Baby learning to walk is not a fan of walkers nor holding hands to walk. Is this normal?

[ThisAmberShark]

I take my 1 yr old to soft play and baby classes and always see little ones learning to walk by holding hands and/or using walkers. My DD will walk a couple of steps gripping tightly onto something or someone stationary but is disinterested in holding our hands or anything outstretched to help her. She can get to her feet leaning on something, and can "walk" about on her knees with no hand support.

Is this normal behaviour? She was early to crawl and seems to be very keen to learn motor skills by herself so could it just be another case of this?

She'll get there by herself by cruising along furniture etc and then slowly attempting to let go. Walkers etc aren't needed.

She’ll get there in the end

I would say so. One of mine hated ' help' ( and still does!), another spent what felt like months (actually felt like years )' hanging on' to which ever adult was nearest, even random people and dogs.

She’s at the cruising stage which is perfectly normal for her age. They all have their own way of doing things like one of mine never crawled but would walk holding hands at 9 months. They all get there in the end!

my DD Walker on her knees from around 11 months for around 4/5 months. Not interested at all on holding hands or cruising around the furniture. Could stand but no interested on walking like everyone else. Then one day out of the blue.. she stand up and started running around the living room.. and never walked on her knees again

It never even occurred to me to try to help my eldest to learn to walk by holding his hand or giving him a walker type toy. He cruised super early and then started to take steps on his own about 2 months later. I guess he was too small for hand holding to be comfortable for either of us and I didn’t feel like a rolling wagon would be safe on our floors (no carpets) and he was probably under the recommended age for them anyway.

Babies don’t need props to learn how to walk.
Their muscles have to strengthen and they intuitively do this by cruising,crawling and pulling funny poses.

please relax

Thanks for the input so far, everyone! I feel so out of the loop with the current parenting trends tbh. I personally don't think walkers are as amazing as people make them out to be, but it seems like every parent I come across with a baby of a similar age thinks I'm the weird one. 😂🤷‍♀️ same as the whole travel system vs smaller buggy and separate car seat trend.

I'm not worried about long term development, have just had a bit of HV hell the past year and apparently they're phoning me next month to check if her gross motor skills have caught up with her fine... only thing she wasn't able to do at 11 months gross motor wise was walk so 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Mine hated holding hands and had no interest in walkers. He just pulled himself up on everything solid - spent months cruising around the furniture, to the point we moved things around so he didn't get frustrated by gaps on his way to the kitchen 😂He started walking at 14 months, perfectly normal.

You don’t need to be in the loop with anything. If by walker you mean one of those toys with wheels on the bottom then there’s nothing wrong with them. Kids have enjoyed pushing toys with wheels about since the invention of the wheel! A walker, toy pram, toy trolley… anything. Nothing wrong with letting them push something about while they’re learning to walk.

Walkers should not be used

Mine prefers playing with the wheels whilst sitting 😂

Oh, 11 months is quite early to be walking anyway! Don’t worry about that. This NHS Scotland fact sheet says to contact your health visitor if your baby isn’t walking by 18months - and that still doesn’t mean there is actually an issue in a baby who isn’t walking by 18months, just that it’s a good idea to check out a few possible issues at that point so they can intervene early. I’ve met babies who only really started walking shortly before they turned two.

Never had a walker nor did the hand holding thing or anything else with DD. Very soon after crawling she started pulling to stand, then cruising, and eventually walked at 14 months to the day.
My friend’s little boy who is the same age as DD could do the hand holding thing, be put into standing and stand up unassisted from about 9 months, crawled months before DD… And they finally walked within days of each other so it clearly made no difference.
They need to build strength (which you see building more and more when you just leave them to figure it out themselves) and to be developmentally ready (and motivated).
I can’t understand the rush to get them walking when life is so much harder with a toddler running off and causing you stress from sun up to sun down.
Currently expecting number 2 and he can take his sweet time if you ask me 😂

My daughter refused to use walkers until she could walk independently 🤷🏼‍♀️

Never walked holding our hands. She was cruising furniture at 9 months didn't take a step until 14 months, ran the next day

Also fine 🤷🏻‍♀️

Totally normal. Remember that walkers are a very recent invention and independent streaks are as old as time. We did not evolve using wheeled contraptions to learn to walk. She's figuring it out for helpself

Mine never held hands or used a walker and walked early of their own accord. But even if they'd taken a lot longer I'd have just left then to figure it out unless they seemed to want my help.

Prepare for a lifetime of I can do it myself. Not saying that is a bad thing.

One of mine had the push along roller walker. Loved it, but couldn't turn, so would walk till he smashed into the wall, then yell until something turned him around. Was very pleased when he learned to walk properly and that was over!

Neither of mine like the walker (one of the wee carts that comes with blocks) – I don't think they liked the sense it could roll away from them. They didn't play with it until they were competent walkers and firmly in control of the cart's pace, but it's had years of use as a shopping trolley, baby buggy, general transporter of stuff (and small children!) since.