Walking and Feeding Themselves

[Jodee]

My 13 month old boy is not walking yet, although he pulls himself up on the furniture, but when we try to stand him up he refuses to put weight on his legs and carrys on crawling (which he is extremely quick at!). We are going abroad on hols when he is 15 months and were hoping he would be walking by then. I know it's said that girls are quicker than boys at certain things, but friends with boys say theirs were all walking before 12 months. Any thoughts?

He also shows absolutely no interest in feeding himself. He will hold a spoon and even crawls around holding one, but will not put the spoon anywhere near his bowl of food. I've tried loading up a spoon and handing it back to him, but it just gets emptied out onto the highchair/floor. I suppose I should be grateful that he is a good eater and is good with finger foods but does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks Lizzer, now the fun begins!

I've been reading lots of your replys and I can relate to how lots of you mums are feeling. My daughter also bottom shuffled at 1 years old. By 18 months she still wasn't standing or cruising. Lots of people I knew would say my little one walked at this age, and mine could do this or that. I really had to bite my lip most of the time. I was really worried and the doctor actually refered me to the hospital but thankfully it was all a waste of time because sure enough, when she was 21 months and 3 days old! She took those first and much awaited for steps. She is now 2 1/2 years old and she runs every where. My new worry is her speach which I also keep hearing how well others children could speak at her age. But this time I am definately going to ignore everyone who has something negative to say about my daughter and enjoy our time together because I know she will grow up so fast without me pushing her along all the way!

Zak - my son has just turned 2 and he only has 20 words. He does babble a lot and is trying to imitate more now. Speech development is very variable - you will know yourself if there are any problems.

Zak my husband didn't talk properly until he was about 4 apparently. His sister was the only one who could understand what he wanted for ages. He did end up being sent to speech therapy until he decided he'd had enough and refused to speak to the speech therapist (pre school). Now you can't shut him up for love nor money and there is certainly nothing wrong with his speech.
Looking at all the messages on this thread its clear how different every child is - I think you have a great attitude and I hope that I can do the same and relax about my baby's development .

My brother used to have his own language and only my sister and me were able to understand him and we used to talk for him when everyone asked him what he was saying. My mum would often ask him to repeat what he had said and we would butt in and repeat it for him. In his own time he decided to speak like everybody else.

I have to say a word here about competition. I always vowed that I would never be sucked into comparing my child or listen to others comparing theirs, but it is a different matter when you are taking your child to playgroups and whilst all the others are crawling/walking, yours is just sat there. She's now 1 and can walk with the aid of her walker. But she cannot pull herself up and only rolls reluctantly.

But I do get so tired of 'boasters'! My dh's sister-in-law really gets on my nerves for this, apparently her 1st child spoke 50 words by the time he was one, she knew this because she made a list of them all and showed them to my MIL. I'm always hearing of how clever he is. Now she has another baby, just a month younger than mine. Of course her baby was crawling by 6 months, and said 'flower' at the same time. She can stack tiny bricks and is doing things that a 3yr old can do (apparently). I know I shouldn't let it get to me but it just does!

Don't these people realise that parenting is hard enough without them making you feel inadequate?

Batters/LisaV you are both so right about the competition thing. My BIL and SIL go on and on like a stuck record about their two, no wonder I was so paranoid about when ds would be walking.
It's definitely an insecurity thing with SIL; she is constantly buying them toys, sweets etc as though it's her only way of guaranteeing that they will always love their mummy.

thanks for your reasuring replys. I have started trying to potty train my little girl. We only started on monday but its going so well. She has only had one accident and that was when I venture outr ofthe house without a nappy. I think I will just start it in the house for now. I was encouraged (or nagged) by some people that she should be out of nappys by now but I knew I din't have the time to be firm and consistent with it but now I am on the school holidays I have a whole 6 weeks to teach her. Fingers crossed it will go well.