Developmental delays in 9 month old?

Hi there!

DD3 is 9.5 months now, and isn't crawling. This alone doesn't worry me too much, DD1 didn't crawl until she was 10 months, however she was already up and rocking.

DD3 sits when put down, but can't put herself into a sitting position. She won't get into a crawling position, and if you put her in it to encourage her, she puts her hips on the floor with her legs wide apart and rocks and then cracks it about 2 seconds later.

She won't put her weight on her legs either. If you stand her up, she will either lift her legs up and hold them there or her legs go like jelly and she just wants to sit.

So my question - how do I know if it's a developmental delay as opposed to her just being stubborn and not wanting to do it? She kicks her legs around like crazy when lying on her back so I know her legs work lol

And if it is a developmental delay - what age is the right one to get to before seeing someone about it?

Thanks in advance to any replies :)

No idea about developmental delays, but have her hips been checked for dysplasia? DD despised taking her weight with her legs, they'd go all jelly too. She never had any clicking or anything like that.

She was checked by my midwife, but no mchn has checked her.

She sounds like DD2, lazy little troll she was.
She never put weight on her legs or bounced like DD1 used to love, she refused to be put in a walker or jolly jumper, anything that required her to use her legs!!
she didnt sit unassisted until 11 months and couldnt get into or out of a sitting position until about 12 months. She commando crawled until 14 months and then she started crawling traditionally.
She started pulling herself to standing at about 16 months, but didnt cruise furniture until 18 months and then eventually started walking at about 21-22 months.
it was frustrating thats for sure!
but ehr legs and her hips were perfectly fine, she just did it her way :)

Are you concerned about her development in regards to anything else, or just this? Some babies never crawl and just start bum shuffling at around 7-8 months, and some start later.
You are her mother, so I guess the question is: what does your instinct tell you? Going by what you wrote, it doesn't sound like there is a cause for concern, but we don't have the full picture.
If you are concerned, maybe take her to you GP or MCHN and see what they say?

DD2 didn't sit up until she was about 10months, didn't crawl until she was about 13 months and walked at around ummm 15 months I think. I was very concerned as my other 2 did everything "on time" my GP on the other hand wasn't worried at all and turns out he was right ;) she is now a happy and extreamly active 2 year old that runs everywhere :D

But if you are worried then speak with someone even if just to put your mind at ease :hug:

I agree with everything Starfish has said. If your gut is telling you something is wrong then get her checked out. Each baby is different. Xo


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Hi,

I haven't done paediatrics for a long time, but I'm a physio, and from memory, the skills you've described her being unable to do (eg, take weight through her legs when held) are what you'd expect as a minimum at 9 months. Does she get much 'tummy time,' ie, time lying on her tummy where she gets to practise holding her head up in that position? Babies who are not regularly placed in that position often are a bit slower to crawl, though it wouldn't explain the weight through legs. Do you have her propped up in a seat, or a bouncinette, much of the time? Are her toys loose, or always close and within easy reach of her? If she's not free to move around, she won't have had the opportunity to learn the skills of balancing, getting in and out of sitting, leaning through her arms to reach something , which is a precursor of crawling, etc. Re 'being stubborn', you can rule that out by using a toy she wants to play with. What does she do if she's sitting, and you put a toy she wants just barely, or a bit further, out of reach, either forwards or to the side of her? If you leave her lying on her back with toys out of reach, can she roll to tummy and back over to her back?

From what you described, I would be a little concerned at this stage, though I don't know what the standard approach to get help would be where you are. I would guess that either your child health nurse or GP could refer her to a ppaediatric develomental centre, where she could be assessed and you can start helping her development with specific activities. Treatment sooner rather than later, if there is a mild developmental delay, often leads to a resolution of the issues much more easily, so it's definitely better to get her checked.

Hmm it's hard to say if my gut is telling me anything, she seems fine every other way, claps her hands, waves goodbye, babbles and yells if she wants something. She is smaller than the others though, quite the skinny little chicken! So to me she "feels" like she is only 7 or 8 months old, but who knows if that's just cos she's my last so I don't want her to grow up too quickly lol

Pholi - she sat in a rocker chair a bit when she was younger but when she tried sitting up in it we just put her on the floor from then on. She only just tried a walker and jolly jumper in the last 3 weeks and she wasn't particularly keen on either of them. Not too much tummy time, she had silent reflux as a baby so would just scream if we put her on the floor. I wore her in carriers a lot though, which I've read can help with their development in the same way as tummy time does.

If you sit her down she will reach for things, she can lean all the way over while sitting and get herself back up. If I put a toy on the side of her she will roll to get it. She learnt how to roll back to tummy within normal time frames but only just learnt to roll tummy to back about a month ago because she just hates being on her tummy.

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.

Razzberry - what were the signs of low muscle tone?

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 :lol:

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 :dunno:.
I was starting to worry a bit, but she's getting there now. it is nice having a late mover. :D

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

Good Luck either way :)