My dd had low muscle tone, we saw a physio from 6months-18 months. She was slower than other babies but was walking by 15.5 months. I was very concerned at the time, but now you would never know she had probs in the beginning. It was a child health nurse and then a paed who picked it up.
DS1 has low muscle tone but there were no obvious signs, we only discovered it when he had a physio assessment for other reasons. If you want to rule out any issues, you could always get a referral to paediatric physio for an assessment. I'd probably start with a CHN as they are more up with what's "normal" at each age than a GP, and probably also have good contacts for referring on.
'Tone' is the innate tightness in a person's skeletal muscle. There are several different tests for it clinically (resistance to passive movement, reflexes, etc) but most of us have 'average' tone. It's a scale, and you can be low side of normal, or normal end of low, or really really high, etc Low tone results in a kind of floppier feel or look, and high tone is a tight, stiff feel and look. High tone is what can makes the limb of a person with cerebral palsy or stroke tighten up and not hang loosely when they are otherwise relaxed.
Many parents of babies with low tone describe they're babies are 'cuddly' because of the way they tend to relax into you when held. They also tend to like 'W sitting' which is with the thighs rolled all the way inward with knees bent right up so that their feet are next to their hips.
I'm not sure I would agree with carriers helping development in the same way as tummy time: different muscles work in different positions. Part of the benefit of tummy time is learning to lift and control the head and neck in that position, which uses the mucsle differently to the way they're used in sitting, and part of it is because they learn to take weight through the arms and shoulders, which obviously helps to build the strength they'll need to crawl.
What you are describing makes sense if she has never like being on her tummy - she screamed, so you naturally put her in positions she likes better! You could try to sneak it in without her realising - eg, you sit with legs out on the floor, and put her in a 'hands and knees position over your thigh/s or shins, with a favourite toy to distract her. Or, you lie on your back, and she lies on her tummy on your chest, so you are face to face, and her hands can push on your breastbone and collarbones, or put her hands on yours (still on your upper chest). You can bounce her gently like this, dance to songs, make funny faces, give kisses and pull away, etc. If you've carried her a lot and she loves being close to you, this might work really well to get her used to being on her tummy.
But it sounds as though her sitting and reaching are good, and she's started to get all the rolling sorted, too. If she is a bit behind, it sounds to me like she's moving in the right direction, and isn't too far behind. If she's sitting 'W', encourage her not too - should should sit with feet out in front of her, it because this position allows her to move into other positions more easily. Leaving toys further away, or holding them and tempting her just a bit more out of reach is good, and she'll not just lean out and grab the toy, but have to lean on the closer hand, lift her bottom off the floor and reach even further wth the other hand, to get to it. Make it a game, of course! That's the manouvre that leads them from sitting toward all fours.
As quite a few other Mums have said, it's not uncommon to be a bit behind developmentally, and most kids get there eventually, but a bit of extra help from physio, sooner rather than later, can work absolute wonders. Remember all of my advise, enev though i am a physio, is theoretical, and gives ideas based on general patterns, and not on your specific situation (my disclaimer!). I think it would be a good idea to get a referral to a developmental physio.
sounds like my dd3... rolled late, didnt want to be put in any postion that she didnt want to be put into, didnt want to take her own weight. She started crawling at 11.5 months and then a month or so later stated to pull to stand. Now at 15 months shes cruising. My other 2 dds were walking by 12 months.....
I didn't realise myself that she had low muscle tine and friends and family were shocked as she had held her head and neck up early while on her belly and could stay like that for ages, she also loved to weight bear on her legs. It was picked up when the health nurse layed her on her back then put one finger in each of my dd's hand to grasp onto, at 6 months, her neck should have stayed up as she pulled her slowly (instead of hanging back) and her bum slid out from underneath and she wasn't helping at all to pull herself up. Combined with this she didn't roll very often and was a bit later with sitting etc so thats when we got sent to a paed physio. She gave us exercises to do at home. To be honest I am not sure how much it helped as I suspect she prob would have done things in her own time anyway, but then there was no harm done and made me feel like I was doing something! When we were discharged from the hosp physio program at 18 months the physio said you would never know now as she had completely caught up and was even ahead in some gross motor areas!
sounds exactly like my DD! At around 9 months she was sitting (if you put her there, could do that since 5-6 months) and by 10 months started reaching riiiight out to reach things, then would get herself back up to sitting.
At around 11 months she started to drag herself (still not up on her knees, legs splayed like a chicken), but by 11.5 months she was crawling more or less normally.
And in the past couple of weeks she's just started putting weight on her legs. never even liked putting her feet on the floor before, now she pushes down when I hold her up like my son did at 6 weeks
She has always had good upper body strength, just didn't want to use her legs like that. She kicks (hard!) and has full movement, I honestly think she just didn't want to .
I was starting to worry a bit, but she's getting there now. it is nice having a late mover.
I think the right time to get something checked is when you are worried about it - I'm a firm believer in Mothers Intuition
At 5 months I took DS to the Paed as I was worried that he would not lift his head when on his belly, something just seemed wrong to me.
He was diagnosed with low tone and hip dysplasia after ultrasounds and xrays which thankfully is all corrected now (he'll always be a bit on the floppy side with tone, but perhaps he might be a trapeze artist or a flexible dancer hehehehe)
Most likely there is nothing wrong, but wont you just kick yourself if you find out months later you were right? A quick and painless Xray/Ultrasound would be all that's needed to check if there are any concerns with the legs etc
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