Baby can walk but doesn’t want to

amother

OP ↓

Yesterday at 4:36 pm

My 17 month old has been making steps for more than a month now. The last 2 weeks he walked up to 30 steps at a time if I teased him by holding out a toy and backing up with it (I feel so mean!) but otherwise he just wants to crawl. There’s been no progress over the last 2 weeks. Is this normal, or is there anything I can do to encourage him to walk more?

amother

Celeste

Yesterday at 4:39 pm

Totally normal. It took my daughter 3 months from her first steps till she decided to walk more than crawl. They do it on their terms.

scintilla ↓

Yesterday at 5:23 pm

No, much better to leave him without shoes for as long as possible, at least a month after he's walking well (of course for unavoidable times like outside you can do shoes but as soft as possible).

It's very very normal, let him go at his own pace. Why the rush?

amother

↑ OP ↓

Yesterday at 5:27 pm

scintilla wrote:

because he’s a chubby kid and wants me to hold him all day. If he crawled well I wouldn’t be so desperate.

amother

Forestgreen

Yesterday at 5:29 pm

He doesn’t crawl well?
I would work on that before the walking.

↑ scintilla ↓

Yesterday at 5:30 pm

Got it. Do you have a push walker? That really helped my kids get over their fear. But I think it's really a mental thing that they just have to be ready to let go and once it clicks, it clicks. Keep practicing and making it fun. You can also do vertical play like with tape on a wall to encourage him to keep moving

amother

↑ OP ↓

Yesterday at 5:34 pm

scintilla wrote:

Can you explain this please? Thanks!

↑ scintilla

Yesterday at 5:37 pm

I just did a quick Google for an example and this came up: https://montessorifromtheheart.....face/

So something like that, that he would have to walk to get the next one, and put it high enough that he needs to stand.

Are you on Instagram? There's some great accounts on there that have tips I followed to help my kids walk.

amother

Blue

Yesterday at 5:46 pm

If he doesn’t crawl well you can start thinking about PT eval.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Yesterday at 5:56 pm

amother Blue wrote:

If he doesn’t crawl well you can start thinking about PT eval.

He doesn’t really crawl, he shuffles along sitting with one foot in the front and one in the back. I asked his pediatrician by our last visit and she said it’s ok… also most of my mom’s kids crawled this way and turned out fine.

amother

↑ OP

Yesterday at 5:57 pm

scintilla wrote:

This seems interesting, thanks! No, I’m not on instagram. Thanks tho.