Any ideas why my son can't walk?

[blacksheep2014]

Deeply unreasonable to ask an Internet forum but will let me talk it through while we wait for the physio appointment.

DS is 21 months old, 75th centile for height, 91st weight. He has about 15 reliable words and lots of animal noises, he cruises, weight bears, goes up and down stairs and can crawl at lightening speed, he He holds his right foot at a 90 degree angle out the way the vast majority of the time. His right ankle feels very flat to me, no ball on the inside or outside that i can feel. A few sensory issues and some flapping but nothing that would push me to act except the fact he will not walk.

In the last two weeks he has begun to walk holding hands and also does this funny hands and feet on the ground bear crawl but still with both or at least the right foot pointing out.

Mummy is trained in childcare and starting to panic. What could it be mumsnet?! Have been referred to physio by health visitor but she hasn't seen him for 6 months. Expecting appointment in the next two weeks.

Physio you have appt
and Ask gp for paediatric referral to check Everything
How was birth history etc?

Hi cestlavielife, thanks. I will also contact my GP.

Birth was difficult for both of us, Emergency C after 47 hours, pain meds made him a bit sleepy but we both recovered well.

I had this sort of late walking with 2 of mine. We got referred to paediatrics both times, so I would push for this. The flat feet was a feature of both - low muscle tone and hypermobility in both cases. They did then turn out to be autistic by the way. With one child we just went to physio a few times. With my first they checked for various genetic issues like muscular dystrophy. I suspect he has dyspraxia alongside his autism but they don't diagnose that here for reasons...

Thanks corksoles! It's just good to hear I'm not going mad, fed up hearing that he's 'lazy' or will walk when he really wants/needs to

He is 21 months and you haven't been referred to anyone ?
There are a myriad of reasons why he can't walk but you need physio involvement asap . If his foot turns in that will need addressing and you can get walkers to help

My son has SN and was predicted not to walk but early intervention and me taking no for an answer means he does walk ( and run) now
Please don't waste anytime and as k for referrals asap

Hi there, thanks. It's great to hear that there are things that can be done. I've been in constant touch with his health visitor since 15 months, they wouldn't do anything until now as he's had early intervention for speech 15 to 19 months and that's coming now. The physio referral was done 2 weeks ago and we're just waiting. I'll push the GP for Paeds now too

Ask for a referral for a developmental paediatrician.

My son has a 'misspelling' on his X chromosome and these mispellings are surprisingly common and not picked up by any pre natal tests .

They present with a myriad of issues and each child is affected slightly differently .

I'm amazed a referral wasn't given for his foot turn alone though ! Yes they sometimes correct themselves but a health visitor isn't best placed to tell you if that's the case for your child .

Yeah, his foot turns out, right one more than left, but both at times, always been told it will correct itself but kicking myself now.

@blacksheep2014 go easy on yourself.
Post birth Public health nurse (HV) noticed unequal thigh lines on my baby's thighs so referred for physio which came back fine.

We noticed during cruising that baby had an outwards turn in her right foot and was a bit sluggish lifting it. This meant no proper walking until around 13 months. She was well ready to walk but unable to pull the feet.

We got physio referral, saw a paediatric orthopaedist (who insinuated that I'm being unreasonable due to my older two walking around 10/11 months. Baby took full steps at the doctor's office and made him look like he's proved his point.
My point is not to blame yourself for not doing anything, I did and was made to feel like I'm making a big deal out of nothing.
My toddler is 3, walks but is slightly unsteady. Keeping an eye at the moment.

I should add that the turn is much better now than previously.

I was about 22 months old apparently, never really crawled either. Some children do fall outside of the 9-18 months window for walking and are fine. It could also be a minor issue like some hyper mobility (dsd has this, late walker). You are right to get into the system but please don't be unduly worried because they do develop differently. My eldest is autistic and very very late talking, her dsis seemed to be the same and hit 2.5 not speaking, lots of medical professionals about to diagnose her and .... she just started speaking, no concerns at all and she is grown up.

DB didn't walk till he was 2.5 years. He's in his 50s now and a fully functioning adult. He is on the waiting list for an autism diagnosis and I suspect he is is dyspraxic since he could not tie up his shoe laces until after he started at secondary.

