My 14 Month Old Is Not Walking Yet?

Don't worry, G., everyone develops at different rates. My son did not start walking until 16 months. It'll happen, you've gotten very good advice here, now just relax and don't worry. :)
D.

It sounds like you are doing the right things. Don't worry about it, and he'll walk when he's ready. Both my girls took their first steps at 15 months ... now it's like they've been walking forver (almost 4 years old and almost 16 months).

My son did not start walking till 15 1/2 months. I used to walk him down the street just holding his hand and before I knew it he felt confident enough to walk on his own. Its quite amazing!!!

Don't worry about it, some kids don't start walking until they are 100 percent sure. My son is more of the cautious type and he was almost 14 months old when he started walking. He was taking lots of steps from the beginning. You don't really need to worry until at least 16 months. I find that boys are a little slower at doing things than girls, especially if this is your first.

Just let him go at his own pace. 14 months is somewhat on the late side, but still within the norm. Believe me, there's no reason to rush him! He'll be walking (god willing) for the rest of his life! Just enjoy this crawling stage, because once they start walking, it gets much harder to keep them out of harm's way.

G. - please don't worry, as long as he has checked out at his well visits it is not a problem. My daughter now 19 months did not start walking until 14 months and now she is running and hopping. He will walk when he is ready, I know it is easier for me to say since I am not in your shoes, but within the next month or so he will. Good luck.

Is he a big baby (chubby or just big)? Often times they tend to walk a little later. But as long as your doctor has no worries, you shouldn't either. He'll be there and then you'll be chasing him and remembering the good old days when he was just sitting! :)

Hi i wouldnt worry to much at all my son didnt start walking until he was 19 1/2 months.......one day outside he held our hands and walked then inside just decided to go and that was that! Good luck and dont worry!

Me too. My daughter is almost 15 months and not walking. She can't stand on her own yet. She loves to walk with me holding her hands. People say everyone at their own time. I am considering buying a walker for her to practice with, but whenever I encourage her to play with the walkers in our playroom she doesn't want to. I don't want to pressure her. I know kids who didn't really walk until 16 months. But if she isn't walking by then I will see what my doctor says.

You dont have to worry about it,each child is different then the other. im telling you that because i noticed that my child was a head of all the other kids.. she was walking the day after her first Bday while other kids took them longer longer time to do so..he is not ready yet.

Hi G.,
My oldest didnt walk until 13 and a half months. At 11 months she almost had it down and took about 2 or 3 steps but one day we were playing with her cousin who was a crawler...my daughter NEVER crawled before this day. She learned from her cousin how to crawl and had no more interest in walking any more til she was 13 and half months. I used to hold one of her favorite toys and would have her walk between my husband and i or whoever she likes alot and she would come to get the toy and we would just keep moving further and further apart and thats how we taught all 3 of my kids to walk :0) Hope this helps!
A.

Why are you in a hurry to get him to walk? My son did not walk at that age and neither did his father. By the time he did walk he was ready and he had less accidents because he learned balance first. My son used push cart toys that helped him stand and take his first steps. If he gets the hang of it with something like that, he will walk on his own soon after. This must be your first child, because if it were not you would know that it is so wonderful that he is not walking yet! As long as he is walking in the next few months he is fine.

Hi G., Keep doing what you are doing, he will walk when he is ready. Enjoy your little boy now. Once he starts, he will be into everything and may not want to stay put when you want him to. Grandma Mary

My son was just like that and walked at almost 18 months. He is just fine. I wouldn't stress over it. Enjoy him at his own pace.

Here is the thing, they decide when they will walk. You can encourage by sitting a short distance from your husband, mother, friend and "walking" your child back and forth between the two of you. A PT that I met also suggested that you sort of jostle them from side to side before "walking" them to help the with "shifting their weight," which was my daughter's weakness. Let me just encourage you that your child WILL walk. My oldest walked at 13 months and was a good walker by 14. My twins were in the same place that your child was in at 14 - only wanted to walk with help. My son started getting around by "knee walking" and my daughter was a super fast crawler. I never thought there was anything wrong with their legs/strength because they climbed up on everything. My son finally decided to walk on his own right before 17 months. My daughter walked a couple weeks later, but suffered a fall where she hurt her lip and decided to stop trying. So at her 18 month well visit we had to say that she really didn't walk-so upsetting! I had the physically therapist look at her and she said that it was her weight shift and that she would qualify for EI. So I started the procedure for that (which was a very pleasant experience BTW - I encourage other parents not to be scared of it, BTW). By the time she had the official eval (which was 2 weeks later) she was walking. She was suddenly motivated and very ready - could immediately crouch down to pick up a toy, like she waited until she could be really good at this walking thing. My biggest point is that if you saw my kids now, at 21 months, you would never know the long road that they took to walking. You are sadly not in control of their walking time table - they are.

