DD is 2 on Wednesday and still not walking

[mummytomatildaandrose]

My DD is 2 on Wednesday and is still not walking - the poor child has had a reason for this slow development which was completely blocked ears due to glue ear - this has now been sorted out with a grommet and adenoid operation about a month ago. The problem now is getting her confidence up to walk by herself. She walks perfectly when pushing her baby walker, and she goes from furniture to furniture, but she just will not stand or walk on her own. She gets into this huge panic - I assume because she is old enough now to realise that if she falls, it might hurt. The other problem is that she is teething with her second molars, and she is trying to talk, which was also delayed because of her ears. Has anyone else had experience of this, and if so, any tips for increasing her confidence so that she can get on and be a happy walking toddler like her friends! Thanks!

I would chat this through with HV. It seems like she is physically able, so maybe not big issue there, just a confidence thing. A friend of mine's DS was not even cruising at 18 months and HV refered him for physio. Turns out he was perfectly able, just lazy.

Sounds like a confidence thing to me. Have you and another person tried taking a hand each so she walks in a more upright position rather than leaning forward onto the walker. Then gradually lighten your grip so that she can balance more on her own and slowly reduce her dependence on the hand holding. She sounds fine to me just a bit scared of tumbling - perfectly reasonable!

My DD has a brain malformation (we didn't know at the time) and walked at 23 months.

What we did was have 2 of us sitting about 30cms apart, hold DD1 under the armpits, and 'pass her' across.

Then we would clap her.

Then we sat about 40 cms apart, and again 'passed her' so that she also had to take a step, with us holding her under her armpits.

We simply continued this for days and days and days, then one day she did the step on her own. Huge applause, she went from there.

I think talking and walking are both huge milestones, to be tackled one at a time! It does sound as though she's playing catch-up, and will just take her time...confidence sounds like a very likely key, but so does time.

Its hard when they're not quite walking yet, isn't it? Frustrating for them and very hard work on parental arms and backs

Both mine walked late.