Toddler not walking, almost 20 months - anyone else?

[SunflowerLyd]

We are seeing a pediatrician on Monday to explore the fact my LG is still not walking, and to be honest, I'm so worried about what the possible outcomes could be, if any. She can cruise, and stands with support but can't walk or stand independently yet. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and what was the outcome? TIA x

My girl didn't walk or stand independently until 18 months and I was trying not to stress. However, she did walk a lot with a little block truck thing. Then, overnight she decided she would try walking unaided and was off.

If your little is cruising, that's a great sign and they'll likely be walking soon, just in their own time. But it's stressful!

Funnily enough I met up with someone who I knew when my own DC were younger. My DS was walking very early 9¾ mths but her DD didn't walk until after her 2nd birthday..
Like your DC she cruised but wouldn't let go of the furniture.. She was also a very fast crawler!
Anyway we were catching up and she was telling me how worried she was about it all but eventually her DD was running around and riding her bike just like her playmates.. I think she was diagnosed with hyper mobile joints.
Good luck and try not to worry too many..the fact she is cruising is good..

My eldest was like this and my youngest is now too. Both have hypermobility. Just takes them longer to hit milestones like this and then you’d never know. In fact the oldest is so flexible it helps her in her ballet class!

if she’s cruising then there’s not going to be anything worrying going on. She’ll get there soon.

The fact that she is cruising is a hopeful sign that she will walk soon.

My daughters timeline was a lot slower, cruising around 24 months, first steps at 28 months and walking without encouragement at 30 months. She has hypotonia (low muscle tone) but we don’t have any further diagnosis. The paediatrician recommended some blood tests and basic genetic test (microarray) but all have come back normal so far.

Does she crawl or is she a bottom shuffler?

My oldest was just over 20 months when he took his first unaided steps. He runs everywhere now.

I was older, closer to 2. No issues, no hypermobility etc, we just took a bit longer to get there.

I was 2, DCs all 18 month plus. None of them hit their sitting etc milestones and we were on the HVs list.

i have EDS and then all variants of hypermobility. Also bloody- minded, all three just one day got up and walked perfectly, it was like they waited until they could do it properly and that was it. Ditto talking.

They are now big teens /young adults and it makes not a jot of difference.

Do you know if you or the dad were late sitters /walkers etc ? it does tend to run in families.

My DD did not walk until 21 months ish. She is now 10, fit and healthy and does 3 different sports a week. Don’t worry, not all children develop at the same rate.

We were told it is unusual for child not to be capable of walking unaided at 18 months and it is importsnt to check if anything else is going on.

For us, at 18 months one of our children could walk - if they cruised to the end of the sofa and were distracted (eg watching tv) then they would carry on for a couple of steps beyond the end of sofa before realising and dropping down to crawl - but chose not to (they would drop to a crawl as soon as they realised not holding on). They discovered the joys of walking when we were on holiday in a caravan when they were 21 months. I think everything was so close together they just didn’t bother to get down to crawl. They did have other signs of global delay and additional speech delay on top (severe glue ear didn’t help) and we did see a child physio (who had no concerns) and a paediatrician (who also had no concerns). They hit all their milestones in a typical order, just late. For us, there was no underlying issue and by the time they were at secondary school, they totally caught up. Speaking with family, we do have a massive family history of this along with high academic achievement in those that had the developmental delay. My personal pet theory is they’re busy developing other things that are less measurable in their brains first.

All the best with your appointment on Monday.

DD1 didn't walk until almost 20m. She's nearly 4yo now and her gross motor skills are not quite up there with her peers but she does manage to keep up most of time - she is just very clumsy in comparison.We recently had a physio appointment where they said she is likely hypermobile but they'll wait a little longer before formally diagnosing. We are just concentrating on lots of opportunity for physical play, swimming, ballet, going to the park etc to build up muscle strength. Hope all goes well at your appointment and hopefully your DC is also just a bit of a late mover.

My DD didn’t crawl at all, and started walking a month before her third birthday. The NHS here were aware and supportive and tried to reassure me that they don’t get too concerned unless it’s after their third birthday.
She also didn’t use a slide until she was five.
She’s the most amazing DD, loves swimming and horse riding and you wouldn’t know now to look at her at all.

Thank you so much everyone, your responses have all been massively reassuring. It's so good to know I'm not alone with DD and that she'll (hopefully) catch up soon .. x

Thanks for sharing. That’s so encouraging! I
was just wondering how your daughter was doing by the time she started school? Had she mostly caught up or still struggling with physical things? Was she able to walk to school and do PE with her classmates? I was so relieved when my DD started walking at 30 months but I’m worried she won’t be ready for school as she’s still nowhere near being able to use stairs or run or jump and we haven’t attempted potty training yet as she has only been walking a few months. What age did your DD start horse riding?

@wishIwasonholiday10 By the time she actually started school she had come on leaps and bounds, yes she wasn’t ever the fastest careering round the playground but she was happy and included and never felt behind in any way. She managed slides etc once her core strengthened, but had no interest in them before - as if she somehow knew.

Her physiotherapist prescribed three main things to help - yoga, swimming and barrback horseriding as the warmth and balance is second to none. So we started daily yoga, school did it during term time and got whole class involved, swimming each weekend and bought ourselves our lovely cob pony that we all now ride. I never thought I’d learn bareback riding in my late 49s! She was 4 when she started riding.