Should I be worried?

[lizzie27]

I know I am a paranoid mum but I cant help worrying about my dd. She is 9 months old and is showing no signs of crawling, pulling up or walking. She can sit well but she pushes back all the time as if she wants to be on her feet. I have read about poor muscle tone but I don't think she has this as she has really strong legs. All she wants to do is stand up holding onto someone and bounce.

Lizzie - mum to Eve

[ryan's mum]

i wouldn't worry , Ryan never crawled , he bottom shuffled at 12/13 months . he couldn't even hold his weight on his legs untill he was 15 months . walked at 17 months . our pead said Ryan had loose limbs , he was more of a bouncer on your knee than holding his weight.

[ryan's mum]

we bought Ryan an exersaucer (?) he could do all the bouncing on his legs he wanted and had toys all around him . it helped strengthen his legs.

[lizzie27]

Thanks - she is really strong on her legs though. I can hold her by her fingertips and she will bounce up and down. All she wants to do is stand.

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Oh Lizzie, we have just come through that phase - it exhausted me

All ds wanted to do was hold onto someone's fingers and bounce. If we put him to sit down, he'd cry, put him in his seat, he'd cry, on the floor, he'd cry, you get the idea? I think it's perfectly normal, and now he can stand and cruise holding onto furniture, he's OK.

To get some respite, we used a walker (I know, controversial  ), but I think an exersaucer would work too.

She will come out of this phase, and it'll be something else to worry about then 

BTW, ds has only just started his version of crawling, so don't worry about that, either, it'll come in time.

[lizzie27]

Thanks - if I think about it when I'm not panicking I realise that there is nothing wrong. She just wants to be on her feet but I don't think she can quite figure out how to get there yet. I've got her a baby walker and she loves it - only goes backwards for now though!

Lizzie

[maggieruth]

no, don't worry!  my son JUST started to crawl this week and even now sometimes he flops onto his tummy to comando crawl half the time (BTW, he didn't start doing that til he was over 9 months old!).  my ds was REALLY keen to stand too!  i think the problem with kids who are keen to stand is that until they crawl, or comando crawl or something its hard to build up the balance and muscles needed to pull up and stand up independently!  my son for example has figured out how to crawl and still hasn't put the pieces together to be able to get into sitting from lying on the floor which will slow him down until he learns it! (he can get onto his knees from the floor AND into sitting from his knees but he hastn't done it all together yet!)  although you absolutely don't need to crawl to continue to develop, if you can get children to crawl then IMHO you should (i work as a paediatric OT) because it helps children develop skills like balance, support and reacing at the same time (which is called reciprocal movement), and shoulder and upper arm strength- crawling comercial over 
some people would suggest that the best thing that you can do is limit time standing (and in baby walkers  ) in favour of time to play on the matt, reaching for toys (there are some posts already about learning to crawl but if you want i can do you a list) especially in sitting where you can encourage your lo to reach onto one hand to get a toy with the other, eventually she will lift her bum off the ground and learn to support her weight in even trickier positions which will lead to hands and knees!  its hard with a lo that only wants to bounce and stand but i am convinced that its the best way to go and what helped my ds.  (what we tried to do was only use Ethan's beloved borrowed jolly jumper when we needed a few minutes to cook dinner etc, not as a toy to develop his skills- that way he didn't spend as much time in it as he otherwise would have)
HTH! let us know how you are getting on!
x