Walking & the Superbabies

My kid didn't walk until he was almost 20 months old. So what? He's 9 now, strong as an ox, and doing just fine. My mother in law always says "no one crawls into kindergarten." They'll get there when they get there. Don't play into the baby olympics some parents like to play.

9 months is on the early side. But 15 months is not really on the late side. Try not to compare kids milestones. And keep in mind the old saying. You spend the first 2 years waiting for them to walk and talk and the next 18 wishing they would sit down and shut up.lol

I had one that never crawled and walked at 11 mos, the other crawled at 5 mos and walked 15 mos. I think my daughter was like "I can get where I'm going, why bother walking?" lol All babies are different. Don't worry about it. There's no such thing as a super baby- just super parent egos. :)

Do not even give this any more of your energy.

My kid was the last in our little group of babies to sit up, crawl, walk. I sooooo didn't care. Walked around 15 months or so.... I can't remember. Wasn't that important. Kids all develop in different ways and at different times. I knew this before I had my son, so I didn't sweat it.

If you get caught up in comparisons, it's only going to get worse. You'll get the "my kid was reading us the bedtime stories by the time he was three" parents... trust me, it only gets weirder as the kids get older. Some parents will be hyper-competitive through their kids....and there are others of us who don't really give a hoot so long as our kids seem happy enough. (We are a lot more fun to hang out with!)

All babies develop differently and there isn't anything wrong with that.

My oldest walked around 15 months. He cruised around the furniture for.e.ver. :-)

My youngest walked at about 9 months. He's also 3 inches taller than his older brother these days.

It doesn't matter and it sure as heck doesn't make one better than the other. Don't worry about it. ♥

Stop comparing now.
Seriously.
It'll be SO freeing.

I used to be just like you. My mom always talks about how upset she was because I walked so late. I just refused to even try to stand on my legs.

But I have proof our daughter walked unassisted by 6 months, but so did my husband. I studied early childhood development and did not believe he walked that early, but our daughter was totally walking.

Here is the other deal. She was 3 weeks premature, no footprints when born, but they laid her on my stomach the moment she was born. the nurse asked "well what is her name" I announced her name, daughter lifted her head up and turned her face in my direction. I announced to the room,oh boy, we are in trouble.

She spoke in full sentences by her first birthday, but did not potty train until she was almost 4.

She could read before she was fully potty trained and we had worked for years on potty training, she figured out the reading on her own.

And so I now can believe there is a huge " normal development" timeline.

Yes some children may not walk for over a year.some may not speak until over 2 years old.. It goes on and on, but in the end, they can still be brilliant, talented, innovative.

I try to encourage parents to speak with the pediatrician whenever they are concerned. Children are not compietition, they are their own person developing the way they were meant to develop.

Hang in there, your daughter will probably be a child that does not walk for long, because she is a child that will be ready to run everywhere. So enjoy this while you can.

My DD was walking at 9 months completely unassisted. She was actually pulling herself up and cruising furniture at 3 months... It was insane. (And I have video proof! Her doctor just about crapped herself when I asked if it was normal and showed her the video. Lol.) everyone kept trying to tell me that if I "let" her walk so young she would wind up bow-legged. Ha, let's see THEM try to stop her. :/ lol.

That said, she also has a speech delay that we have been working on for a year and a half now. At 3.5 she has FINALLY reached the correct vocabulary and sentence structure for her age... But she still has the articulation of a 2 yo.

I know the two aren't connected, but I can pretty much guarantee that your kid is "better" at some things than the "super babies" (lol.) a lot of moms get into competition mode when "comparing" their kids, and tend to gloss over the points heir kids aren't so strong in. Every kid has strengths and weaknesses.

Besides, 15 months is not late. It's perfectly normal.

Don't let them bother you. My kids all walked around a year but my sisters kids all walked "late". Like 18 months or maybe even later. One is 16 now and is athletic and beautiful and smart. The other two are 2 yr old and 3 yr old but they are just fine too. Some moms like to brag about milestones, some embellish the truth a little. Just brush it off and give your little one a big fat hug!

My oldest did not walk til about 15 months. By my third kiddo (and beyond) i was 'knocking them down' lol!

Have a bunch of close in age toddlers walking in different directions was a challenge!

NONE of my seven walked at 9 months, that's for sure!

Best!

