Late bloomer or something to worry about?

I recently came across THIS post on Mamapedia, and it sparked my interest. Mainly because, well, I have been there with my daughter!

The mom is concerned about her 11 month old not crawling or bearing weight on her legs. This was my daughter 7 years ago! She was not doing much in the way of wanting to move. She seemed fine other wise, was saying many words (about 90-100 by 1 year), laughing, making great eye contact, and so on...but would do nothing but sit there!

"They" tell you to wait and the child will develop at their own pace. But we, as mothers, often worry too much! This is usually called mothers instinct. And 99.9% of the time, we are right! When a child of almost 1 year is not doing what the books say, sometimes there is reason to worry, while other times it is just the way they are. We know our children best!

Every child does develop at their own pace. It is not good to force development, which the mom in this case does NOT seem to be doing (though I have seen this happen!). Therapy is great when we think something is wrong, but sometimes WE are the ones getting frustrated, and that is when we get stressed, then our children know we are stressed, which in turn makes them not want to do what it is we are tring to get them to do. Much like the person who is always trying to get her child to perform in front of other people, that child may regress and eventually rebel.

If your child, though, is developing normally in other areas, I would continue to encourage weight bearing, using things she can safely pull herself up on, exersaucers set on the lowest setting so she can practice bearing weight on her legs, exercise balls, water, etc... basically, things that the original mom seems to already be doing. My daughter eventually walked at 17 months! A month before they were going to start ANY therapy...it would have been GREAT to have it before then!

Also, depending on how the older sibling is with the younger, the older sibling may do everything for her, which in turn makes her less proactive. If her older brother (like my son did) is always catering to her, then she will be less motivated to walk/crawl/talk, since she has someone doing this for her! 

I am not a physical therapist, but having talked to one when my daughter was younger, those were the exact things she told me to do with her, since the next step would have been intervention. 

In the case of my daughter, we had recently (9 months at the time) found out she needed heart surgery. Nothing MAJOR, but scary none the less. I am wondering, now, if the vascular ring inhibiting breathing had something to do with her development. Not enough oxygen, which could be why she tired easily? At least, that is what the thoracic surgeon told us.

But not to scare the original poster, because by now, they would have seen other signs! (see HERE)

At age 4, we also found out she had Aspergers, which can also explain the delay in physical development! Because of her seemingly normal cognitive development, we would have never suspected this at such a young age, or the reason why she was not developing physically, the way her older brother had.

She is no longer showing many signs of her diagnosis, though she has a few quirks, and her teachers never believe me when I tell them! (Well, this may also have to do with my parenting, and now making excuses for her).

So to the mom in the original post, good luck, and I am sure she will be running away from you soon, and it seems like you are on the right track for her to be doing that in no time!! It seems like you are doing JUST what you need to do for your child. I will be watching your post for updates!!
Stay at home, business owning mom of 4 young kids, Nick the Sportsman, Michele the Princess, Wyatt the Wild One, and Evan the Baby.Bachelor in Early Childhood Development and Education, with 20 years experience. I could not ask for anything more!