Mums's with 'late walkers', give me some reassurance please!

[tvfriend]

My DD is 16 months and was a late crawler- started just after she was 1. She is now 16 months and will push her baby walker around a bit and pulls herself up all the time but has never tried to stand on her own, flatly refuses to walk when holding on to my hands or stand up holding my handsetc. I just can't imagine her ever standing on her own or walking!
All her NCT group are running around and she is just content to crawl to what she wants.
DO you think there's anything to worry about or is there anything I can do to encourage her? I'm having another baby in the new year so I'd quite like her to be walking by then.

Really sorry to hijack...am also wondering about my dd... 10 m today and no crawling, bumshuffling, cruising or walking. She seems content to sit where she is...will stretch as far as she can to reach a toy but if she doesn't manage it, just moves on to something else! The other weird thing is that when she was younger, she used to weight bear if I held her on my lap. But now she doesn't do this. What do you think, peeps? DH never crawled, apparently, and didn't walk until 18 m. Is there a hereditary element?! Or is it cos my dd hates 'tummy time'? Hmm

Tvfriend: I could have written an identical post a few weeks ago. DD was a bottom shuffler, started crawling at 14 months and at 16 months was standing a bit and walking a bit with a walker, just as you describe. We did get some cruiser shoes about then, but not sure that they made much difference. We tried not to stress about it but it did become tricky as I got more heavily pregnant with DS. Then one day, almost overnight, DD just got up and walked (the first few times when she was barefoot). This was about 10 days before I gave birth so I was very relieved! Within a week she looked as though she had been walking for months and you can't tell the difference with her friends who have been walking for 6 months. Try not to worry and good luck with the pregnancy.

18 months, mine finally walked without hands - like many others, concentrated on talking, it seemed, rather than walking. Six years on, no discernable difference, though doing very well at school - milestones seem big in the first few years, and fall away over all the rest. Don't want to sound patronising though, as I understand how stressful it is when every other child seems to be 'ahead', but truly, trust me...you'll get to a stage where you can't remember exactly when they walked (terrible, but true, together with first tooth, first words, etc!). Watch your back though...late walkers mean more carrying a heavy child around - expensive osteopath bills in the future if you're not careful!

Oh, and for those who in the thread who are worrying about crawling age...not till 12 months!!! Shocking, eh! And at 8 now, sometimes can do a very proficient crawl!! - proud mum, just rather later than others!

My ds crawled at 15 months, would weightbear from about then aswell, but didn't walk until 2 years 2 months!

Do we win the prize?!! He is fine now, by the way - at 3 years old you can tell he will be a fab footballer!

Neither of mine walked until 18mths. Both practiced their verbal skills, so they could tell us what they wanted rather than get it themselves
Early walking fwiw, doesn't corrolate at all with intelligence, or stronger physical skills beyond about 2.5 years, iirc.

My DS was 17 and a half months when he took his first steps - a few weeks before we went on holiday. We spent a lot of time on holiday pottering down the road (Austrian countryside) to the local petting zoo (couple of doors down) and we were able to hold his hand as he walked along for much of the way, which really gave him motivation to walk and a reason I think. Getting him to take 1-2 steps back and forward from myself to DP in the hotel room most days helped too to boost his confidence. Then we noticed on our return that he could do a 3-4 steps from one of us to the other. One day DP shouted upstairs "He can walk!" and I said "I know!" and he said, "I mean, he just walked right across the room!!!!" I think after that point it was a matter of days before he was walking around everywhere.

I used to worry about it and think that the other children were more forward than him, and i think that's what the parents of the other children thought too. But once he was walking too it became much more obvious that DS was actually MORE advanced in some ways than their DC - so he'd just been developing along different lines at different rates. I am sure it all evens out.

My latest walker was 19 months (crawled for the first time on her 1st birthday)

The biggest probs were a) lugging an increasingly large & heavy child around on my hip all the time & b) socks which were always filthy on top (one friend once watched her beetling away down someone's garden path & asked "how do you get her socks so clean?" - duh, she doesn't walk on that part! )

DS1 walked at 21 months after bum shuffling since 11 months

Apparantly my cousin didn't walk until 23 months (this was said to calm my fears too) and he is now Cambridge educated surgeon

DS1 was 17mo before he walked (and a good 2.3 before he was all that steady!). He was taking stock of what he wanted to do when he could walk, I reckon, because the instant he did it, he went for all the interesting things he'd been eyeing from a seated position. I guess he took so long because it was a looooooong list! He was never interested in holding hands to walk either - take that as a positive that you're not doing the back-breaking walking a toddler thing!

16 mo is well within the NT parameters of 9-20 mo for walking - in other words she's still got 4mo.

Is she making progress? - sounds like it to me if she crawled at 1 and now pushes her walker about.

Don't worry about not walking holding yr hands - that's a mug's game anyway and a short way to an aching back IMHO.