My third was a later walker. At a year she was only really beginning to walk while holding on to both of someone's fingers and started traveling on the furniture a little after 1. It took a bit for her to decide she wanted to actually walk on her own too. So it's not just your daughter :)
Both my older boys were running by the time they were 1 though. I admit it was surprising when it took my daughter as long.
But the doctor said it was completely and totally normal and she was still on track and did not feel she was delayed in any way. Don't hold me to it but I believe the doctor said that if at 18 months she still wasn't even trying then we'd look to see if there was something underlying.
She's fine and not out of the range of normal. Some babies just have other things they want to learn first ;)

It's not that uncommon to walk at 9 or 15 months....but it's also not uncommon to feel that it feels like other parents are trying to compete or that they have super babies. You almost have to force yourself to stop caring what other parents/kids do and all the sudden the "competiveness" stops.

Some walk sooner and some walk later.
Our son walked at 14 months.
He was 25 lbs at his first birthday so my personal theory is his muscles needed to get just a little stronger to handle his weight.
(He was not a chubby baby, he just was a solid long tall kid.)
But he was crawling and climbing everything for months before the walking took off.
It seems the smaller little girls tended to walk at 9 or 10 months, but those were just the kids in his day care.

I have one who walked by 10 months :) But first my older daughter didn't walk til 14 months. I remember being so anxious for her to walk because we were going camping that summer and I didn't want her crawling around in the dirt... she walked just in time.

And then my second one, she was just an early walker/climber/go getter. I remember her being at 10 months , fully walking already and thinking "wow, I can't believe we had a whole SIX months longer than this of the crawling phase that first time around!" NO wonder I was so over it an ready for my first one to be upright that first time.

I don't think there is any super-ness to it. Both my kids are super ;)
I rarely think about what age they walked now because it doesn't factor in to anything they are doing at ages 3 and 6.

First of all, it doesn't matter. Secondly, my most cautious child, who took the longest to walk -- 14 months -- is also my smartest. Sometimes too smart. He probably knew all the dangers of walking so he was hesitant to take his first step.

She's probably really smart. Don't worry about it.

I have four, my first walked a hair before nine months, second eleven, third ten, fourth ten. I don't consider it extreme. I do find 15 months to be an extreme but still nothing wrong with it. Some kids just don't see the need, my kids apparently didn't feel I carried them where they wanted to go.

I think it's true that babies "specialize" in one area of development. My first son was a super talker, but crawled at 10.5 months and walked at almost 15 months.

My granddaughter is almost 18 months and is just now walking. She is a very cautious baby. When she finally does something, she does it correctly.
You know,how when a one year old learns to walk. They look like Frankenstein walking. Well because she is cautious and waited, she looks like she has been walking like forever. I do think the majority of babies walk between 11 months to fifteen months.

My oldest son walked at 10 months. Imagine the comparisons and hand-wringing from my family when my next son didn't walk until 15 months and the youngest was maybe a month or two after that, I don't remember. Literally every time we were around one of our siblings, parents, cousins, etc. it was "shouldn't he be walking already? What does your doctor say?"

And the same thing with talking (oldest had two-word phrases at 10 months, the younger two didn't talk until past their 2nd birthdays). And height - my oldest is much taller than my younger two.

Take the comparisons with a grain of salt!

If someone is saying it in a competitive way, say in an innocent voice how glad you are that she crawled as long as she did bc of all those studies saying how important crawling is for coordination later in life :) I think there really are studies saying that. My youngest walked much later than my oldest and I think she is more coordinated now. As well, when they say walk at 9 months do they mean completely unassisted? My oldest did try to walk around then but it was a while before she didn't need to hold onto someones fingers. But I'll catch my husband saying she walked at 9 or 10 months. He's not competitive. Just clueless sometimes.

It is a mixed bag and every child is different. My oldest was walking at 9 months 1 week, but my second did not walk until 13 months. It just depends.

It could be we learned our lesson with the first, that the sooner they walk the more trouble they get into. I do know my husband tried with both kids to get them to walk as soon as possible, but I knew better and did not encourage it. I knew they would do it when they are ready.

Funny, this goes hand in hand with the who has the best/worst labor & birth stories. I like talking and hearing about the day my friend's babies came and about their developmental milestones. We are all snowflakes and every child is special in their own way. No comparisons needed unless mom is worried and feels something isn't right....

Just to toss this in here, developmental milestones are averages, there are outliers on either side. My oldest pulled up in his crib at 6 months, walked around the furniture at 9 months, let go at 11 and ran that day. Ugh. He was a handful, it was exhausting and all my friends thought it was funny or annoying....absolutely no one thought it was super.
My younger son was a few weeks premature. He took his time with just about everything. I already had this toddler that constantly ran and had 10 hands on the end of each arm, I just wanted my littler guy to be able to sit-up on his own, like in the grocery cart seat or a high chair! Well he sat up at 14 months, pulled himself up at 16, and walked unsteadily at 18 months (almost 19!). Made us nervous because we felt so protective of him. He had a slow growth curve, was bitsy. As an adult, he's a strapping 200 lb. 6-footer, my older one is even bigger. Did when either made their milestones matter? In long run, no.

