is now worried about DS2 - mobility issues

[DietcokeGirl]

Hi, as some of you may know, DS1 (3.10) has ASC.

We haven't had any concerns about ASC with DS2 (19 mths) - sociable, joint attention, verbal, points, good eye contact, showing signs of imaginative play etc. BUT, he still can't walk, doesn't cruise, doesn't pull himself up to standing very often. He loves to walk and wants us to walk him all the time but he is terrified of letting go of our hands. He won't use a walker as again he doesn't want to let go of us. He does pull himself up to play with DS1's tool bench and will happily stand up and play without us nearby. He slightly leans against the table so must still feel secure with that. He doesn't get on and off the sofa by himself or climb on and off his riders. He is still very mobile in terms of his bum shuffling, rolling over etc. He has just started moving in a crawling position but pulls himself along with both legs at a time rather than moving one leg in front of the other (does that make sense?!).

I did contact the health visitor and a nursery nurse came to see him a few months ago. She didn't seem to notice anything obviously wrong with his legs/feet etc. She seemed to think that bum shufflers don't often walk until 2 yrs old and may not cruise etc as they don't feel the need. I still have that niggling feeling like I did with DS1 that something is not right though. DS1 was a bum shuffler too but he also crawled and he cruised for months before he walked (at 17 mths).

I am having all sorts of thoughts as to what may be wrong. What is worrying me the most though is the link with mobility issues to ASC/AS. I am terrified he is going to regress.

I know you don't have the answers but just needed to off load. I am going to the GP next week.

Similar with us - ds1 (asd) did not walk til 17 months then ds2 was actually later to walk and much more clingy ( to parent) when walking but is totally NT - it's natural to worry though even if rationally there is not much to go on In fact ds2 is 4.6 and has only recently been willing to walk without stopping to ask to be carried all the time !

A GP told me that bum shufflers typically don't walk until ON AVERAGE 6 months later than crawlers. Apparently one of the reasons children want to walk rather than crawl is being able to carry stuff and be unpright. Of course they've been doing that when they bum shuffle.
If he can pull to standing on the work bench then I suspect he's fine. DD1 didn't walk by herself until she was absolutely ready, then she walked everywhere within a week. Dd2 walked much earlier but took a lot longer before she exclusively walked.

Our Consultant paed told us that bum shufflers often have weaker trunk and back muscles and so can take a bit longer to build up the strength to walk. We hoped for a while this might be the case for dd but became more obvious it was a bit more than that! However he said they wouldn't be concerned about any bum shufflers who don't walk until age 2.

Thanks for your replies, there is definitely a weakness somewhere as he hasn't got the confidence to let go of our hands, as if he knows he can't balance on his own.

smashingtime - did you have other worries about your dd? Is your DD on the spectrum or does she have another condition? Hope you don't mind me asking.

DD has mobility problems due to a stroke before birth. Her trunk area is weak which affects her balance and fine motor skills. However she has made great progress in strengthening with lots of exercise/physio. She had physio from birth and walked at 20 months. Although she had some brain damage she appears unaffected in any other way so far - she's 3 so still early days!

For confidence building we got dd to walk holding a wooden spoon and then we would let go of the other end when she wasn't looking! Crawling really helped her to build up strength and she also started by moving both legs at the same time but got to proper crawling in the end!