Does she cruise? The best thing you can do is put favoured toys up high (on sofa etc) where she will have to stand to get them. Don't bother with shoes tho - anyway no shoe shop worth its salt will fit them to a non-walker.

I often say to people with late walkers who are told not to worry that yes, maybe they should (I know a cautionary tale) but not in this case

(mine btw were 17mo, 13 mo and 9mo! I would say that DS2 (9mo walker) is my most proficient physically, but I'm far from sure that there's any connection).

ds was 17 months before he walked. I was trying VERY hard not to get edgy about it. And then he just woke up one morning and took off...

Hope dd surprises you sometime in the next couple of months, tvfriend!

Hey if you are worried about development DS1 walked age 21 months or so (NT), DS2 walked at 11 months (severe autism).... i don't think this late walker thing has much to do with development

Please don't worry - my antenatal group were the same, and DD1 didn't walk until 19m. DD2 was 18m, and apparently I was 23 months.

DD1 may have walked late, but she is very bright - smug emoticon

Ds1 was a late walker - over a year old, if I recall correctly (he's 15 now, so it's a while ago).

He's now a fine strapping lad, taller than me, with massive thigh muscles from all the time he spends cycling - we have to buy him trousers two waist-sizes too big and take them up just to get ones that will go round his thighs!!

He has a paper round, a hugely untidy bedroom, a vast appetite and is getting good grades at school.

Don't worry too much!

Ds2 is 19 months old and has been walking for 2 weeks.He sat late,didn't crawl til 14 months,but got there in the end,as the majority do.
He also doesn't say anything(except cat) and has no interest in trying to feed himself with a spoon/fork.
I'm not at all worried as each child will develop at their own pace,although I know it is very hard not to compare with others.
I certainly wouldn't be worried.Enjoy the baby stage as it's over far too quickly.

16 months old is not late to walk, it's completely normal, so try not to worry. My younger ds walked at 17 months and there's nothing whatsoever wrong with him. My older ds walked at 23 months and has low muscle tone and extreme hypermobility. At 16 months, he couldn't get himself to sitting, let alone roll over, bottom shuffle, crawl or pull to stand. If your daughter can already crawl, pull to stand and walk with a cart at 16 months, then there is absolutely nothing abnormal in her motor development so far, so give her a bit more time to walk when she feels like it before you start trying to push her into it. And for what it's worth, it's not so very bad having a non-walking child when the next one is born - there's a 19 month gap between my children, so my elder son couldn't walk until the younger one was 4 months old. The only real problems his not walking caused were that I found it a bit isolating when the other mothers arranged to meet in playgrounds and soft play areas at the stage when my son couldn't move around at all.

My ds1 is now 4 and 8 months and can run, jump and skip. In addition, he can read fluently, has a fantastic imagination, a photographic memory and a freaky ability at maths, including having taught himself his times tables because he's interested in number sequences. Maybe all those months of enforced sitting and lying on his back encouraged the development of more cerebral forms of entertainment!!!

I am sure you have lots of reassurance from these messages but to add mine, my DS bottom shuffled from 11 months, and didn't weight bear or crawl until 15 months. He walked at 18.5 months. We tried for ages to encourage him to take independent steps but he would only do it when he was completely ready.

If your DD is pushing a walker it will only be a matter of time while she gets more confidence.

am also pleased to read these posts as ds 2 is 13 months and doesn't crawl, doesn't even want to...

ds 1 did everything early so I find it hard that ds 2 is still not even crawling. He is the happiest baby you could ever want to meet though

My dd walked at 19mo. She knee walked everywhere, and didn't want to walk on her feet.

I found shoes helped tbh. When I took her out, and held her hand, and didn't let her knee walk, she stared to walk properly, as she soon learnt that knee walking in January was not a nice experiene. She still knee walked all over the house though

18 months old and counting. She can just about stand up, but is still nowhere near walking.

Midge - my dd the same as yours - wit the weight-bearing thing. She just stopped one day and went all floppy if we tried. She's fine though (but still not walking at 18 months, so you're prob not all that reassured!!!

Not read through posts so sorry if repeat.

Hi my DS did not walk until 17 months. They say it is good to have a decent 'crawling' stage to cement left hand and right hand brain connetions. Your back must be killing you!

I remember we were getting anxious - we realised he could walk and it was down his to confidence, but even after first steps it still took a while for hime to walk confidently.

Yes them were the days now I have to be very fast to chase him and try to keep hang on tight at all times!

I do believe I hold the mn record for late walkers. DD was 27mnths when she took her first steps unaided and 30mnths before she finally stopped bumshuffling and started walking consistently!

DDs paediatrician (who could find no reason for her delay) reccommended that babies be referred at 18mnths if not walking independently to check that they are developing normally in other respects.

Good luck, you'll get there.