You are already doing it. My son was 14 months when he began toddling on his own. He was a big boy, and they need to get just a little bit stronger in order to get it all working together. I had a few push / walker toys that he could hang onto besides me. Be careful of sharp corners on tables and such. They fall a lot at first. Look at this time with fondness, and take lots of pictures! By the time my son was 3 1/2, he was faster than me and I could not catch him running in the playground anymore.

G.,

He'll get there! :) You can place toys out of his reach, place sturdy chairs close together but not touching (like maybe a foot apart, so he'll stand and walk from each one to another (maybe place a toy at the end of the line).

My son took his first two consecutive steps at nearly 14 months. He wasn't sturdy on his feet for another month, and was walking backwards (showing off even) at 16 months. He's middle of the road. He's not early, he's not late.

Good Luck,
M.

Hi G.,

You've gotten a lot of good responses already, but I just wanted to give you one more. My son didn't walk until he was 17 months. It felt like it took forever, since his sister was walking at 10.5 months. We had him evaluated for Birth-to-Three (Early Intervention in CT) because he also wasn't saying many words at his 15-month check-up. The physical therapist who came to evaluate him was excellent and gave us lots of good suggestions to help move things along. I'll just mention a couple that I can remember:

- when he's sitting and playing, have him sit or lean on your lap, rather than kneeling on the floor, so that he'll be more likely to move into a standing position than a crawling one when he wants to move around (if he's sitting/kneeling by himself, you can try to move one of his legs up so his foot is flat on the floor (and knee up), again to encourage him to move to a standing position rather than their usual default at this stage - crawling)
- my son used to pull himself to a stand and then go back down to his knees, and the PT showed me how to gently but firmly hold his ankles in place so that he had to crouch down to pick something up and then go back up to a standing position. (I only had to do this a few times over a few days before he was standing most of the time.)
- my son was a very fast crawler and the PT suspected that he didn't want to walk until he was really secure and good at it, so she suggested activities that would improve his balance: sitting him in a laundry basket (or the lego quatro tub we had) or something similar and rocking him back and forth. he loved it and having to keep himself from falling all the way over apparently helps with balance
- alternate which hand you hold when you're walking with him
- let go of his hand a few steps away from whatever he is walking towards
- I also set up our play room so that everything (the large objects/play tables/etc) were about 3 steps away from each other. that way it wasn't really worth his while to drop down and crawl (when he was standing at the play kitchen, for example) - it was quicker to just attempt the few steps on foot
- I had always heard that it was better for kids to go barefoot when they're learning to walk (and he was barefoot for a long time!), but during the eval the PT asked to see how he walked with shoes on (that I had gotten to practice walking outside)... it turns out he was much more interested in walking inside once he had the shoes on. So we kept his shoes on all the time after that.
- have him walk on uneven surfaces outside to improve balance as well

Hope this helps! The bottom line is that it's considered within the normal range if a child walks anywhere between 9-18 months. So your son still has plenty of time to catch up. But talk to your pediatrician at his 15-month check-up if you're concerned, and getting an evaluation certainly can't hurt. We definitely benefited from all the info from the PT (and she only came twice), but who knows if he was just ready to walk at that time. No matter how much we try to help, they just do it when they're ready. ;)

Good luck -
A.

Hi G.,
My son didn't start walking till 13 1/2 months. And as soon as he started walking he started running...lol. I would not worry at all. Children will walk when they are ready. If you feel the need check with his ped. Good luck. D.

