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Hello Everyone!
I have a quick question.
Background: My now 9 month old was brough home as a newborn. He was estimated to have been born at 35 wks, he had hypertonia and some heavy alcohol exposure. He also had some exposure to benziods.
My DS has been doing good with his milestones. He started smiling a little late and then he sped up. He started reaching for toys, rolling over an by 6 months he was crawling (belly off the ground).
My concern is that he has been crawling now for over 3 months and seems to have 'stalled'. He doesn't even try to walk or cruise.
He crawls and stands up, he can balance good. He can stand without holding on to anything. He seems in complete control but will not even try to walk. When I hold him to try to take steps he gets mad. He will not step one foot in front of the other at all. He has push toys too and he will not push them. I hold him leaning forward and he just gets mad and will not step even with me holding him.
I can try to talk to his PT but they keep telling me he is ahead and doing great. But as a mom, I am seeing that her will not take steps at all.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
Am I right to be concerned?
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I wouldn't be concerned at this point. Many children are just beginning to crawl at this age so he isn't behind and may really benefit from a longer crawling time. There are several schools of thought that believe that too little time crawling is the root of later developmental difficulties (behavior, learning, motor skills) and that time spent crawling as an infant and later climbing over things, walking on uneven surfaces, and using both sides of the body help wire the brain correctly. My dd has had occupational evals and developmental vision evals and they always ask about how much time she spent crawling to see if it was enough. In this space, more seems to be better. Susan
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He sounds a lot like my son. He started crawling at 6 months, but then had absolutely no interest in anything to do with walking or standing until about 14 months. Once he started, though, he seemed to learn to run overnight! Boy, there are some days that I long to go back to a time when he could only crawl!
It's funny because he is only 3 months younger than my daughter and in most other milestones he was a little early, I think because he learned from her and tried so hard to keep up with her.
Peanut crawled early, too, but had no interest in walking. He could pull up, stand unassisted...but no attempts to walk. Around 10 months he took two steps...and was done! He could crawl so much faster that he didn't even try to walk again for 4 more weeks. I'm not sure he would've tried again then, but a boy his age at the babysitter's came back from Christmas break walking. Peanut I guess decided he was not going to be outdone, so started walking full time that day. So 11 months here...and with boys, I think that's still kind of early.
I agree. I wouldn't worry. Some babies walk at 9 months, but not too many. I think average is 12 -13 months. If crawling is working well for him, he may not be motivated to try another method of getting around just yet. Sounds like he may not be too sure of his balance when trying to take steps. (Totally normal for his age.) I would just let it go. He'll get there. If he's been that early in all of his physical milestones, I don't think you have anything to worry about. As an aside, my little guy didn't roll over until he was 6 months old. I'm convinced he COULD have. But he never did. He actually sat unassisted before he rolled over. But he hit every other gross motor milestone early. Go figure. Sometimes they do quirky things like that and it really is nothing to worry about.
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Thank you everyone.
It is good to hear that crawling for a long time without walking is not something to be concerned about.
My 1st daughter walked at 14 months and my 2nd baby walked at 10 months. I know babies develop at their own pace but neither of my older kids crawled for this long so it had me a little concerned.
My son (who was very physically advanced) crawled for 5 months before walking. He didn't cruise at all or even really pull himself up. He would crawl and climb up things but not pull to a stand. He also didn't learn to walk with a slow progression. One day when he was 9 months old DH was on the floor holding him by the hips in a standing position and he just took off running/stumbling towards me across the room. When he got to me he turned around and ran like a normal adult would run back over to DH. Then he ran out of the room and started running back and forth bringing things into the family room from all over the house. DH and I just sat there with our mouths hanging open!
Its a very tiny bit concerning that you can't get him to take steps with assistance (DS never pushed those walk behind toys either). I wonder if it is a texture thing. Try switching up the footwear between barefoot, socks and shoes and see if that makes a difference. But really, you are still totally in the range of normal.
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