Thanks for balancing this up a bit guys, I myself was a very late walker but have issues with my eyes and depth perception. Hypermobile and dyspraxic too so that could be it. I'll update once we've seen the physio and ask GP for paeds referral. Thanks again

I presume you have had his eyes tested? My son had glasses from 18 months which probably didn't help but wasn't the cause of his late walking

My DS2 was like this. His father has turned out feet and he does too. Saw a paediatrician and she diagnosed flat feet, low muscle tone, hypermobility (does he sit with legs in a capital M shape? - classic sign). Does he pronate when weight bearing ie to his ankles roll forward so he's on the inside of his feet?
He WILL walk, it might just take longer. DS still has flat feet that stick out but he's OK at sports etc - no significant problems. He does have ADHD and IBD and I do personally think brain/bowel/loose joints/low muscle tone are all connected in some way.

This rings so many bells in my head, he does the m shaped sitting and sits cross-legged an awful lot of the time. Also yes-yes to the ankle rolling. Thanks for sharing, he's so close to walking sometimes and can stand but with the feet turned out just can't manage.

So the possibilities are (in order of what I guess are most to least likely):

1. He's just destined to start walking a bit later.
2. He has a specific but essentially benign musculoskeletal variant (hyper mobility tendencies are one example that's holding things up a bit, he'd get to walking eventually but specific exercises could help thing along.

...9. specific neuromuscular disorder that's significant (cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy would be examples).

GP/HV services tend to refer to hospital based services if not walking past 18 months to get the ball rolling, unfortunately their capacity for routine reviews has really been cut to the bone hence yours is overdue :(

Neither of my two children walked until they were almost two. Both were diagnosed with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) that wasn’t picked up at birth

Hypermobility does often run in families. I was a late walker (23 months) and have diagnosed EDS. Dd also has EDS and was a late walker.

edited, sorry I misread and thought you weren’t going to be seen for six months.

This is super helpful. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Thank you everyone, I guess I just needed to hear I wasn't overreacting

If you feel something is wrong then I'm a massive advocate of mum knows best.

My ds walked quite early but started toe walking around 8 (major red flag!) and struggled to walk as far.

He has autism so they blamed toe walking on that and I argued that autistic kids that toe walk often do it from learning to walk.

Anyway turns out my ds has a rare genetic fault and a rare neuromuscular condition.

It's very unlikely to be that but if you feel something is wrong and not quite as it should be keep fighting.

Early intervention is the key with most things whether developmental or neurological.

There's very few conditions that intervention won't help with (Ds') but knowing the diagnosis helped get him the support he needs.

Just updating in case anyone stumbles across this in a similar situation.

Physio reviewed DS today, nothing to be concerned about and nothing overly unusual in the way he cruises, knees a little bit flexible but they're sure this will correct and he will walk, just taking his time and giving me sleepless nights!

That's great news. I've been checking for an update.

I'm sure he'll be disappearing off every time you blink before you know it!

Hey guys. An update here.

DS is now 23 months and still can't walk. He has made some progress since my OP, he will comfortably walk holding one hand, will stand with his back to the sofa and reach out to us and he stands unsupported for a few seconds when distracted.

Physio has now reviewed him twice at home and has now said we should gently correct him when he's standing on tiptoe. She's going to see him again in 6 to 8 weeks when she expects he will be walking

He still flaps regularly (10 plus times a day) but only really when excited, he gets slightly fixated on certain toys, his cars or most recently standing all his giant chalks on end but doesn't get frustrated by these activities which can easily last 30 mins.

He has certain sensory things he won't tolerate, but they're very specific, like butter on his hands or, at the moment, long sleeves and gets very upset and makes a gagging/crying noise until they're removed.

He doesn't consistently respond to his name but we're certain this isn't a hearing issue, more like if he's doing something you can wait your turn 😂.

He's content, sociable, makes tonnes of eye contact and shows good fine motor skills as well as he can climb like a monkey and loves physical play.

My health visitor doesn't seem overly concerned, I pushed for a paeds referral but was told children aren't seen for these issues before 2.5.

You guys were so good last time, any idea what (if anything) I should be doing? I can't shake that gut feeling that there's a trick I'm missing.

Mine didn’t walk she was hyper mobile