Clumsy toddler hitting face, learning to walk

[OlderthenYoungerNow]

Hi all

My baby is a late walker. She just started taking steps at 15 months and will be 16 months in less than two weeks. She is getting further, but still not steady and can't really control what direction she's going in. Can't turn around really and just likes going quickly until she can fall into the sofa, or my arms or something.

When she falls, which is a lot, she keeps falling flat on her face and has been crying her lip or getting bruises on her eye sockets (she fell into the corner of her little ikea wooden table the other day).

I don't know if this normal - ftm with a pfb - because it seems every day there's at least one trip which makes her bleed or get a bruise or cut or something.

Google it,obviously,and she could have sensory processing disorder or something like that?

Help. And sorry. I'm neurotic.

Well, they might have that, but there isn’t a day goes by when my 2.5 year old doesn’t knobble himself off something and his 2 older brothers were exactly the same.

What you’re describing is completely and utterly normal

Okay. Just the answer I was looking for. I hate seeing her bleed and thought surely they must learn to stick their arms out to break their fall? She likes walking holding something so possibly doesn't think to use her arms as a result.

DD1 was born in Switzerland, The paediatrician at one of the normal visit, when noticing she was starting to take her first steps, said to us "Congratulations, please buy these at the pharmacy next door as there will be months of bruises" and he gave us a script for Arnica in pills and gel.
Moving a body is natural to you, and bloody hard work for a toddler. Maybe don't let her go so fast, because when she is in the momentum of the movement, it is hard to stop and turn. Teach her to walk slower if you can.

I have been trying but I'm not sure how to practically do that. She seems to want to set off from standing to running. I hold her hips and say 'get your balance first' or say things like slow down but she doesn't seem to care! What can I do. I have been taking her hand previously and walking with her but my mum said that's why she hadn't learnt to walk yet because I was holding her hand too much 🤷‍♂️

That is not true. I hold hands a lot more with my first child as I was crazy anxious and he walked at 11 months.
Hold one hand again and teach her to walk, because it seems to me she is more throwing herself than walking and then cab't control her legs. Remove obstacles and childproof your rooms to avoid serious accidents

OK. Good advice. I will do this. Thank you.

My boy walked early. We are now very comfortable with him smacking his head, falling over etc. Childproof what you can and let her cruise/ wobble. There is a backbreaking stage of walking holding hands, it doesn’t delay walking! Enjoy :D

Quick question, is she quite flexible? Sometimes children are late walkers cause they are hyper mobile, these means that they can be extra wobbly when up on their feet!

If it helps ds who is not hyper mobile walked at 11 months (9 months corrected) and he no sense of direction, for around month would only walk in really short bursts and was unable to stand up independently, always crawled to something to pull himself up on.

Did she bottom shuffle? Or crawl? I think Ds went down to his knees when he fell, as a crawler he would naturally put his hands down, i don't remember any face plants.

She's a crawler and she is quite flexible. She doesn't always face plant, but it is at least once a day.

I found her playing with our emergency torch in the hall the other day, staring into it for ages and now I'm just assuming she's probably blinded herself. How can you tell when it's normal anxiety or ott anxiety? I'm bloody struggling with all this!

Re anxiety: when it’s intrusive and interfering with your life? I did get diagnosed with mild generalised anxiety after a run of things. One symptom that pushed me to go to the doctors was having a disproportionate reaction to mildly stressful events. They usually use a checklist, I’m sure you might find online. But if you’re really struggling then maybe you do need a bit of help? For me it was enoughto have someone medical saying ‘yes it is actual anxiety’ and then I could start to address it.

That's helpful. Thanks reetgood

Can she stand still not holding on to anything? Or does she let go of something, walk fast and then crash? If she can’t stand still without holding on, that may be a sign she doesn’t have good core stability (which could be due to several things).

She can stand still and does if she's looking at or listening to something that is interesting enough. She mainly just wants to run around though! She's a bit full on, and likes to play roughly and doesn't really play nicely. Books get ripped, toys get thrown all over the place... Should I be worried?

Sounds more like personality than something physical! Get to know the route to A&E I have one like this and she’s a liability...

Mine was like this too, and I had the same worries! It seemed all other babies plopped down onto their bum and mine would just topple like a plank! You get used to the bruised face and they do eventually get more stable.

They do smash their heads and faces a lot for a while! If you can childproof the room where you spend the most time as much as you can with all the rubber covers on corners, move tables, big fire guard etc then tumbles in the designated areas can't do too much damage.

When you're outside have you tried some reins? I use them when we're outside to catch my 18 month old when he trips - they have definitely saved him from a lot of face plants!