Hi G.,
I didn't walk til 16 months old according to my mother and my baby book, and I am a very normal 42 year old who has walked extremely well ever since! I don't think you have anything to worry about. Honestly, I would stop walking him with holding his hands, perhaps if you left him on his own, he would figure out how to walk on his own. See what happens if he pulls himself up on a piece of furniture, and you stand with a very appealing toy a few steps away.
Good luck

My daughter didn't walk until she was 16 mos and she only did because she fell and broke her arm and had to. She was a very fast crawler and couldn't get around as fast if she walked. He will walk in time. Be patient.

As long as you child's muscle tone is fine and they are moving around, don't worry. My daughter did not start walking until 18 months. She is at par or past her peers in physical activities as a 2.5 year old.

My little girl really start walking when we got her a push toy with the handle- it helped because the could wak "by herself" (with the toy ofcoarse) and eventually didnt need the toy- then when she got older she would sit on it, great and pretty inexpensive toy!

(attached a linke to a similar looking toy:)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=1255...

Don't worry, it will come... he is soooo close...My son was 14.5 months when he started walking and like your son he did everything but walking alone.
The exercise that really encouraged him to build his confidence was when my husband and i sat on the floor short distance apart from each other and "sent" my son with encouraging words to go to mommy or daddy..a few days of that and pulling the distance between us really seamed to do the trick!!

just keep doing what you're doing. also, do you have wood/tile/hard floors? ive seen it a lot with my friends, the kids take a little longer with a hard surface that makes them and adults nervous, plus less traction. either way, dont worry, he'll get there. and then, look out!!!

My daughter was about 14 1/2 months when she finally walked. It was frustrating but what helped us was a ride on toy that had a high enough back for her to hold onto & push. We were planning a trip to Disney for my husband's birthday and I wanted so badly for her to be able to walk around Disney. Well sure enough she did. She just got tired of not being able to get around one day that she just did it. Good luck!

Hi G.,

My daughter, who is now 26 months old, didn't really start walking until she was 22 months old. She cruised for months and months. My husband and I were really concerned, especially because our son had started walking at 12 months old. Our daughter's pediatricians told us that she was fine and would walk when she wanted to. Of course, that didn't stop some parents from giving me those judgmental looks when I carried her around. Some even told me that I was the reason she wasn't walking. My husband and I knew different; she just didn't want to walk. She would collapse on the floor when we tried to get her to walk. We just kept encouraging her, but didn't push her. Now, after just 4 months of walking, she's a total pro -- she walks, runs, climbs the stairs and gets into everything!

Be encouraged! Your son will walk when he's ready and not a moment sooner. For now, enjoy this stage with him. When he does start walking, get ready to put on your running shoes! :-)

A. W.

Hi G.,

NO WORRIES!!! Every child is different. He will walk when he is ready. If he feels pressured to walk, then he will probably hold off for longer.

My daughter didn't start until 14/15 months. She was plenty happy crawling around and scooting around on her knees. Once she started, she didn't slow down - so don't wish away the calm time before the storm...lol Enjoy every minute of not having to chase around a curious toddler!! :)

Oh yeah, wanted to add that those exersaucers are more of a hinderance than a help for toddlers. They do not provide the muscle/balance strengthening in the hips and other joints. So if he used one of those, it could just take him a little longer to build up the right muscles to balance himself.

Happy New Year,
L.

Just keep doing what you are doing and do it very often. Eventually you will see that he will need less and less of your support and will be walking on his own. My daughter didn't walk until she was 14 months and even at that point she wanted us to hold her hand or we had to support her in some way....but it took perhaps just a week of that and she was doing it on her own.
At this time, you just have to be walking beside him and supporting him almost constantly...believe me, he wants to walk and once he does get the hang of it, he will be all over the place :)
He just needs that little bit more of your guidance right now.....
You're doing a great job and he will be walking sooner than you think....Don't worry so much about how many months he is ...every baby does thngs at their own pace.
My daughter just turned 2 yesterday and I can't believe how quickly she has turned into a little girl and no longer that little baby that needed me so much.
I miss the days she required my help to walk around but it is so exciting to have a "little buddy" I can have a conversation with and we understand each other.
Every step of their development is a joy to experience and even though we have to say goodbye to one stage, there is always something great right around the corner to discover with them.

Enjoy all of your baby boys milestones!

P.