What Is He Concentrating On

He is 14 months old. He is not delayed in anything. Do not look for problems when they do not exist. 18 months then talk to pediatrician. He is cruising. He will walk when he is ready.

When they say the general guideline is 12- 15 months, this means that it's the average...some kids are doing it at 8 or 9 months, while others don't walk till 18 or 19 months.

I have two friends whose babies are 2 months part. The one started walking at 10 months, the other just started crawling at 10 months.

Every kid is different. Don't worry until you have a real reason to worry. There is enough real stuff to worry about when you have kids ;-)

C.:

TAKE A DEEP BREATH!! LET IT OUT SLOWLY!!! Do it again.

Your pediatrician is not worried. You stated he is cruising. That means he is picking himself up and "walking" while holding on to something. Let him get his ground.

Here's some information on walking...and to show you why your pediatrician is not worried!
http://www.babycenter.com/0_developmental-milestone-walki...

ALL children develop differently.

In regards to his "W" sitting...I found this..
http://www.physioquestions.com/2011/01/13/w-sitting-in-ch...

I don't see why or how you are even thinking "autism" at this point. Are you looking for a label for your son? he's an emerging toddler. He's growing. He's learning. Stop trying to make him grow up faster than he is ready to! Support him! Love him! Encourage him! But do NOT make him do things faster than he is ready to!

Good luck!

If he's cruising, then he's really close to walking.
Does he have any push toys (something to hang onto to while practicing walking)?
Our son walked at 14 months.
He was about 25 lbs so I think his muscles just needed to get a little stronger to balance his weight.
It wasn't long before he was running faster than I could.
And then his weight gain slowed down a lot.
Our pediatrician never worried about W sitting.
He never sat that way long and he was climbing everything.
By 1 1/2 he could climb into and out of his crib.
He knew and said words but his talking didn't really take off till right after his 2nd birthday and then it was non stop chatter chatter chatter.
Some kids spend a lot of time listening and absorbing language and when they are ready to talk they start with more complete sentences.
If your Dr isn't worried then I wouldn't worry.

My son did not start walking till the end of 15 months. He was not stringing words together till after 3 years old. He did know his entire alphabet at 2 and the sounds of all the letters. I remember at age two walking through the mall and he looked up at said "Gap". I was amazed.

My daughter was trying to walk at 9 months was talking in small sentences at 1 year but just learned her alphabet in 5K.

All kids learn at a different pace. Please do not worry till the benchmark worry ages arrive. So in your case at least 18 months.

My first son started walking at 14 months, if I remember right, but he was constantly around my second son helping and babbling and playing. My second started walking at 10 months.

Don't sweat the small stuff. I had a son that didn't start talking until we forced the issue around three and a half. He just pointed and grunted or whined or squealed. You have plenty of time.

Good luck to you and yours.

Try to relax. Stop talking about "delays" when there aren't any. Not walking at 14 months is not a delay, it's normal. Say 4-5 words at 14 months isn't a delay, it's great! Here's some perspective:

My 15 year old son has ADHD and learning disabilities - he is a poor student who has struggled with school since he started. He was walking at 10 months and said his first words at around the same time.

My 9 year old son is very bright - could read when he was 4 and starts the school year hitting 95+% of the end-of-year milestones in September. He walked at 15 months and didn't talk until he was 3. He was being watched for early intervention and would have been referred if he didn't know 10 words by his 2nd birthday. At his 2 year check up, he knew 12 words and that was good enough for his pedi. Since he started talking at age 3, he hasn't stopped. He drives us crazy because his mouth is running...all. the. time.

My 7 year old also didn't walk until 15 months and didn't talk until age 3. He does great in school as well, no issues or delays.

I wasn't around when my step-daugther, who is now 15, was a baby but from what my husband says, she didn't talk at all until she could talk in sentences - her first words to my husband were "more money Daddy!" (they were playing with coins). When I met her she had just turned three and was a very articulate talker but due to some issues at her mom's house, she talked very little for many years and now we are considering sending her to speech therapy for articulation. She was an awkward and clumsy walker as a toddler and young child - couldn't navigate stairs and had a really odd gait - and is now does MMA fighting and is one of the fastest runners in her school.

I hope the above info and the other answers can give you some reassurance - there is no correlation between hitting milestones in the very long range of normal timeframes and future success or issues. If you trust your pediatrician, let him or her be your guide in determining what is and is not a cause for concern with development. From what you wrote here, your baby is fine! Relax and enjoy him!

The milestones are more like guidelines. Kids will go in their own way. You can always bring it up with his pediatrician at his next well baby check up, but I've known kids who didn't walk until 18 months or so and are fine now. (One is now a grown up and a NICU nurse.)

My third daughter is now 20 years old, completing her junior year in college in a pre-med program (w/ a 3.6 GPA). She's smart, very articulate, works two jobs, takes dance classes and runs for fun and played soccer in high school. She didn't walk until she was about 18 months old (a REAL bummer at the time since her sister is only 14 months younger than she!).

On the other hand, to this day she *hates* to try anything unless she knows she can do it. She's a bit of a perfectionist and a tad on the anxious side. Yeah -- didn't get her driver's license until she was almost 18. It's just the way she is.

Relax, mama. Your little guy is just being himself. If the pediatrician isn't worried and there aren't other red flags, just enjoy him. Also, be careful what you wish for! Once they start walking, your life will change dramatically! ;-)

I appreciate your concerns. But there are no reasons for concern. Let him be a baby. I've yet to meet a first time parent (including myself) who didn't worry over when their child sits up, crawls,walks, talks, etc. etc. It seems we all think the first is suppose to excell at everything.

