my 17month old dd has no desire to stand alone or try to walk-any advice?

[curlygirl]

My dd is almost 17 months old and happily cruises around the furniture and climbs on and off it and up it. However, she seems completely averse to letting go or trying to walk. She seems to have strong legs, so I'm sure she is ok but everyone keeps asking me "Isn't she walking yet? Mine were all walking by now", and the red book asks if you are happy with your childs walking at 18 months. I just don't think she is going to be doing it by 18 months as she doen't seem to want to walk at all. When we encourage her to walk by holding her hands, she lifts her legs and dangles. We bought her a push along trolley with bricks but she sits on it or stands on it, she never pushes it along. Is there anyone out there who has had a similar experience as I am starting to wonder if we should be doing something else to encourage her.

I can sympathise with you entirely on this as I too had a late walker. DD was also cruising at 17/18 months but it wasn;t until 20 months that she was walking unaided. The good things from your perspective is that she is weight bearing and is cruising...so really..it'll just be a matter of time before she launches out on her own. They all unfortunately, like to do things at their own pace!

One thing we did find however was that dd would not use the trolley with bricks as a walking aid. For some reason - maybe weight related - it always seemed to 'run away' from her and so made her very apprehensive about using it. What did work very well for us was one of those minature kids buggies / pushchairs - think they cost about £5 from Early Learning Centre. As soon as she got one of those, she was very quickly off and walking and progressed very quickly to walking unaided.

hi my 3rd baby didnt walk till 15 months and is still wobbly,had everone saying is he still not walking ect but i knew he would when he was ready,anyway makes thyem seem babys for longer when they walk later,my sisters kids walked at 9months,my other 2 where 11m&13m

Why walk when you can be carried??!!
She'll do it when she's ready. My daughter didnt walk until she was 18 months. It was almost as though she was waiting until she could do it properly because when she first did it she took 22 steps!! We wondered if she'd been practising in secret.
All babies are different. I've had 3 none of whom walked until they were 15 months or older (still waiting for third to get going). It doesn't matter if your friends' children were walking, talking and potty trained at 9 months - by 5 most children can all do exactly the same things.

If you are concerned though, you should speak to your GP/Health Visitor.

Thanks Handbagaddiction ,
I will definitely give that a go. I keep telling myself to chill out and she will do it when she is ready, but everytime I see family or friends they make a comment and I just wish she would hurry up and do it to shut them all up.

Thanks everyone, I just needed some reassurance Ithink. She does still seem like a baby compared to other toddlers we know, she is little and cute, and crawls like speedy gonzalez! I have a feeling that she will just go for it one day, well I hope so anyway.

DS was a little earlier in walking (15 months) but still later than most of his contemporaries.

He too loved crawling and did it so fast I don't think he could see the point in trying to walk.

He's 28 months now and still going fast , but running now

I don't know of any adults who are still crawling, so I presume all babies will walk when they're good and ready.

Good point.

Curlygirl I don’t know if you just want “it’ll be OK” type reassurance or really want to know what we think.
The thing is, the parameters of “normal” development are there for a reason and if a child is not meeting them, yes it should be looked at.
I get fed up with people saying “well, all children walk into school/none of them are wearing nappies” (for example) as that’s just not true! It’s also unhelpful if there is a real problem.
I have quoted this before but a colleague has a DS who wasn’t walking at 18mo. Oh never mind said everyone. Same thing at 2, at 2.5 not really walking very well. He’s 6 now and yes he can walk, but not excellent, has general motor delay, not good with stairs etc. There are other things going on too, there is a general dealy, and I’m sure this is not the case with yr dd curlygirl, it’s just that I wish someone had said to the mum at 18 mo that she shold see HV or GP and ask for some physio. I’m sure it would have helped.
A child who is not walking at 17 mo is still within normal development, which iirc is 9mo to 20mo. If she cruises and therefore takes her weight that’s a good sign. OTOH I would be inclined to take her to see my GP/HV is you have a good one just to set yr mind at rest. And keep an eye on it.
HTH to show I am nice really!

My ds1 was a late-ish walker at 16 months. BUt my friends 2 children both walked at around 18 ish months. There is nothing wrong with them and they are fine. Just didn't want to walk any earlier.

DD2 was a bum-shuffler and didn't walk until she was 22 months! I was at my wits end and fed up with comments like 'you're lucky...they're less trouble when they're not mobile'. She took no weight at all on her legs and would pull her feet away from the floor.

I've tried everything, and the bottom line is, they have to do it when they want to, any there is nothing parents can do to chivvy them along. DD1 walked at 12 months and was treated no differently.

Good luck. If she's taking weight and climbing, I'm sure it won't be much longer.

Clary - You make good points, but I don't think my dd has motor delay. She has very strong limbs and practically stands alone but always has a hand on something for reassurance. She pushes her feet to move her trike and also tries to climb up the bookcase behind our sofa (we need eyes in the back of our head don't we?). She is quite advanced in other ways, and very independant so I am not concerned that there is something wrong with her. I just don't think she wants to walk. I was really looking for any ideas to encourage her to try really, and to see if she was not hte only one. Thanks to everyone for their help. I am thinking of taking her to tumble tots after easter so that might help.

The daughter of a friend of mine didn't start to walk on her own until she was 2yrs and 2mths. She would cruise along the furniture but would not let go to take that first step. Her Health Visitor lent her one of those ELC walking mats, that lights up and makes a noise when you step on it, and got my friend to encourage her to use it (she did start crawling on it first, then stood on it while holding onto hands). This did seem to help, along with a walker toy. But in the end, she started walking when she wanted to.

As my big sis told me when I was worried that my DD at 18mths didn't say as many words as her friends, why worry about what age they can walk and talk, as long as they can do both when they get to school-age no-one is going to care when they achieved those milestones.

ds1 never walked until he was nearly 2 I think
he never crawled neither, just shuffled on his behind
once he was up though that was it
no stopping him

your dd will soon be running around

Hi my ds did start to walk at 13mths but prior to that he had been cruising confidently for months and so we expected him to be walking alot sooner then he did. We found that as ds got older he became more weary of things and wasnt confident to let go as he knew he could fall. A few times he would get distracted and would let go, realise what he had done and then freeze to the spot.

We decided to take him to a play gym class for toddlers. There he saw loads of children around a similar age walking around freely and he must of thought i wanna do that because the following day he took his first few steps.Children learn an awful lot from other childen.

I was also advised not to use a sit in baby walker and also when they are learning to walk not to hold their hand but to hold them by the waist.Because then they are always reaching out to hold something when they do take steps. Plus just try and use distraction. Its obvious that your dd can prob do it just doesnt see the need to as she can cruise around quite confidently.I would speak to the h/v just for your peace of mind.

curlygirl
that sounds great actually, she clearly has good gross motor skills.
My ds1 was a lateish walker, he was 16.5 mo.
Once he started walking I took him to a baby gym class run here and although he never excelled in the way ds2 has, he tried so hard and enjoyed it and I am sure it did him good. So tumbletots would be a good idea.
Also any other activity to get her moving - football in the garden, going to the park, encouraging her to move alone by putting thecruising furniture further apart etc.
Hope you have some steps soon!