She *really* wants to walk

[mrsfrenchy]

DD is almost 10 months and not yet crawling or walking. She scoots around on her bottom (and enjoys spinning on her bottom) She pulls up on people's hands and tries to pull up on other things (like the couch or the toilet ), but isn't always very good at that since she can't get a good grip on certain things.

Lately DD has been walking around while we hold her hands or under her armpits (she discovered this on her own--please don't think that we're pushing her to walk before she's ready). She really really loves it and is gets pretty fast. She's attempting to cruise on the couch, but we're still trying to perfect that since she takes a few steps and then just tries to dive the rest of the way (ouch!). We spend at least an hour throughout the day with her walking around the house.

In the past few days though, she's started to get even more proactive in her walking--she demands to be put down when we're in stores. When I put her down, she won't sit down. She wants to stand and walk. Then she wants to let go of my hands (which is really not an option at this point--she'd fall flat on her face).

Anyway, my question is should I be doing more to help her figure out how to walk? Should I just let her sort it out slowly on her own? I generally am not a fan of shoving LOs into new skills (ex. we have not pushed crawling at all because she's really not interested), but not being able to walk is clearly a source of frustration for her. WWYD?

[Girlprof]

I'd just keep doing what you're doing. You're hardly shoving a new skill in her face - she's pretty much demanding that you help her practice it. Our DS was like this basically from day one and he walked at 9 months. Who says babies have to learn to walk at exactly 12 months? Or some other time? Your little one wants to practice this NOW. I'd help her as much as is reasonable. Obviously she can't "walk" around a store while you're shopping, since you'd never get anything done, but at home? Sure. Maybe make sure she's got a few safe things available to pull up on and keep the floor clear of stuff so that when she falls, she at least doesn't fall on anything.

[Treasuremapper]

sounds like our daughters. Our older daughter walked at 8 months and our younger daughter walked at 9 months (without support, they cruised earlier). It was odd -- they were practically obsessed with trying to walk, pulling themselves up most of the times we held them and fussing to be pretend walked. We used to sleep on a mattress on the floor, and the girls would boost their baby selves up to the edge of the mattress and cruise around and around the mattress, falling on the soft mattress as they leaned over it.

Because they walked early, our daughters did not crawl as long as I wanted them to crawl. I felt crawling was really important and so for our younger dd I even tried to move away things she could use to cruise. So she tried to use me. Our older daughter could not crawl at five months so she rolled over and over across the room to get from point A to point B. Our younger daughter didn't crawl until she was almost 8 months old, and then progressed way too quickly to walking.

There is a range when kids learn to walk. Yours is within the normal range, so just have fun and don't worry about people thinking you are pushing her. Every child is so different. I had a lot of angst, too, even calling ECI becuase I was concerned our daughters had not crawled long enough. So sad what new mothers go through, isn't it?

If your daughter goes through a lot of milestones early, not just walking, you can get practice for handling situations where other people think you are pushing her to do _____ (fill in the blank). It may be just walking. Stay true to yourself, don't push, but don't hold back, just let her bloom in her own time.

[sapphire_chan]

Lina's not as far along, but has the same "must STAND, want to WALK" impulses.

For in the store, sometimes Lina's happy just standing up in the pouch (supported at the waist by my arm).

Other times, she's okay being held at my hip by her waist so her legs are free to kick.

She likes to practice pulling up on big plastic bins (like Rubbermaid or Sterlite totes). When they're full, they're very stable. And they act like tables to hold toys for her to play with.

[claddaghmom]

Wow, you just described DD to a tee. In fact, I'm typing w/ one hand while the other is under one armpit to hold her up.

Demanding is the key word lol. She will NOT sit down. She just wants to stand and walk around.

What's worse is she can't really pull herself up; she loses her grip and falls backwards, so I've got to be w/ her to catch her.

And she refuses to crawl. In fact, I try to put a toy out to intice her and she streetches, grabs it and rolls it towards her instead of moving! Haha!

[mrsfrenchy]

Thanks everyone. She's killing me today. She refuses to sit down. If she's not "walking" around the house, then she's screaming. And I'm exhausted because she was up a lot last night, but I spent the day bending over helping her walk anyway--it didn't feel like I had much of a choice!

Ugh---I can't wait til she has this figured out.

[Equuskia]

Does your house have floors or carpets? If you have floors, perhaps you can teach her to push a dining chair around the house. That's why my 9 mo does. My 3 yo has a little table and chair set, and the baby uses the little chairs to go all around the house.

[Dreamy]

Sounds exactly like DS. He was a bum-scooter and always loved being upright. I spent about two months bent over helping him walk. At first it was always holding his two hands. After a while, he got a bit more sure of himself, and I moved to holding only one hand. He did a few pirouettes this way, but not too often.

He also loved pushing our chairs around the kitchen. He'd get so mad when he hit a wall!

My parents bought him this walker. Once he was stable enough to take 1-2 steps unassisted, he developed a huge interest in this walker. They have the same one at daycare, and one week he'd spend the whole day walking around with it. After about three weeks of using the walker, he's now walking everywhere all by himself (since last Thursday).

Sounds like you're giving her the help she needs as she figures out her balance, that's all you can do

[accountclosed3]

hawk does GI crawl like crazy, occasionally up on his knees, but is eager to walk. he pulls himself up and climbs on things (and me), and he is eager to walk. he likes to take a few steps from table to sofa or chair to your hands--always one hand on something.

[EzzysMom]

My daughter insisted on walking/standing from almost birth. At 6 months she was walking around holding onto two hands, by 7 months she only need one hand, and by 8 months she could get up off the floor and walk all by herself. She finally crawled a month ago. I say go with it, life is better now that she can walk!

[rachel7628]

Can you teach her to use furniture to support her while she's walking? Or to push chairs (or other toys) around? One of my favorite pictures of my daughter is her pushing the box her push-toy came in. It cracks me up every time I look at it. For her, I think crawling was always a secondary form of transportation - even when she's crying and upset (usually when I'm cooking dinner and can't pick her up), she'll go over to something she can pull up on to walk over to me rather than crawling. She just mastered crawling in the past couple of weeks and started taking her first independent steps last week. I think some babies are just like that.