anyone's baby not crawled at 19 months?

[nappyaddict]

my friend is worried about her ds. he sat up at 13 months but is still not crawling at 19 months. i know not all babies crawl but was just wondering if anyone else knows a baby who has crawled this late or if they just want straight to walking?

DD didn't walk at all until 2.3 yrs and didn't walk confidently until 2.6yrs. She was a champion bumshuffler!

Our GP referred her to peads at 2yrs (who checked all development and assured us she would do it eventually). Peads said they do look at babies from 18mnths if not walking so probably worth getting referred (just for peace of mind).

I don't think it's the walking or crawling that your friend should be worried about- in some cases they are just very late to do these- BUT the not being able to sit without support is EXTREMELY WORRYING.

IME this could definitely be indicative of a neurological problem. Could be something mild like Hypotonia (low muscle tone) or more serious like CP. I don't want to scare/worry you or your friend but please ask GP for a referral to a Paediatrician.

i would check to see if one parent was late walking as it is meant to be hereditary (much like teething, as my ds1 teethed very late at 13 months!). a friend's ds walked late at 19 months, but that is when his mummy started walking so they were not concerned. he was bum shuffling though.

sounds bit weird but i have observed that if babies are quite chubby or have a big head, this seems to keep them mobile longer than their lither friends! interestingly my friend's ds who walked late, ate very little just before he started walking, as though his body was actually trying to slim down for the big event!!!

if it were mine i would get a medical opinion if only for reassurance. hope it goes ok for them.

I agree with soph..not sitting without support at 19 months is a worry

he can sit up without support and has done so since 12.5-13 months but it's as though he doesn't want to. after a while he arches his back and dives backwards or dives forwards as though he can't be bothered. my friend always puts something around him now to stop him hurting himself when he does it and also to try and prevent him from doing it. i thought cp was generally picked up quite early on?

severe CP would certainly have been picked up before now but mild to moderate CP cannot be ruled out until a child is walking properly. DS was at risk due to his extreme prematurity and a specialist Paed siad they wouldn't be able to rule it out until then.

It's not necessarily "likely" if you see what I mean but I would get him checked. No harm in it and as someone said - if he needs extra help he can get it earlier.

These things can be missed, it took me 20 months to convice health professionals my son was 'not right' my HV kept saying 'it's not a race my dear' - this despite being in SCBU for a week, weekly paed appts for first 6 months etc.

At 20 months he saw a community Paed (at my insistence) who assessed him with the development of a 10 month old. She could not believe he was not having any physio, portage, SALT etc

my DD throws herself down instead of landing gracefully too...maybe he has low muscle tone too..but he definitely needs a check!

I would say low muscle tone is more likely than CP at this stage..but a physio/paediatrician assessment would help set your mind at rest.

marmaduke how that commetn makes me. I was very lucky it seems - wehn we came back to the UK I asked GP to refer DS for community paed assesment due to his extreme prematurity and was referred straight away and got an appointment within a couple of months. Mind you, you only have to say born at 26 weeks to most GP's and they go white and try to offload the child onto someone else

thank you Kew, yes made me cross too - although not as cross as the 'top' Paed Neuro consultant who decided I was an over anxious mother and told me there was nothing wrong with my DS that going to toddler group more often wouldn't have solved.

(He has a rare genetic disorder, so not my imagination after all)

I agree with the other ladies, I think your friend should be seeking a referral.

I agree with many of the posters on here.

It is not the lack of 'crawling' as such that i would be concerned about, but the lack of any mobility (rolling, shuffling etc) coupled with the very late independant sitting that would be ringing alarm bells for me.

It could be nothing at all, but i would definitely advise your friend to get him checked out just in case ...

who standards for motor development

if you click on the 'windows of achievement graph' you get the 'normal' ranges for each activity.

he does roll to get about. i have mentioned to her that i think she should see a gp and she said her ds1 was very late to do these things too (12 months sitting (but also wasn't too great without support), 18 months crawling, 27 months walking) and so she is quite relaxed about it all. her ds1 started rolling just before he was crawling and sitting properly without support and her ds2 has been doing this in the last few weeks so she is convinced he is on his way there too. is it possible her ds1 could have low muscle tone too and it hasn't been picked up because he is now walking?

Hi Nappyaddict - your friend needs to take baby to gp/hv. 18 months is the upper limit for trying to walk so should have been crawling by now. Some children never crawl but usually they walk early so miss this stage out. I presume he's not walking? Also should be sitting up without help, this may explain why not crawilng as muscle tone too poor.

I wouldn't necessarily expect your 21 month old to run well etc either but if he got to say 3 1/2 and still wasn't doing some of them then i would wonder. Children who don't put two words together by 2 1/2 i would consider referral to speech therapy. The milestones are GUIDES usually at the lower age you would expect something to happen so i don't get too hung up on them either but the reason you would is so you can access help etc if needed......sounds like your friend could do with getting thins checked out.

nappyaddict..it definitely sounds possible. But I don't see how getting him checked out could hurt!! A simple GP visit might suffice!

Like fio, I tend to avoid posting on these threads as my dd2 also has SN. I would say that there is a delay here and that the child needs assessing. My dd2(now 6)sat at around 8 months, but did not crawl until 3 and still cannot stand independently or walk unassisted (she has a rollator). You do need to pester at this age, but I think this level of delay is adequately concerning to get the HV's notice.

Re those "WHO standards for motor development" - Is that table for real? Anyone's baby really managed to sit without support at four months?

She rang the HV today who told her not to worry about the lack of crawling cos he is using rolling to get about and they won't assess the lack of walking until age 2. friend mentioned he didn't sit til 12.5-13 months and she said that was ok, the later end of normal but nothing to worry about. she said that's why they don't bother with the 6-8 month check cos really it is too early and if they aren't doing things like sitting/crawling at that age it isn't anything to worry about so it is all a bit pointless. she said he probably was only diving forwards/backwards because he prefers to be on the floor so he can roll around rather than being sat still in one place which i suppose makes sense. as soon as ds could crawl he wouldn't sit anywhere and would also lean forwards so he could crawl.

gosh the hv wasn't concerned? well if she feels happy with that then not to worry, if not she should perhaps seek some more advice.

my dd1 sat at 4 months too. but that was early. none of the other babies we knew did.

Woah, that table has worried me (actually- more confused than worried!). Surely 4 months for sitting unaided is not the 'norm'.

I read that as long as your baby laughs and smiles before 3 months and sits before 10 months then this was 'normal'. I thought my ds was fairly early for sitting at 5 and half months! Most of my friends babies haven't sat til 7 months and not crawled til 10 months.

If she's happy with what the health visitor said than fair enough.

If it were me I would get a second opinion though as all health visitors and doctors have different goalposts and milestones. As bigwombat said (along with others) I would pester pester pester at this age. It's better (in my opinion!) to be cautious even if there isn't a problem rather than not worry and find there is a problem later on which perhaps could have been lessened with early detection.

that chart shows the ages that children sit up across the world it justs says that 95% of children sit between 3.8 months and 9.2 months, obviously children at either end are unusual but still statistically fall within "normal" parameters.

I'm amazed that a HV doesn't think its worth checking. I think having an older sibling who showed similar triats my be reassuring but I don't think anyone could argue that not crawling by 19 months is normal, even if there isn;t an underlying problem. It is still unusal enough that I personally would not be happy with ignoring it.