to correct (I really thought it would self-correct tbh, never having had the issue with ds1). Surgery was also mentioned, so please do encourage proper walking.

Ok thanks, I never even thought of that. I will try and get him to realise and show him to walk flat footed. I don’t know if he does it outdoors as I can’t see.

I agree with the previous poster, none of your worries are concerning, all young children will walk in tiptoes occasionally - in some countries it is even a milestone in toddler development.

the risk is meant to be really low, less than 1 in 100 www.nhs.uk/news/pregnancy-and-child/antidepressant-use-in-pregnancy-linked-to-childhood-autism/

If the toe walking starts to become a habit there are some simple and fun things you can do.
Get your DS to have races with you while penguin walking, on your heels with toes pointed up in the air.
Pretending to walk on a tight rope, one foot in front of the other heel to toe.
While sitting straight leg on the floor getting him to point his toes towards him, get him to try to see the tips.
All these things help stretch the muscles so it doesn't lead to them being tight.

I remember once reading that it's impossible to tiptoe-walk in wellies, so that might be useful to break the habit!