My daughter is 16 months, very active and happy, but is underweight and isn't walking

Question

she eats well, sleeps well, is a very happy and playful baby but is underweight and not walking. she crawls all over the place and if i make her stand against a piece of furniture she will, but only for a minute or two. after that she starts crying for help. i'm extremely worried because she just started to go to playschool and my daughter is the only one crawling. i've read about hypotonia and am wondering is my daughter is affected by it or if she's just a late bloomer. her serum calcium and alkaline phosphatase blood tests came out absolutely clear. i dont know what to make of it. can anyone help?

Answer 1

I wouldn't worry yet. My daughter was 21 months before she started walking. She didn't even crawl properly at 16 months! My daughter has always been below average weight, she was premmie though which is a factor with mine. It all depends on her birthweight I expect.

She is now 2 years and 3 months and you'd think she has been walking for years to look at her now. She is running and jumping and everything. She is still a lightweight though at 23.5 pounds, but my health visitor said she was within normal limits with her weight. She is happy and healthy. It sounds like that's the case with your daughter too, so worry not.She will get there soon enough. My doctor said if they don't walk by two that's when they start to look into the reasons why further.  

Answer 2

My daughter didn't start walking until she was about 17 months and didn't even pull up on furniture until about 16 months or crawled until 15 months. We had her in the early intervention program which I think helped her out but for the most part just like to do things on her own. And all her other motor skilled kept on track. Her pt said that she thinks its not going to be that uncommon for kids to start walking later and later. If you are worried contact your pedi or try to get her into an early intervention program.

Answer 3

help her  to walk, make her do  exercises like roll back and ford that help get strong  her arms and legs.

keep her stand up, if she cries get her down and do it again and again 4 or 5 times a day so she can get used to it, and if she didn't get it wait a little more don't pressure her.

good luck  

Answer 4

Have you had her ears checked?  Her equailibrium could be "off".  I babysit a girl who didn't start walking until 16 mos.  They didn't find anything wrong, she was just a really late bloomer.  She was also lazy to try to walk.  She loved being outside.  So I would take her out & stand her up, if she sat, I stood her back up, I wouldn't let her crawl in the grass.  After a couple of days of that, she caught on, & when she would  be out outside she knew she couldn't crawl.  Next she started walking in the house.  I would hold her hands & "make" her walk.  I just had to "make" her try.  

Answer 5

Are you in the states?  If so, there is an early childhood intervention program that will screen her for delays for free with no referral.  Then they come out to your house and do therapy with the child usually 1X/week.  She may or may not be considered a delay, it depends on her tone.  The typical range of walking is 10-18 months.  If she qualifies for PT or OT or both she will get some services.  In the meantime, do not use a walker, they are bad for kids with tone issues, which she could have.  Here are some strategies used for my son, who did not sit until 10.5 months.  Crawling, through a tunnel, pushing an upside down laundry basket, pushing a weighted shopping cart, encouraging cruising by putting stimulating toys on the coffee table and the couch.  Try to get her to go back and forth.  If it is too far away move them closer, you will know if she drops to a crawl that it is too far away.  When it gets easier, move things farther out of reach.  Also a rocking horse, or bouncing her on a large ball will help build some trunk support with the ab muscles.  Do you have a basketball net for her?  Having her reach with a ball above her head is building a lot of muscles.  We have my sons put small bean bags through the hoop which they can reach the rim of the hoop if on the tiptoes.  I would not stress her out and make her do something, it should be fun.

Answer 6

keep her in a walker so she can strengthen her legs.It's ok to let her cry ,she will walk toward you in the walker.

Answer 7

Every child develops at their own speed. My son is 16 months too and the doctors says he is underweight. But he is active and happy. I figure he will gain the eventually and there are more important things to focus on like his speech development and his problem solving skills. I even talked to the doctors office about his weight and they told me the same thing.

What helped my son to walk was being around otehr children. He was the only toddler not running around at our family functions...and to tell you truthfully I think he just got tired of being left out. So he tried harder to walk. And eventually he did.

Try having your daughter around other children that are walking and playing a stuff...that might help