What is he concentrating on, he's not concentrating on anything. Concentration comes with age. Sure he thinks, he concentrates in his baby way, but there is no conscious concentration going on here. His body is growing and a lot of energy goes to that at this age and will for some time yet.

Let him be a happy toddler. He'll be toddling soon enough and getting everything in the house and trying to climb the walls. Get ready.

Sing to him, babies, children need lots of singing. And it actually fosters their development in every way. Children's songs, nursery songs. Play clapping games and such. There are so many things you can do to help him grow. Babies and children are a huge sponge and everything they see, they do. So watch what you do and say and feel and think.

You may be interested in the book, Beyond the Rainbow Bridge, nurturing our children from birth to seven, by Barbara Patterson and Pam Bradley

Everything is fine with him, don't look for problems or potential problems, look for the love, the shine in his eyes, the bright rosey face, the sweet little guy that he is. Enjoy motherhood, it only lasts a short while. He's only a baby once, as it goes for every age, you only go around once.

Have Fun and God Bless you

My son walked at 10.5 months. He was my first, My Daughter was 16 months before she walked. ...

Some kids have more impt things to do than walk. If he is cruising, and crawling.. I would not worry as of now. Some kids wait longer to walk than others.

Relax and enjoy him, once he is walking you will wish he wasn't lol.

I figure you haven't met any parents who told you how their child never seemed to talk --then came out with a stream of nicely formed words and sentences.

Or parents whose kids didn't seem interested in walking at all, then suddenly stopped cruising on the furniture and RAN rather than walked from then on.

Truly, milestones by month are very general guidelines, so please don't let them frighten you. The doctor is not worried and said to keep tabs on things until about 18 months. Go with that. Keep on working on the receptive language, playing with your son a lot, talking to him (regular talk, not baby talk) ALL the time, etc.

I suggest that he is concentrating on walking and talking in his mind. One of these days he'll be doing both. A baby works on learning a new skill in more ways than just trying it out physically.

I would wait until 18 mos as the doctor suggested. If he's not doing more by then, I'd talk with the school district's early intervention office. Actually you could call them now and see what they think. They test kids all the time and know what to look for to determine if they need extra help.

My grandson wasn't talking by his 18 mos appointment and the pediatrician wasn't concerned. But when he wasn't by 2, she recommended getting him tested. I wish we'd done that at 18 mos because he was having difficulties that needed extra attention. He has other physical sign. He walked and ran just fine. But he bumped into things, fell a lot, stuffed his mouth with so much food he couldn't chew let alone swallow all of it. He was sensory seeking. His hugs were painful at times. If your son is showing other signs of developmental difficulty then I'd call to arrange for an evaluation now. It won't hurt and you will probably find that he's doing just fine. If not, you've gotten a head start on helping him to succeed in school.

Also, when a child needs services that are provided before he's 2 the therapists come to your home and the child can receive more services than are available after 2.

I can't picture W sitting. Does that mean he has difficulty sitting up straight? I'd ask the early intervention people about that, too.

Just begin to gather more information while tamping down your worry.

Later:; Thanks Wild Woman for the information about W sitting. My cousins daughter did this and her pediatrician said to work on changing this because she had hypermobile joints as mentioned in the article. Read the article. It's quite helpful. Doing so could be an indication of a physical problem or not. Unless the pediatrician is telling you to consider the possibility of a medical problem, I urge you to relax and see what develops as he matures.

He's cruising. That tells you that his legs work. He's not handicapped. Let him figure it out on his own. Some kids just aren't ready at a year...

As far as speech is concerned, you have a lot of time to wait for this. While he's trying to walk, he's not going to concentrate on speech much.

If you google speech and developmental milestones and look at when they suggest a child be able to say at each stage, you would see that it's okay that he isn't saying whole lot. Your doctor is right. Wait until he's 18 months old.

No delays--he's on his own time.

I wouldn't worry. In fact, with all my kids and all their issues (ADHD, Autism, Tourettes, to name just a few), I never *worried*. Worrying does nothing. Either get more information or stop worrying. My youngest child wouldn't bear any weight on her legs as a baby (you know, when you lift the child and, while holding them, they "stand" on your lap). She wouldn't do it - she'd just lift her legs up into the air. So anyway, her pediatrician sent us to see a neurologist. I was concerned, of course, because her older brother had low muscle tone and was on the Autism spectrum. I thought she might be the same. So we took her and he was a bit concerned and wanted to do further testing. But before we could take her in for further testing, she started bearing weight on her legs and was walking by 13 months (within the normal range, but 2 months behind when her bro and sis had walked). And now, at 10, she's both my smartest kid AND my most athletic.

The point is, sure, there could be something wrong, and it might be a good idea to follow your instincts and push for further testing. But not yet...give it at least a few more months. And don't worry or freak out about it. Your child is most likely fine. My best friend's daughter didn't walk until 18months. Now at 4yrs, she runs and jumps like a champ...no issues whatsoever. Your child is getting around quite happily with cruising. Maybe he's just a laid back little guy who likes to do things at his own pace. If you *truly* feel like there's an issue if he's still not walking at 18 months, certainly go see a specialist. But don't just sit around being worried. Be proactive and get the information so you can either STOP worrying *or* deal with any problems. And, really, your little guy is probably just fine. Stop comparing him to the "guidelines".

A 14 month old concentrating? Lol. It's probably more like observing. Babies observe the world first, before they do anything. They mimic you. Just chill out and everything will be fine. Try massaging his legs, since touch is very theraputic. Play more with him. Hold his hands to help him walk. Talk to him more. Read to him more. That's all you have to do.