Not mobile at 15 months; getting worried

[bunnybunyip]

Hello all.
DS is 15 months old but was 2 months premature so is 13 months corrected. He is not mobile, not crawling/walking/bumshuffling or showing any signs that he will do soon. He has been referred to the physiotherapist by his consultatnt but the wait is ages. Has anyone been in this situation, is there anything else we can do, and what happened in the end?
Thanks alot

Does he pull himself up onto furniture? Reach out for toys? Roll over? Does he have anything he can push and walk behind? A lot of children never go through the crawling/shuffling stage (myself included, so I'm told) so that's not necessarily a worry. All you can do is keep encouraging him to reach out, stand up (with you holding his hands) and play stepping games and so forth.

My DD is 14 months and was 3 months prem so 11 months corrected. She isn't crawling/walking or bumshuffling either. She WANTS to, but can't! She rolls and can get herself on her front ready to crawl, but then can't crawl and just screams. She can walk if I hold her hands, and can take a couple of steps behind her walker, but only if I help push it. She can't pull herself up on furniture at all.

I saw a paediatrician today who says she's doing incredibly, considering her prematurity and he has NO concerns about her development! She was signed off by her physio before Christmas.

Hello,
He can stand supported but can't pull himself up (infact, can't get into a sitting position when lying flat, or lie down from sitting without falling over). He can't take any steps either. He does roll over but only with a great deal of encouragement.
Galena, it sounds like your DD is doing really well.

By the way Galena, what sort of things did the physio recommend (although I suppose it would be advice for a much younger child).

The physio was mainly working on rolling and sitting as she was doing neither at the time. However, we go to a health-visitor referred children's centre due to her prematurity, and they keep an eye on things. We're also working on 'transitions' as she can't sit up from lying or pull herself up. To help sitting up from lying, when lying on their back hold one foot down and pull them up using the opposite hand. They should use the 'loose' hand to prop themselves. We've been doing this for a few weeks, and we can now let her go a little earlier and she can sit herself up from there.

'Side sitting' is also encouraged, where the chld sits with one leg across in front of them, and the other leg has the knee near that foot, and the lower leg points the same direction as the first leg - hand can prop if necessary (that's a rubbish explanation!! If you can't figure it out I've taken a pic of DD side-sitting today to show the teacher at the group, so can put it on my profile if you ask).

She uses side sitting to get from sitting to 'ready to crawl' and then she should also use it to pull herself up.

HTH

Fantastic, thanks Galena. Makes perfect sense!
I have occasionally tried side sitting with DS and was a bit worried as it looked uncomfortable, but will now try it more often, thanks alot.

My children don't even have the excuse of being premature....but were v.immobile !! DD1 was bought a tunnel for her first birthday, but it wasn't until she was TWO that she could crawl through it !
DD3 didn't walk until 17mths, not even one step. By that point she'd started pulling herself up. No crawling there either, although she did shuffle a bit.

Needless to say neither of them will sit still now !

Hopefully in six months the situation with your DD will have changed somewhat !

Hiya bunnybunyip,
My DD didn't crawl until 15 months and also had trouble sitting until she was 1 yr old. She had physio from 3 months old and we worked on strengthening her muscles (she has low tone in her trunk area) by lots of kneeling exercises. She eventually walked at 20 months but still has a few physical problems - a bit flimsy on her feet compared to her peers bless her!!

Physio was useful though - hope you don't have to wait too long.

Just in case you wanted to check her out, I've put the pic of DD side-sitting on my profile.

Hello again
Thanks all,
mintyfresh I think my DS has the same problem with low tone in the trunk area; his arms and legs seem strong. How old is your DD now? What sort of kneeling exercises did you do?

Thanks galena for the photo, your DD is very cute. I have tried side sitting with DS this morning, but he is really not very happy about it!

Hi, bunnybunyip,

My ds1 couldn't even roll over at 15 months, let alone do anything else, except sit if put into a sitting position. He wasn't premature. Physio was absolutely fantastic - he was walking by 23 months. He started physio when he was 15 months old, so hopefully you won't have to wait too long. He is now 6 and most certainly on the less talented end of physical ability, although has excellent handwriting for a boy of his age, just to confound all expectations. He does have low muscle tone and also a mild connective tissue disorder, making his joints extremely hypermobile, which does make it very difficult to learn to move when you are little, because there's more than one way the knees, shoulders, elbows, etc, can bend, there's no stability in the hips or ankles and the muscles need to be very strong to stop the joints bending back in an unexpected direction (but building up muscle strength is difficult if you don't have stable joints, hence the viscious circle, delaying learning how to move about).

On the plus side, he is exceptionally academically bright - being very late to learn to move does not automatically mean you will be delayed in other areas. However, being late to move did affect his confidence and we are still working on that 6 years later...

ps once we'd taught ds1 to roll over (with the help of the physio), we taught him how to push back with his hands when on his tummy (with someone sitting behind him at first, to stop his feet slipping back as he pushed), allowing his knees to bend so that he could get up to sitting in a sort of kneeling position, then rescue his feet from underneath his bottom (generally by going into a sort of "W" position that most physios disapprove of as a permanent sitting position before straightening his legs out in front of him). Teaching him to be able to get himself to sitting like this was extremely liberating for all concerned! There was no way he was able to get himself to sitting any other way, because he still had head lag and a weak trunk, so didn't really have the stomach, back and neck muscles to get himself up to sitting from his back or side at first. Pulling himself to stand was another one that had to be worked on quite a bit, and he needed piedro boots to help give him the stability for this (orthopaedic boots) at first - it's quite tricky learning to transfer the weight effectively onto the leg that is doing the work to pull you up. That's why physio is so useful - as a lay person trying to work out how the body achieves actions you normally take for granted it is unbelievably difficult and frustrating, so very difficult to teach your child unless the physio has shown you how to do it, first, having assessed what the actual problem is that is holding your particular child back.

In other words, you need to keep chasing up on the physio appointments, hoping an appointment comes up soon so that you can at least be seen and given a few starting tips (even when you get to see the physio, there tend to be long gaps between appointments if they are busy, so you need to be given lots of things you can work on at home).

hi all, my ds2 was 3 weeks early, hardly premature and he didnt sit up until 12 months, never crawled and didnt walk until 17 months! he was just lazy but in his defence he had older brother fetching and carrying for him! having same prob now with speech. at 2 he didnt have 50 words so HV has refered him to speech therapist. he is now 2yr 4 mon and u can barely shut him up! oh yeah and we still havent had appointment for speech therapist! kids develop at their own pace and i think as time goes on they catch up and average out. good luck xxxxxxx

Hi bunnybunyip,
Kneeling is great for low tone in trunk - I would put her in the kneeling position with lots of toys to play with for short periods every day. I would also help her into a crawling position over and over again - eventually she got it and started to move!

Now she is older (she is 3) we use a gym ball and trampoline to help strengthen her trunk area. Like rabbitstew says - a physio will assess the issues and give you specific exercises but in the meantime you could try this website for good ideas and exercises for low muscle tone - www.skillsforaction.com/?q=node/22

Thanks again everyone, it has been really reassuring to hear your experiences and helpful to get some practical advice so we can feel like we are doing something whilst we wait.

Another thing to consider is giving him a greater awareness of his body and its position (proprioception). Massage with heavy pressure, move his joints while applying a little pressure (eg hold either side of the knee and push hands together gently while bending and straightening). Sing movement songs and do the actions. Etc