1 year old can support herself on knees

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My almost 13 month old is still showing no signs of crawling or walking. She can't seem to support herself on her knees either on all fours in the crawling position or just on her knees while holding onto something. If on her tummy which she hates she just splays her legs our flat. She can hold herself up against furniture but can't pull herself up from sitting or get from lying to sitting. The health visitor didn't seem too concerned at her checkup which was over 2 months ago but promised a follow up phone call at some point.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I know all babies develop at different rates but just wondering if I should be concerned about this and follow up with the health visitor myself?

Oops, title should be 1 year old can't support herself on knees

If she can weight bear standing up holding herself up on furniture I would try not to worry. Plenty of kids don't crawl at all. If you're concerned though, by all means speak to your health visitor, that's what they are for.

My anecdotal experiences:
DC1 - bum shuffled at 11 months, didn't crawl. Didn't actually ever really learn to properly crawl until well past 2. Walking at 16 months. No identifiable issues.
DC2 - both crawled and bum shuffled, but mostly crawled, from 12 months. Didn't walk unaided until 20 months, and is having some very light intervention as his mobility skills are obviously pretty delayed at 21.5 months. He has been diagnosed as having joint hypermobility in a few of his joints but nothing else underlying, although I won't lie that we are concerned (but he has some other behaviours/issues that add to this) and he is still yet to see an orthopaedic specialist, been waiting almost 4 months. He is under physio and orthotics and wears orthotic boots.

My son was a little slower to gain these skills and the health visitor was concerned at the time and scheduled another visit (18 years ago and she still never returned 😂).
A couple of weeks after her concerns he seemed to just flourish and was running around within the range of normal development (16 months)

If she can hold herself up against furniture, then she’s standing upright. So her legs are bearing her weight for a bit. My DD1 took a few steps at 14 months after quite a lot of shuffling around furniture. What does she do if she’s standing and you hold her hands? Collapse immediately or wobble a bit? Does she want to get a toy? My DD1 never saw the need to crawl much. When she got going with a step or two she kept improving. Anything up to around 18 months is quite normal for walking. 20 months, as above is quite late. A friends DD was 22 months but was SEN which was evident in other milestones too. I would not be worrying much at 13 months.

DD hated all of it. She started bum shuffling at 16 months, crawled at 19 months which was a surprise after the bum shuffling and walked at 21 months. Nothing wrong, she just took her time.

Thanks all for the reassurance!

She is still quite wobly when standing up against furniture and doesn't try to move. If I just hold her hands she pretty much collapses but can stand better with a bit more support like holding under her arms. She does try to reach for toys and the cat while sitting but never goes onto her knees, just sits and reaches as far as she can until she gets fustrated.

My eldest didn't crawl. She couldn't get to standing either. So there was a while when she could walk if you picked her up and put her on her feet but was totally stuck if sitting down!

Her brothers were totally different. Great crawlers, took FOREVER to walk.

You couldn't tell any difference by 2.5.

Keep an eye out for development being symmetrical and moving in the correct direction. Don't worry too much about the timing.

Hi OP, I've stumbled across your thread as I am experiencing the exact same thing with my DC (14 months) and I can't seem to find anything online about it, that is as similar as mine. I just wondered what happened next for you? my LO is seeing a physio in a few weeks finally but i'm worried, we're not even bum shuffling yet, just lots of frustration from him as he is desperate to move around.

My daughter started bum shuffling shortly after I wrote the original post but she didn’t walk properly until 2.5 years and has never four point crawled. We have been seeing the physio since 19 months (took ages of being dismissed by the HV and GP to get the referral) and we then went onto see the paediatrician and then neurology and genetics to investigate if there is an underlying cause but we still don’t have any answers. She has hypotonia (low muscle tone) and some hypermobility. She just turned 3 and is going great but is still very much behind in her gross motor skills and maybe a bit with her fine motor skills. She doesn’t appear to have other delays.

It’s hard to say at this stage whether your little one is just taking his time or whether there might be something else going on but there is no harm in getting him seen. The physio said my DD would have benefited from being seen much earlier as a long time bum shuffling meant her muscles didn’t develop in the right way for walking.

Thank you for updating! Yes being seen and treated earlier is sadly harder said than done! I took him privately to have his hips x-rayed a few weeks ago (I suspected hip dysplasia), and all was clear. I started to bring up my concerns at the 10/11 month review, and like you, dismissed. Still now, a few months on and no development, not even bum shuffling :(. It's very frustrating because all I want to do is help. Hopefully the physio in a few weeks will answer some questions, but I don't have high hopes.
You have reassured me though, I'm glad your LO is doing great. Thank you