15 month old not walking

[Fluffypeach]

My 15 month old daughter has zero interest in walking, won't walk holding my hands or anything but will walk along furniture etc quite happily. She also doesn't stand unaided unless she doesn't realise she has done it - she then panics and reaches for something.

Shes a very cautious little thing but compared to other babies i feel like she's quite behind.

She is a massive talker with about 30 words which is ace but I feel like I'm constantly defending her to people when they say "what do you mean she isn't walking yet?"

Arrghhhh i know it's probably nothing to worry about but is there anything i can be doing to encourage her?

My now 14 yr old DS was the same. I lost count of the pairs of trousers he went through on the knees!
He was also a talker, and seemed perfectly content to stay in one place or cruise rather than actually put any effort into proper walking.
It went on until he was almost two I think (can't remember exactly) but in the end I managed to get him referred to a specialist (had to wait for months) and typically the week of the appointment he finally started taking steps unaided. I kept the specialist appointment and she explained that that often children who speak early walk late. In addition he has red hair and apparently there's a genetic link between red hair and lax ankle joints which can make it harder to weight-bear. In addition recurring ear infections may have affected his balance (he later needed grommets for his ears).
I appreciate a lot of this may not be the same for your DD but I can relate, and all I can say is it will happen. You could also try GP or Health Visitor for a milestones chat/review if you're worried. Good luck x

Please don’t worry, I have 4 year old twins, one walked at 12 months the other at 18 months 😂

all totally normal

PS also brilliant about the 30words. She'll be using those and so many others once the not walking thing is a distant memory!

My son walked much later than this. Don't stress about it. She'll get there eventually :)

My DD was slow to meet every physical milestone, finally crawled at 12 months and walked at about 17 months, without ever cruising. I won’t lie, she’s not the most able sportswoman on the pitch at 13 but then neither am I and I walked at 9 months! Please don’t worry, I’ve no idea whether there is any way to speed this up, but don’t worry!

She's concentrating on talking instead. Ds2 wouldn't walk. He wouldn't even stand up, he would fold his legs into a sitting position if I tried to make him stand. He crawled for almost a year, he was 17 months when he suddenly got up and walked off as if he'd walked for months. He wasn't unsteady on his feet like my other 2, who both walked much younger. Don't worry about it. She'll be off before you know it.

She's perfectly normal.

My DD was 21 months! And she wasn't a great talker. You'd never know either now. She's 14.

DS was 18 months and wasn’t really saying anything either. He had a walker that he liked to use but had no interest in trying to walk unaided or even taking one step to reach the walker. One day when he was 18.5 months I was trying to clear up the spare room and pushed an exercise ball away and he just stood up and walked after it! I had tried all sorts and nothing had worked to encourage him before that.

Why would you need to defend her? As you said, she's a very cautious girl and propably will start to walk when she feels complitey safe. My baby girl is exactly the same. I saw other babies to walk early and falling all over the place. I much prefer this way;I know when she will start, she will be confident and safe.

My two walked at 16 and 21 months. It's very normal.

My dd was 18 months. The guidance is very broad. Don't panic

When people bring it up just say 'she'll do it when she's ready' and move the conversation along.

My two walked at 20 months and 24 months - I had a lot of people commenting. They are very healthy and happy children and I can barely keep up with them now!

As a few others have said @Fluffypeach mine walked later than your DC. One at 16 months and one at 17 months. This bloody stupid woman who was the MIL of a friend of mine tried to force my DD to walk (at 13 months,) because her grand-daughter was walking at 11 months, and she said 'it's not NORMAL for her to not be walking at 13 months!'

When my back was turned, she tried to force my DD to walk, by grabbing her and holding her up on the floor with her legs dangling... I grabbed my DD off her, as she tumbled over and cried when the dippy bint tried to make her walk. I said 'she will walk when she is ready!' I was fuming and didn't go to this friend's house again.

My friend's DD ended up with bandy legs for about 3 years, as her stupid fucking grandmother forced her to walk at 10-11 months.

IGNORE the haters and naysayers.

I didnt walk until I was around 2. Could hold a full blown conversation as I started to talk very early but didn't show much interest in walking.
My mom took me to the park and I wanted to try... she remembers me telling her let me tr my again every time I toppled over lol.

One of my sons didn’t walk or talk until at least 19 months …he was just lazy and had a big sister who did and said everything for him . He is absolutely fine .

My son has just started walking at 16 months, same as you walking along furniture then once he had confidence and knew he enjoyed being able to get around he was off. Eldest was same age walking too. I don't push them or anything just let them do it i their own time xx

Long time ago for me but my very lazy son didn’t walk until 18 months.

I do remember feeling very put out about it as most of his baby friends were walking by then.

We now seem to have gone full circle and he doesn’t walk at all because he’s engrossed in his PlayStation 😂

Your little one will catch up, I promise.

All the best.

My DD walked at 17 months and showed little interest up until the day she walked. She didn't really cruise along furniture or anything. I found I would only get comments about her 'delay' in walking from older generations. They all seemed to think baby's should walk by one. In my experience of baby/toddler groups etc it seemed that walking before one was quite unusual, and the average seemed to be closer to 15 months. Your daughter sounds perfectly fine, and like she's doing brilliantly with her talking!

I genuinely could have written your post 4 weeks ago. DD was exactly the same. At 16 months shes now walking with no sign of stopping. She was the same as you - no sign at all at 15 months, would refuse to stand unaided, scared any time she was and would panic.

I don't know what switched but about 15.5 months it just clicked for her.

We did sit and try and encourage her for 10 mins a few times a day - and a game changer was a push along walker/wooden pram which I think helped get her the confidence

Identical to DS. He too is very cautious by nature. Spoke much earlier than average and walked later than average (having never crawled). He finally plucked up the courage to let go of the furniture one day at roughly 16-17 months. It’s funny, at his 1 year check he looked quite delayed due to lack of gross motor skills. By 2 he looked very advanced due to how good his speech and social skills were. If you generally have no other concerns, they really do all even out in the end.

Don't worry, it's not considered late for walking until 18 months. Mine walked at 16m / 15m / 15m. It hasn't held them back at all.

My 3 walked at 10 months, 17 months and 15 Months. You'd never know the difference now!

The middle one in particular had no interest and was on the later side with pretty much everything. He's 18 now and totally normal

My DD is exactly the same. She can speak in full sentences at 20mo but can't stand up.

Thank you all so much for your reassurance - I really was beginning to (be made) feel like I had cause for concern!