My baby not walking independently at 16.5 months...

[UnsureIsMyMiddleName]

My daughter stands very confidently, cruises around furniture, can take steps with support and happily pushes things along — but she just refuses to do it independently except for the occasional few seconds here and there. She’s been at this stage for about a month now.

Has anyone else had a baby like this? What were they doing right before they finally started walking? And if they were later walkers, did they suddenly start walking confidently straight away?

I watch her and genuinely think she physically can walk, but it’s almost like she just doesn’t want to take the risk or let go properly yet

Mine both went from cruising to walking very confidently overnight-but VERY late- maybe 17 months? Can’t remember exactly. It’s hard not to worry, but try not to. I was lucky in that my mother was very relaxed about this sort of thing. She used to say that babies should wear T shirts saying “This Grows Up Automatically!”

It feels as though there is a race to have your child walk as early as possible. Both of mine were late walkers, DS didn’t walk until he was two, he just launched one day and was steady on his feet. GP wasn’t bothered at all.

Dd1 was on the later side of walking. It did worry me. Dd2 was as well but as she was my second I was very content for her to stay where I put her!

DD was at the end of normal, hypermobile so trickier and possibly painful. All kids are bendy young though so you can't necessarily tell yet. It runs in families. (She got it off me)

My DD didn’t walk until 19 months 🤪. I should have guessed she’d be a bit slower in this department as she didn’t roll until 10 months and didn’t crawl until 13 months! It was excruciating waiting for her to hit these mile stones and I was constantly worrying. once she walked a few times, she wouldn’t stop and very quickly got good at it.
I know it’s hard, especially when others their age are doing these things, but if she is walking aided, I imagine she’ll get there soon!

Thanks everyone, this is all very reassuring to read. It doesn't help that my brother had a daughter the same time as me and she done everything super early lol.

This literally sounds like my experience

One of mine was late, 17mo I think. She did this hopping on her knees thing and I think she felt like she was walking. I also think she may be hyper mobile and wonder if that played a part. Once she started walking she was quite slow to become confident as well.

Also, she was a massive talker. I think sometimes they prioritise one area of development and another goes v slowly.

Just to say that walking at 16/17 months isn’t considered late.

Late walking is defined by the NHS as 19+ months for babies who crawled and 25+ months for bottom shufflers! 😊

Mine was exactly the same - identical. She finally decided to walk 'properly' at 19 months.

My eldest walked at nearly 17 months months and my niece walked at 20 months.

I remember when whole walking thing being the most annoying baby milestone in terms of having to suffer other people's unwanted opinions, so stay strong!

Try and walk her around holding on to both your hands as much as you can to build muscle tone and normalise walking for her, but beyond that I'm sure she'll do it when she's ready.

Mine too! At 18 months he was the fastest crawler anyone had ever seen. People would comment and if say "yeah. He's been doing it for a year - of course he's fast!"