Was your 35-36 weeker behind developmentally?

[acaciabluebell]

My little girl was born at 35+6 (so almost 36 really). She's now 11.5 months, nearly 1 and she seems a bit behind physically. She has only just in the past week learnt how to get herself into a sitting position from lying down and literally in the past few days she has started pulling to stand. Many people say that their babies did this from 7-8 months and by 11 months many babies are already fully walking.

She also doesn't crawl properly and only army crawls, she started this at 10 months which is also a bit late I think.

Was wondering what people's experiences are with this. She's only about a month prem so not much at all, so no idea if it even plays a factor. I'm not super worried but other people keep bringing up that she's behind 🤦‍♀️ She's a big girl (99th percentile) as well.

My little girl was born at 33 weeks, so a bit earlier than yours. She never really learnt to roll as a baby, she learnt to crawl eventually at about 13 months by having one leg bent as normal and the other foot flat on the ground, I have never seen anything like it. Eventually she walked at about 15 months. At that point, nothing would stop her and she was off. She is small for her age (turned 3 a couple of months ago) but she plays with all the 4 year old boys who are about to go to school and can easily keep up with them, everyone comments on how fast she is.

Kids work on different skills at different times and it is very difficult when they are little, but in most cases, it really is ok. If you are worried, I would recommend talking to your health visitor

Well none of mine were ever walking at 11months! In fact my eldest didn't walk until 15 months - never held him back in life! My youngest was born at 36 weeks, he didn't sit on his own until 10 months and never crawled at all. At 13 months he leapt to his feet and was off. They all get there in their own time.

My 35 week baby has global development delay. He sat up at 16 months, pulled to stand at 22 months and walked at 2.5 years.

I had twins so was induced at 36 weeks. Weirdly enough they were early crawlers from under 4 months. My eldest failed to crawl entirely and essentially sat around till he was nearly one and walked.

Babies are really different and do things at their own pace. I wouldn’t worry. I used to worry all the time when they were little. It’s really good to be able to say to yourself that x is a concern but is still within normal range. Write it down in your diary / on your phone to revisit it when 1/3/6 months when it is getting outside normal ranges.

If you do need to follow it up then you’ve noted a concern and know when you first noted it. Most of your concerns won’t come to anything. Are the things that worry you now about your DD the same as 6 months ago? It does seem important now but once they are older nobody cares who walked/ read / crawled/ toilet trained first.

My daughter was born at 35 weeks, was a little late crawling and didn't walk till nearly 15 months. Health visitor told me not to worry about it so didn't. It bothered other people more than it ever bothered me, I knew she would walk when she was ready, and she did.

I don’t think she sounds behind. My DD was born at 36 weeks, didn’t roll over until 8.5 months, army crawled at 10.5 months, pulled to stand after her first birthday and walked at 15 months. There’s a huge range of ‘normal’ but she doesn’t sound behind to me. 😊

All babies are different and as pp said there is a huge range of normal. My dc born at 34 weeks was walking at 12 months where as my 40 week dc walked at 14 months

by 11 months many babies are already fully walking.

No they are not. Up to 18 months for first steps is completely typical .
If you worried see an h v but look at upper end for first steps etc not earliest movers

Yes, mine was behind on everything, didn’t roll either way until 10 months and just lay around like a happy pudding. At 14 months something switched on and he started walking and from then on was ahead with everything, riding a pedal bike without stabilisers aged 2 etc. He’s also ahead verbally despite not responding to his name until 18 months.

No the opposite! My 35 weeker is nearly 6 foot and stunning. A perfect physical specimen her early arrival doesn’t seem to have caused any issues!