DS not yet walking

[firstfreakout]

Hi everyone, I'm just looking for a bit of advice/reassurance tbh.

DS is coming up to 15 months old and still hasn't taken his first steps He's powered through so many other physical 'milestones' since he was born; was an early and confident crawler, loves to climb on everything, sat early and steadily, even seemed to hold his head up from birth . He even has good motor skills like feeding himself/throwing/building things. However he just won't yet walk.

He is able to stand on his own and walk holding one hand - the problem is he just doesn't want to. Given that he is a fantastic climber and has the ability to stand if he wanted I don't think it's necessarily that he can't do it, so much as he just doesn't want to because it's easier and faster to crawl in his opinion!

So I was wondering if anybody has any tips or advice on encouraging him to get walking? I'm due our second DS in April so would love for him to be a confident walker by then!

I know it can take some kids a while to get there though. Having worked in nurseries I saw so many children who took longer than others to walk and it was completely normal, it's just frustrating that he could if he wanted but he's just being stubborn!

 

[Kholl]

Hey! Not a lot of advice on encouraging him to walk but I didn’t walk until 17 months and my oldest was 16 months. Upside is when they walk on the later side, they fall down way less! It’s totally normal, especially if he’s hitting all his other milestones. I’m sure by April he’ll be a pro!

 

[firstfreakout]

Thanks kholl!
It doesn’t help that my mum told me I was walking at 9 months and every kid we see who’s much smaller than DS is walking! I know he could if he wanted so it’s frustrating that he doesn’t!

Hopefully he’ll get the confidence soon x

 

[Princess81]

My son was 17 months. Pretty normal x

 

[Donna88]

My son was 17 and a half months before he took his first steps. He just wasn't interested before then. He's now 10 and has no problems physically and is a very bright lad. Try not to worry.

 

[Abi88]

How is his talking? My mum said I was a late walker because I could talk and asked for stuff so no need to get up and get it myself. My little sister walked before a year because she couldn't talk and she wanted to eat my birthday cake and had to try and grab some for herself! I'm a nursery teacher so we see a huge range of ages for first steps and usually one skill will dominate and the other takes a bit longer to catch up. Also watch out for a plateau in talking as many children seem to slow down picking up new language while they start progressing towards walking, could give you clue when he will be about to start.

 

[firstfreakout]

Thanks for the replies Makes me feel a bit better than he's being so stubborn!

Abi that's an interesting point of view, thank you! I've heard the 'walker or talker' argument before but this totally makes sense. He's a very good talker, and has been for a long while now. He can say about 15 words with meaning and intention and understand a lot more of what's asked of him, so perhaps that's the case here that he's quite happy being fast enough crawling and is working on his language first

He's very confident walking holding just one hand but not for very long as it's quicker to crawl lol
Hopefully he realises he can do it himself soon. I bet once he takes his first steps he'll be running after two days!

 

[Betthy]

I think it is normal, I have friend whos LO started that age. My did not want to wait so walked already when 9 months