I am with you, it's not a competition. Superbabies? Aren't they all super? Just enjoy the stories, have a laugh, compliment, commiserate, everyone loves to talk about their little ones. Don't forget to comfort those who worry...a little kindness goes a long way.

People ALWAYS have something negative to say!
My son started walking at 15 months and I got comments from people about how THEIR child walked out of the womb unassisted. (I exaggerate, but not by much, haha!)

My daughter started walking just before 9 months (so 8 months if you want to split hairs), and one woman warned me that I should "get her checked out" because rapid development is extremely dangerous. WHAT????

You can't win....... but you can feel sorry for the people who think it's important to play the "one up-manship game".

Oh, I remember those days of comparison. What a pain! Comparison steals your joy. Yet, it's so very human. You need a group of friends who determine to support each other, not compare.

My 1st didn't walk until 14 months.
My 2nd, however, was so anxious to keep up with his brother that he walked at 10 months (much to my dismay - early babyproofing :).

They are all different from one another.

As long as your child is generally on track developmentally in other ways (eg, she's a good crawler), no worries.

9 months is young. Mine started around 14 months (and it could have been later).

That said, by 2yo, you won't notice a difference between the early walkers and the later walkers. They'll be early or late for some other developmental milestone.

Both mine started - unassisted at 10.5 - 11 months!

One of my girlfriends insists that all her children started running not just walking at 6 months.

My son is 13 months and has now finally mastered sitting up unassisted. He was just chill and it was easier to lay back to play. I don't think he saw the need for sitting up. Now he seems to have caught up. He's standing and walking with assistance like a champ. It seems he has some balance work to do still but I think he's coming along just fine.

We're working on talking now, he's using sign sparingly but I think once again he doesn't see the need, he's just so chill. He just goes with the flow, doesn't "ask" for anything. Tonight he did ask for "more" and held his bottle out to me. :) He got seconds on juice for that.

Maybe you just live near power lines and the local babies are the next generation of superhumans? Beware!

If it's any consolation, my second walked at around 17 months. I think her ped. was close to recommending physical therapy soon. My first walked before he turned one and my second was right around there also.

My DD was about 14/15 months when she walked. Her best friend (2 months younger) was walking by 9/10 months. I wouldn't worry. DH says that SD walked early and it was better that DD waited.

When mine were little I was told the average was around 18 months for walking. My kids are now 10 and 6.

That being said, both my kids walked before their first birthday's. My son walked a week before his birthday. He has a cousin that is 6 months older than him, and he watcher her walking the whole time at a family gathering. The next day he let go of the furniture and off he went. My daughter walked a month before her first birthday. SHE wanted desperately to be JUST like her big brother. So, off SHE went.

I WISH that they'd waited a bit longer to walk. Do you know how hard it is to catch a little person that's taken off running and is only 2 feet tall? UGH!!!

So what if their kid walked at an insanely early age? Sit back and chuckle at all those extra months they've had to chase their rugrat around stores and yell at them to "get back here!". You've had AT LEAST six months extra time where your child has stayed put, relatively, and not wandered too far, too fast.

My son was 18 months old and needed new shoes. We were in a Payless Shoe Store. In the three seconds I had taken to look at a pair of shoes for him he had wandered over three aisles and was halfway to the door. In THREE SECONDS!!! Talk about a heart attack moment.

Hi! You've really got to embrace the saying "compare and despair." The less comparing you do of yourself and your children, the better you will feel about your/their accomplishments. Comparing only undermines your/their achievements.

S.

hi mama, my DS started walking at 16 months....i thought he'd never get there. he practically started talking before walking....LOL. he was such an accomplished crawler i think he thought...."what's the point it just slows me down."

at the risk of sounding callous, they can all go jump in a lake. every baby grows in their own time and way. as long as she's hitting her milestones as the pediatrician lays them out, you have NOTHING to worry about. she sounds perfect to me. they grow up too fast as it is.

my response? benignly say...that's interesting and change the subject. :-) S.

bless your heart! oh lawd, mama, you gotta stop listening to folks, lol :)
my son was born 12/1/08, on EXACTLY 4/1/10, that child started walking. straight up 16 months. "behind" to others, but right on point for me. girl, don't worry about all that mess. i wouldn't want my baby walking at 9 ms, sheesh! i know it's concerning sometimes, but this is just the beginning. you said she's starting to walk, so obviously there's no REAL physical/developmental concern, so it's all good!
mmmmm, go kiss that beautiful bout to be walkin baby!!! :)

None of my grand-kids walked by their first birthday. My daughter was walking by 10 months. I loved it.

