Really struggling!

[ThirdTimeLucky27]

I currently have a 11 month baby with gross motor skill delay, we have no diagnosis and the health visitor and doctors are both happy with the watch and wait approach. BUT the closer it gets to her birthday the more I'm going crazy with worry, I am constantly searching google, Mumsnet, Facebook etc looking for something positive. I understand it's not healthy but I need to feel like I'm doing something.

She won't sit unassisted for more than a few seconds, she doesn't crawl, she doesn't weigh bare on her arms..

But she does roll both ways push up on her legs when being held, gets onto her knees in a crawling position (without the arms), she claps, she waves, she understands a few words and makes lots of different sounds, she's super happy smiling and laughing all the time..
I just can't get this worry out of my head 😞

Advice and opinions please x

Of course you are worried. I would be doing lots of strength building and asking what the plan is at the GP?

I would go back to the GP &/or HV to push for a referral to a paediatrician. If you can’t self refer to physio/physio doesn’t run a drop in clinic in your area, I would request a physio referral too.

I had this with my daughter I just wanted to know what ur feeling is normal u want to be in control, she couldn't lift her head at 4 months it was always down she was underweight doctor said failure to thrive until at 10 months the health visitor kept a food diary and then after a week took it to the doctor and put a complaint that its her development not failure to thrive ( which ment the doctor was saying i wasnt feeding her that did mess with my head) it's a process ur childs too young to confirm anything as they are still developing and if routine results are not showing much they have to wait which is hard but the only way try not to read into anything yet and just know the right people are there

I had this too with my firstborn where the doctor and HV said to just watch and see what happens.
🙄

My child was a later walker ( almost 18 months) - in HV's assessment, this is still ok and not too much delayed.

Ds didn't crawl on his hands and knees but did bum shuffling to get by. This was considered fine as he can get to A and B.

He was a late talker- didn't speak until he was 3+ years but nursery staff helped a lot and he was referred to the speech and language therapist and then he attended speech and language therapy sessions.

In School he has struggled with speech/language issues and has moderate learning difficulties. Only since last week he has officially been diagnosed as having Dyspraxia ( developmental Coordination Disorder).

I asked for an Autism assessment even though SENCo and other staff said no he doesn't need one but I insisted. It was only by doing this that his Paediatric Consultant was able to diagnose him with Dyspraxia. He doesn't have Autism but is borderline.

I would suggest to keep telling the professionals about your child's progression, read and research yourself and keep on top of helping your child at home. You have to insist these days to get any help.

Keep up with the good work so far, you are not alone.

Oh we went through all this with our daughter , it affected my own mental health quite badly as nobody was listening and wanted to do the wait and watch approach too, but that doesn't help you get any help with her then, that's the problem.
We did a lot of research ourselves and discovered she most likely had Rett syndrome as a lot of the symptoms matched , we had to tell the neuro specialist ourselves once we finally got referred to him! He was trying to call it global development delay , but I said we know it's Rett syndrome, at which point he said yes , I think you are probably right .
It was only once we got a diagnosis that we got all the right referrals we needed to support her and help her , so research as many conditions as possible and keep pushing, because they happily go along with generalised diagnosis of delay for a couple of years otherwise .

Ask the GP or HV if Portage is still available in your area?