10 month old can't crawl or pull up... should I be worried?

[Purple89]

Hi all. Worried first time mum here!

My DD is nearly 10 months old and can't crawl or pull to stand yet.

She can sit independently and also get herself into a sitting position from being laid down or being on her front. If I hold her up or prop her against furniture she can bear weight in her legs but not for very long. She can roll both ways and is a good roller.

She does spin around on the spot (360 degrees lol) using her legs but can't bum shuffle forward.

Communication wise I think she is doing ok- can clap, point (does this loads), babbles mama and sometimes dada (although stopped saying dada as much), smiley. Has good pincer grasp and quite dextrous with her toys. Sometimes responds to what you say, e g. If you ask for a kiss sometimes makes a kissing sound, will copy brushing her doll's hair, pretend to brush her teddy's teeth. But not consistently and then the next day she won't do anything she did the day before!

Should I be worried about her lack of mobility? I've seen the 10 month questionnaire and on the gross motor she can barely do anything. Could there be something wrong with her legs perhaps?

Thank you in advance for any wise words!

Also I should add she does a lot of bouncing on the spot and rocking backwards and forwards, don't know if I should be worried about this or if its just because she wants to move but can't figure it out.

I am not a Mum so no expertise there! However your daughter sounds like me as a baby; I walked at 18 months (bum shuffled before)and was speaking in full sentences by then; with the social skills of a toddler huge vocabulary plus tactless. Although I used to know enough to not ask why someone had decayed black teeth to their face so I would ask my parents about it in someone's hearing (my poor parents!) without realising I could be heard. This was aged 2.

I still have inferior motor skills, useless at sport- but I am otherwise ok; have my own house with a mortgage and work full time.

Thank you so much that is really reassuring to hear!

My mum says I was also a fairly late walker (14 months), and an early talker. However I was starting to crawl at about this time so that's why I am getting more nervous. And you just start worrying and assuming the worst!

You are very welcome :) and yes re assuming the worst comes naturally to me as a carer for people with ID; both my nephews talked later than usual so I was worried about they could have Intellectual Disability; as it turned out they don't have a disability and speech issues are common, as are motor skill issues in small children.

My DD didn’t crawl until 10.5 months and didn’t pull to stand until just after her 1st birthday. There’s a huge range of normal, sounds like she’s doing great and she’ll be mobile before you know it! :-)

@Dalekjastninerels I can completely understand where you were coming from. It's so easy to worry isn't it. Also I meant to say that you sounded like such a character as a baby 🥰

@ForeverTired89 thanks for the reassurance really good to hear! Fingers crossed mobility is around the corner although she doesn't seem to be able to move her legs into the right position. Could you tell it was coming with the crawling or did it happen quite suddenly?

@Purple89 It was all of a sudden. She hated tummy time and only learned to roll back to front at 8.5 months. I put her on tummy time one day and she just started pulling herself along. She commando crawled for a month before she went on all fours!

Yes it is easy to worry

This was me "Mammy why does that lady have black teeth?" Mum " Shush!" " But why?!" I don't remember this, Mum certainly does- she was mortified!

My DD didn't crawl properly until she was around 11 months and even then not much. She was kind of happy sitting there like a potato most of the time, watching the world go by. Like you I worried but she is fine, she is 2 now and she walks and runs and jumps just like her peers who were early movers.

She is VERY talkative though so I'm on board with the theory that some kids are talkers and some are movers!

if shes rocking back and forth then crawling should be right round the corner. shes just figuring out how to move in that way is all. my 11.5 mo is already walking by himself but isnt saying words yet, just babbling. id love to hear him saying mama. all babies develop differently and its usually right that they all get there in the end. dont stress yourself out about what shes doing when, just enjoy what shes doing now

Thank you so much! 💓 she's trying to do the moo sound when she sees a cow in her book lol, so I do think she's really keen to talk! Maybe my DD will be the same as yours and crawl soon.

Thank you so much this is really reassuring. ❤️ and you're so right, they all do different things at different times. A friend who is a HV has since told me (after making this post) that they tend to see babies focusing on a particular set of skills at a time and excelling in that. It's amazing that your DS is walking already!! He's clearly a brilliant mover. And (like my DD with crawling) I'm sure you will hear mama very soon!

@Purple89

i thought the same about my DS he wasn’t crawling at 11 months so HV referred us to physio but shorty after his 1st birthday he started crawling but I still went along to the appointment a few weeks later ( in them weeks while I was waiting he started to pull up to stand and cruise around furniture ) went to physio appointment literally two days ago and she said there is absolutely nothing wrong with him she checked all his limbs etc and observed how he sat , crawled and pulled up and she was happy with everything and she told me her own DS didn’t crawl until he was 13 months! She just said my DS was more focused on Communication at the moment but everyday his gross motor skills get better and better

Hello I have 9.5 month old twins and have the exact same worry as everyone else's babies I know are crawling/ standing. But after reading through this thread I am reassured too. My twins are very chatty/ noisy all babble no mama/ dada but I don't think we're far from it. One is almost bum shuffling, the other does 360° on her tummy. They also growl a lot which is rather amusing.

Heyy do you have an update on your little one?

I do! She started bum shuffling a few weeks after this post. She didn't crawl til after she turned 1 and largely preferred bum shuffling still - she was so fast!

Started pulling to stand about 14 months and then finally walked at 17.5 months.

I'd like to say I didn't worry but I did a little. However I needn't have. Within a week or so of walking she was running!

Ahhh that’s brilliant news, always so hard not to worry 🙈