7 month old / milestones

[Ivfgottahope]

Hi Mumsnetters, I’ve just tried calling my health visitor after weeks of worry after trying to brush it aside as FTM neurosis; however she is on holiday for three weeks so I thought I’d take to here to get some unbiased opinions.

I’m really worried my 7 month old is behind developmentally. On the physical side, she has only just started rolling from back to belly, but can’t roll belly to back. She can sit if I place her into sitting, but she definitely can’t push into it and her back is still quite rounded. Zero attempt to crawl and she can’t really bear much weight on her legs or push up on her arms. She is a big baby.

On the emotional side, she does show a standard range of emotion including smiling and occasional giggling, but generally she never really gets excited or laughs much and has a really low boredom threshold - she’s mega whingey and needs constant attention. To a lesser degree, she’s not saying consonants yet nor is she trying to copy. Her hand / eye coordination is excellent but yeah, I guess im just looking to see whether anyone thinks I’m right to worry or if my expectations are way off. As she’s my first (after a difficult pregnancy), I don’t know whether I’m over analysing and I just keep being told the standard “babies develop in their own time”

any thoughts would be welcome 🙏🏼

I think sometimes with the rolling it's more of a case that they are happy not to rather than physically cant - my DD didn't roll back to front until 8 months but then one day she stayed doing it as if she had been all her life. Its like the thought just never occured to her - maybe your DD is just happy on her belly? I don't think I'd worry about that, some never roll anyway.

7 months is still in the normal range for learning to sit so if she is sitting albeit a bit wobbly I'd say that's fine too!! She will get stronger and more confident at it in no time. As for getting into the sitting position, this comes later for lots of babies too, most of the babies I know push up on to all fours and then back into the sitting position rather than doing it from lying on their back (because that's hard, I can barely do it!). I think my DD started doing it at the same time as she started properly crawling on all fours which was closer to 10 months tbh!

I know the worry well because mine was a stationary little potato until about 9 months and I worried myself sick but then she just seemed to have an explosion of skills between 9 and 10 months and now at 11mo is pretty average. Its also early for the communication stuff. By all means keep an eye on it but she sounds just fine.

Thank you so much for your response and empathy at the situation. The social stuff is definitely what worries me most. Hopefully she’s just a bit serious - she does laugh (not often) & smile but not really show excitement or babble yet. I guess the worry as a parent never ends!!

hi @Ivfgottahope how is your LO getting on now? X

@AlwaysSeekingComfort On the gross motor side, she’s an avid roller now, but there’s still no crawling and she still can’t really bear weight through her legs or try to stand, nor does she seem motivated to do so. I’ve had her assessed by a paediatrician privately who said that due to her position in utero her hips may be overly flexible so it’ll take her longer, which was a relief to hear there’s nothing serious but that niggling feeling remains, I doubt it’ll go sadly.

On the social & communication side, babbling came shortly after my post here and we had our first gesture yesterday (clapping with intention - yay!). She still doesn’t copy or imitate per se and there are no words yet. She’s still quite a serious baby - smiles a lot and will giggle but never really laughs. I’m trying my best to keep the anxiety at bay and just roll with the punches now as it was becoming all consuming. Thank you for checking in ☺️

@Ivfgottahope hi! How is everything now?