Inner ear balance and walking????????

[Miss.B]

Well my DS is now 17.5 months and still not walking on his own. He is getting quite good with walking along furniture, but when I take his hands and walk with him and then let him go he just flops to his bum on the floor. We've been to the paed and 6 weeks ago he said he should be walking in 6 to 8 weeks. I spoke to a good friend of mine and she said something about when their inner ear balance is good then they start walking. Is that true? For those of you who don't know, my DS has been on the late side of things with rolling, sitting up unassisted (8 months), crawling on hands and knees (14 months). I think he started cruising on furniture around 15 months. Is there anyone out there with a late walker and how did you encourage him/her to walk on their own? We go to gymbaroo once a week and swimming twice a week .

TIA

[NaeNae]

I don't know the answer to th einner ear stuff but DD didn't even take a step along furniture until she was just under 19 months old. She just wasn't interested in the furniture thing. We have a walker toy so did some encouraging play with that for a little while and then had to encourage her to "let go" but once she decided it was time to do it, she just did!

Maybe Master C is just not confident enough yet. I know of babies who didn't walk at all until 21-23 months.

Is there a family history of late walkers?? Might be worth asking about as my MCHN says sometimes its just in the genes.

Nae x x x

[Miss.B]

Thanks Nae The paed did ask when DF and I started walking. According to my mother (she does stretch the truth most of the time ) I walked when I was 9 months. My brother was later at around 14 months. I'm not sure about DF as both his parents have passed now I've got an app. with the MCHN in 4 weeks so I'll be asking lots of questions then. Thanks for taking the time to reply hun!

[~me~]

Both my DS's were at least 18mths before they took their first steps on their own.
DS1 was a master commando crawler and just found it quicker to get around that way rather than trying anything else Even after he started walking around the lounge or take a step here or there, he would revert to commando as it was quicker for him.
I didn't really encourage early walking, I figured they would do it when they were ready and willing. I have heard early walkers tend to fall over alot as their muscles haven't had a good chance of strenghthening.
It sounds pretty right, as when both my DS's eventually started, they never fell over where as my niece walked at 9mths and fell over alot