You'll find that almost all babies are walking by the time they are as old as your child.

That does not mean there is something wrong with your baby at all. If they weren't walking by this time then I'd imagine the doc would want to do some checking to see if there was a biological reason. So don't take it so personally. Things happen when they happen.

I suggest you go to parentcenter.com and sign up to get emails. There are several you can get. Some give you a weekly update on where your kiddo should be and what you can look for them starting to do and other emails will be other topics.

Mine were both after they turned one. My son shortly after, my daughter was not steadily walking until maybe a few months after she turned one. Probably around 15, like yours.
My son STOOD for a long time. I think he really needed to get his balance. Then when he walked he just took off very steadily.

My daughter? Heck, she didn't even really CRAWL until 10 months. She would roll and scootch, but truly crawl? nope. So some kids her age were walking, and she wasn't even crawling! She is 2 1/2 now and is fine :)

They are all so different. It's like getting teeth. Some are so early, some are much later. Maybe you just know a lot of genius babies!!! LOL

Do not let these people get under your skin. The range of normal development is wide. Your daughter is within the range of normal, and for her, exactly on time.

I think that at least some of those doing the comparing mean no harm. After all, most of us have only our own experience to go on, so we tend to share our experience without thinking about how it might sound.

For what it's worth, I have one kid who walked at 9 months, and one who walked at 13 months. They are now 9 and 12, and you would never guess based on their physical skills and development which one of them was the early walker.

My first son started walking at 9 months, so when his brother waited until his first birthday to start walking I was pretty concerned, even though I knew it was pretty normal. I work with infants and toddlers, and most of them wait until 12 months, but there are still many that walk earlier. My boys are 8 and 11 now and they both walk just fine.

15 is the average. I do know lots of kids that walked at 9 months, but also some at 17. Most kids I know walk around their bday, including my own.

I would just tell them that she is just concentrating on other skills right now. It seems to me like kids will develop in bursts, and focus on certain areas over others for a time. It will all balance out by the time they leave for college. ;-)

My kids are the perfect example of how every child develops differently, even in the exact same environment. My son walked at 8 months, no actually he went from crawling to running, it nearly turned my hair gray. My daughter didn't walk until about 14 months. My son didn't talk until he was 2.5 years old, we had him to all the specialists, then right before he turned 3 he started speaking in full sentences. My daughter was talking as soon as her teeth came in. My son got his first teeth at 3 months, my daughter was all gums until 11 months. My son potty trained himself before he turned 2. My daughter just turned 3 and has ZERO interest in the toilet, it doesn't bother her a bit to sit in her own load.

So when another mom brags about how her 6 year old is reading War & Peace, I brag that my 5 year old is teaching himself sign language. It's all so silly. Kids each have their strengths, and those can change from week to week.

Edit: I just remembered the son of a friend of mine. He talked from around 9 months, but didn't walk until he was around 18 months. He was a VERY advanced little talker by the time he turned 1. So she was actually able to ask him why he didn't want to try to walk. He told her very plainly that he didn't want to risk falling down. It was the most bizarre thing.

You are so right. 9 months IS very young to walk. I walked when I was 9 months. My mom wished so much that I hadn't. When babies become mobile, it's a LOT of work!

My older son walked at 13 months and my younger one at 14 months. I was very happy with that.

I think that moms sometimes don't "think" when they start this stuff. Some don't mean to brag, but they don't seem to realize that they are making it sound like a competition. And it's NEVER something that should be considered a competition!

They are all different. My oldest walked at 13 mos, my middle child at 17 mos, and my youngest at 15 mos. They are now 11, 8, and 4. All perfectly normal developing children.

If it makes you feel better- My son, started walking at 26 months (yes some delays there but still) my daughter with no delays walked just before 18 months! Hope that makes you feel better.
I have a friend with twin boys, they are a little over 15 months and they are not walking yet.

My daughter was a little bit of a late walker but after that starting hitting milestones exactly on track. Anyway, it just really isn't a big deal and I think its a little annoying when people say things like that and aren't supportive. Unfortunately, as a parent, it seems like you have to get used to the excessive amounts of braggy and comparing parents.