Late walking baby

[italianjob1275]

We have a 18 month old little girl. She’s our first child and we (well the missus particularly) is concerned about her not being interested in walking yet.

It seems to be the only area she’s lagging behind in, her fine motor skills are incredibly good!

We took her to the doctors a couple of months ago as at the time she wasn’t crawling either but on the morning of the appointment she began “bum shuffling” and had got pretty good at that, she can cross a room in seconds :lol

Last time the doctor didn’t find anything obviously wrong but we are a little concerned about things like hip dysplasia…

Any advice or reassurance would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Animal]

I remember a great book when my son was a baby called "The Wonder Weeks" which talks about different developmental stages etc, but it was also quite reassuring because the book suggested that the reason your baby wasn't doing X was because they were busy working on Y and there was no reason to worry (hip concerns notwithstanding).

Quick tip someone gave me which might or might not work: try giving her something to hold in each hand. It apparently helps with standing balance and might help walking too.

[meb90]

My Mum has said a few times that my sister didn't walk until she was 17/18 months, and that she didn't crawl. Just stood up one day and walked. Whilst I am sure that is a simplistic version, I hope it shows that kids are all different!

[PugwasHDJ80]

our niece was like this

Mummy stopped running after her every second and suddenly she decided she wanted to walk.....

Is she talking?

[tgr]

Don't worry about it, keep stimulating her and it will happen of its own accord

[Simon_GH]

Our neighbour’s first born didn’t walk until 2 - he’s 4 now and on target for all the so called milestones. It’s normal to worry about your kids and they don’t realise someone has written a list of milestones for them to achieve.

[Quhet]

Our lad didn't walk until 18 months and it friend's son didn't until 21 months. Don't worry, she'll do it when she's ready

[Caddyshack]

Our Daughter was a late walker, she does Triathlons now at a high level, don’t worry about it.

[fiatpower]

I have an 18 month old daughter as well and she didn't show any real interest in walking until the past 2 weeks. Before that she would crawl around the room, stand up, fall over and then continue crawling because it was easier. We just started walking her around the house holding her hands and then when she was a bit more confident my wife and I did relays with her by sitting opposite each other and getting her to walk 3 or 4 steps between us and back again. All of a sudden it clicked and now she insists on walking everywhere even outdoors which is a bit of a pain when walking the dog .

[asfault]

I worked in a nursery part time when i was younger.
I knew you were going to mention "bum shuffler" when i saw the topic of the post.
Bumshufflers are always late on for walking.

[Evanivitch]

Why walk when you can bum shuffle?

Non-medical advice, if they can hold their weight on their legs and aren't in any pain then I wouldn't stress. I do find that treats and snacks are an easy encouragement...

[jdw100]

I think parents get in their minds certain milestones.

All kids are different.

I’ve seen a delayed speaker become the most loquacious person in the room.

[cliffords]

There is no rules ,she will do it when she wants to.
Out kids ,grown up now , had near opposite development timelines.
We now have grandchildren and it's the same .

The sit up toys with wheels, often like space ships encourage being upright and mobile.

She will just do what she wants when she wants ,sounds familiar?

[sam.rog]

My son was 17months.
Used to crawl everywhere. Had no interest in walking.

Then one day he just got up and walked around like he'd been doing it for months. No stumbling or holding into things. Just plain got up and walked around.

[Douglas Quaid]

My eldest was exactly the same. We were also worried as she wasn’t walking at a year old and started way later, she used to bum shuffle about just like yours.

I watched her win the running race at sports day the other week.

[Pickled Piper]

Evanivitch said:

Why walk when you can bum shuffle?

Non-medical advice, if they can hold their weight on their legs and aren't in any pain then I wouldn't stress. I do find that treats and snacks are an easy encouragement...

This exactly. Encourage her to stand. We got both of our bum shuffling daughters to stand and start taking steps by making a big fuss when they did it.

[solo2]

Does she toddle along with you if you hold her hand and drop to the floor if you let go?

If so she may have hypermobile knee or ankle joints so she does not feel totally stable on her own but will walk if holding a hand or cruising the sofa

[Latifisnc]

meb90 said:

My Mum has said a few times that my sister didn't walk until she was 17/18 months, and that she didn't crawl. Just stood up one day and walked. Whilst I am sure that is a simplistic version, I hope it shows that kids are all different!

I'm sure my mum said the same about me. Can safely say at the age of 46 I'm pretty good at this walking lark these days.

[italianjob1275]

Thank you for all the reassurance

She’s had the all clear from the GP but we’ve had a paediatrics referral to make sure. He did say she move hyper mobile though…

[elise2000]

italianjob1275 said:

We have a 18 month old little girl. She s our first child and we (well the missus particularly) is concerned about her not being interested in walking yet.

It seems to be the only area she s lagging behind in, her fine motor skills are incredibly good!

We took her to the doctors a couple of months ago as at the time she wasn t crawling either but on the morning of the appointment she began bum shuffling and had got pretty good at that, she can cross a room in seconds :lol

Last time the doctor didn t find anything obviously wrong but we are a little concerned about things like hip dysplasia

Any advice or reassurance would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ours was a shuffler too. Started walking around 2 iirc. All fine. Don’t worry about it!