Late walkers unite

[momo01]

DD is 16 months and still can't walk. She's cruising and can just about pull herself up in some circumstances.

Poor love is desperate to walk and play with her friends at daycare. She practises cruising and standing a lot there, and at home, but progress is slow. She gets really frustrated as a result, and we have a lot of tantrums.

The HV isn't concerned, and neither am I. I am, however, keen to know for those whose babies walked late, how late and how long after they started cruising? Tell me it won't be too long!

My Ds took his first tentative steps at 16 months and I would say was confidently walking at 18 months. He’s never been a child that does things quickly but has always got there when he is ready

16 months is hardly late. The average age for starting to walk is 15 months, so sounds like she’s doing fine. My first walked at 15 months but 2nd started at 17 months and still only walks occasionally (18 months now). He gets around fine though. It is frustrating for him because he doesn’t want to be stuck in the pushchair on days out, but I can’t always let him crawl around in the mud. We just plan days around time at home when he can get down and play and time out doing things his sister wants to do.

Sounds like she’s coming along and will walk soon though.

Thanks both! Hopefully soon 🤞🏼

Dd1 wouldn’t weight bear or crawl at a year, did a few steps at 18 months, but only walked properly at 21 months. Her sibling was similar, although she did crawl at 12 months, but second time I didn’t worry.

Both walk miles now!

My DS didn't walk till about 18 months. He was a very big, round baby, and also very cautious, so he preferred to crawl then creep, until he felt confident to walk. One day he just got up and walked and hardly ever fell over.

My ds was nearly two when he walked - he's 17 and runs for the county now.

DS 22 months, DD 21 months. I was 2.5 years before I walked my DB was 20 months and my Dsis 2 years. Ran (excuse pun) in the family I think!!

My DS was 17 months taking his first steps, and finally walked properly with no crawling at almost 19 months, about 6 weeks later. He was pulling to stand from 13 months and cruising by 14 months. So he was cruising for a good 3 months before taking his first steps! You have my sympathy, it's frustrating as the parent, I found it very limiting in terms of activities etc. She will get there though! And it's not unusual at all.

My twins were 23 and 24 months (days before 2nd birthday) they were prem and have hypermobility so there were reasons behind it but I remember being so frustrated for them (and also having really toned arms from carrying them) They are about to turn 6 and you really cannot tell now, they have caught up so well. They did have physio from about 19/20 months but HV wouldn't refer until 18 as that was still within normal.

Just to add they didn't even weight b are properly u til about 18m and cruised from about 19/20... They are actually better walkers as far as stamina goes than lots of their peers now...I was desperate to get shot of my tank like pushchair!

16 months is hardly late.

Objectively, it is. According to the WHO research:

• 10% of babies walk at 10 months and earlier;
• 50% of babies walk at 12 months and earlier;
• 90% of babies/toddlers walk before they are 14 months;
• 97% of babies/toddlers walk before they are 16 months.

www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/Windows.pdf?ua=1
(page 92)

My DD took her first steps on the day she turned 16 months. This puts her in the bottom 3% of all walkers which is significantly below average.

Most of late walkers (including my DD) have got some form of mild to moderate joints hypermobility. It is not a big deal and it should not have any long term impact. Most children fully catch up on the gross motor skills by the time they are 3 years old. However the period of leaning to walk can be frustrating both for the child and the parents.

DS1 started cruising at 8 months and walked at 16 months. DS2 started cruising at 9 months and isn't walking yet at 12 months, which I know isn't late at all, but just for cruising info. I think DS2 is close as he is not as reliant on the furniture as DS1 was at this age. He doesn't really cling on, he holds onto it for stability but he is supporting his own weight. He's just started walking using a walker toy (or chairs or anything he can find).

I was told 18 months is the cut off for late. 3rd percentile doesn't mean late, it's just at the later end of normal. If you think about it 3% is 1 out of every 33 kids, so a bit less than one in every primary school class will have been 16 months before walking.

The HV did suspect hyper mobility, but there wasn't a lot of 'so what' to that armchair diagnosis. I really hope she learns to walk before it gets too wet and cold - the park is a real saviour at the moment!

Oh my DS is hypermobile. Discovered this when he was 10 or something but I didn't know this was linked to late walking.

2 years 2 months and not yet walking although took a few wobbly steps. Hyper mobility probable although they seem reluctant to give any labels

Dd was 18 months when she took her first steps, and a fab walker now. 2.6 and does the 1.5 mile nursery walk twice a day no issues.

Thanks everyone for your experiences. Can you suggest some activities we can do?

We currently do:

• swimming - she loves it
• park - she loves it, but makes us drag her around and up and down the slide repeatedly 😐

We also go for lots of walks with her in the buggy or sling, but she loses patience after a while. There's also soft play, but because she can't move around independently, it's a real drag - literally - for us.

Am watching this with interest; DD is only 9 months but already miles behind all of her baby friends in that she can’t move at all but is desperate to. Had lots of tears at soft play today because her buddies were all crawling/walking off and she couldn’t follow them, poor love.

I was also told that she’d have to still be immobile at months and not walking by 2 years before they’d think of a referral in our area...

My DS was cruising from 13 months and took his first couple of independent steps at 14 months then went back to cruising until one day at almost 17 months he just walked across the living room. For him I think it was cautiousness as from that day he's been walking steadily.

DS1 didn’t walk independently until he was 16mo. He’s now 7yo, smashed his first round of dance exams and is aiming to audition for the Royal Ballet School Junior Associates next year. He is bendy - don’t know if that’s chicken or egg, though, because he’s had dance teachers pulling his legs in all sorts of funny directions since he was 4yo. I’m hyper mobile though, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

A friend of DS2’s was a non-crawling bum-shuffler until one day, when he was 21 months old and his mum was waiting for his name to get to the top of the physio waiting list, he just decided to get up and walk. His bum must have had enough of carpet burns He’s 4yo now and does parkour like a boss.

Re: activities to do. I think suggest you make sure DC has plenty of time on the floor or ground ... If they're stuck in a car or buggy they don't get a chance to walk.

DD started walking at 16.5 months - it seemed almost out of nowhere! She went from cruising to really confident walking in the space of a few days. I feel like as she was that much older and stronger she sort of skipped the wobbly toddler phase.

She is 2 now and so bloody fast I can barely keep up. Had to chase her down the road wearing nothing but a pair of wellies last week (her, not me!)

Pah, that's not a late walker! Neither of mine stood till 20 months or walked till 22 months.

Both talked pre-one though and haven't shut up since...

DS is 17 months and not walking yet, he has taken a couple of wobbly steps but he's not keen to try. He has been cruising confidently for a couple of months now.

Dd didn't walk until she was 22 months so I'm not overly worried but yeah it's frustrating when I take them out to places where it would be nice for him to be able to walk.