[emmalala]

Mods, please move this if necessary, I can't decide if it belongs here or in Toddlers...

In fact that is why I am posting!

dd walked at just under 8 months. She is big for her age and at 10 mo she is now dancing - she's a delightful person. But I get rather confused about how to handle her: is she a baby, or a toddler? I don't want to rush her out of her babyhood, but she begins to exhibit some toddler talents, and at times, I just don't know what to think.

I would love to hear from parents of other early walkers: did it influence them a lot, your approach to them, etc?

I should add that she is youngest of 3 and the others walked at a year or thenabouts.

 

[rubelin]

Oooh, no ideas but I'm looking for some feedback, too, as my 6 mo old has been pulling up and trying to cruise for a couple of weeks now and I'm scared!

Ben was cruising by 7 mo but wouldn't walk alone until right after his b-day (though he had perfect balance by 9 or 10 mo he needed the security of someone's finger to hold) but Kieran has been trying to let go and stand alone already, EEK!

Toddlerhood was a smack in the face for me, Ben hit one and I lost my mind. I'm just now getting it back 3.5 years later. I'd like to keep this baby a baby for a bit longer

 

[plantmommy]

Well, technically I think the term "toddler" means a beginning walker, so in that way your babies fit the term...but that certainly does not mean that they aren't babies anymore!

 

[spatulagirl]

My son was an early walker. He started cruising at 6 months and was walking before he was 9 months old. It made his seem older to me and I think I had a lot of trouble thinking of him as a baby once he started walking. It makes me sad I did this and I regret it. He just seemed so much older than other kids! Still does sometimes.

I would do things differently if I could do it again. I would baby him longer and force myself to remember how little he was. I look back at pictures now and I can't believe how babyish he was. I am trying to remind myself of that with my dd this time around.

You may have to remind yourself constantly that he is a baby. Sometimes I have to remind myself my son is still a preschooler and I am expecting too much from him

 

[StacyL]

Pardon me, for a dumb question, (since my first is only 3 months) but what does "cruising" mean?

 

[ashleep]

StacyL, I think it's walking while holding onto furniture. Maybe baby can pull himself up using the couch, walk to the other end of the couch (still holding on), but say he then wants to goto the la-z-boy a few feet away and has to let go and crawl.????This is my first too but I saw my 16 mo old cousin learn to walk a few months ago and cruising sounds just like what she was doing.

 

[Alkenny]

That's exactly what cruising is. Aidan's been cruising since he was about 6 months, has taken a couple of steps here and there but he won't readily walk. It's wierd for me, since he's 10 months...my older two were walking by now (but why walk when you have such older siblings that will carry you everywhere?)

As for toddler...I think "officially", your babe is considered a toddler from 1-3.

 

[mirthfulmum]

As the mom of an early walker, my oldest son started walking right at 10 months, what I've found to be the most importsnt thing to keep in mind is that your early walker is still a baby. They may be walking but their mental development isn't quiet up to the task of regulating the intricacies of walking. In my experience, there will be a lot of falls as they test the limits of their new ability. And you have to keep a closer eye on the early walker as they tend to get themselves into precarious situations. Oh and of course they're more likely to wander off and they don't really understand "stop" yet.

 

[Calidris]

Fern's 10 months, she was pulling up/cruising by 6 or 7 mo, standing/walking a step or 2 at about 8 mo, and at 9 mo was full on walking (now she runs :LOL check the pic in my sig).
She's my first, so I don't know if I treat her different than I would a crawler, but I think that since she walks I tend to treat her less like a baby and more like a toddler, I speak to her like I expect her to understand and obey (don't make any fuss if she doesn't tho!). And she loves to do big kid stuff (if she spends time with 1 or 2 year olds she comes back with all sorts of new ideas for mischief). Probably I will regret it when she's older and I miss my baby, but at the moment I can't imagine doing it any different, because it seems to me I am responding to what she's doing and wants.

 

[isosmom]

Both dc were early walker, dd at 10 months and ds at 8!

So I don't really know if I'd do things differently. I still sling ds, hold him, sleep with him. I mean he is still a baby, that's how I treat him.

 

[BathrobeGoddess]

My dd walked early also , at 10 mnths. In hind sight, I can see that I did treat her like she was much older from time time she began crawling at 4.5 mnths. She is now 9 almost 10 and it has just been since my ds was born that I am able to see just how much more I exspected of her when cognitively she wasn't there yet. It was frustrating for us both and at times I think she has really resented me for it.

Insterestingly, now dd is really clumsy and she talked late, around 2.5 yrs.

 

[littleaugustbaby]

My DD was cruising at about 7 months, and walking between 9 and 10 months, but she was so non-verbal that it was easy to still think of her as a baby. Even now at 16 months, she's still pretty non-verbal, but the rest of her mannerisms and behavior have caught up to what's typically considered toddlerhood.

I still treat her like a baby, she gets carried a lot, and I almost never let her walk when we're out in public (she likes to run off, and if I try to hold her hand, she goes limp, so I usually carry her). She's an expert walker, and has been for a long time, but she's still very much a baby.

 

[its_our_family]

Both boys walked early (just about where everyone else's early walkers did

)

Bryce is 10.5 and has been walking for 3 weeks and really trucking for the last week.

You have to find a bablance. Bryce is a the point where he gets mad when you remove soemthing that he really wants or you remove him. We've started dealing with things he can't touch everyday but does, like the stupid vertical blinds. He loves the noise they make when they smack the wall and the way it feels to hit them. But he can't. So, we deal with it. The fact that he doesn't remember is fine because he IS still a baby

However, we started dealing with electrical cords about 2 months ago and now he leaves thsoe alone.

What toddler behaviors is your little one exhibiting?

 

[emmalala]

Thank you mamas for all the responses. It helps a lot to hear from BTDT or in the same boat!

I think I'll try to still consider her a baby - even though she is toddling! It feels like just because she has met a physical challenge, that doesn't mean her heart and soul are in the same place...

its_our_family, I was thinking of her tiny little tantrums when she's not allowed to go someplace she wants to. I think because she can walk, she sees herself as a regular person - the others were crawling at this stage, and kind of realized they weren't quite there yet, and could accept it better. Or I could just be blathering - kids in the background, I should be with them not blabbing on the computer. Thank you all again, it's really good to get the input!!

 

[FeministFatale]

I think that with ap'ing you are probably interacting with her just the way you should be, since you know your baby best.

My dd walked at 7 mo. too, it was very odd to see such a young baby walking, people were always amazed. But with my dd she was very much still a baby, she liked to be close to me and had separation anxiety going on. So even though she could walk she loved to be in the sling and loved to stay right next to me. I treated her like the baby she was because that's what she wanted and needed. But in some respects I treated her like she was older, she was very verbal early on so I talked to her like she was older. But all in all, I definitely baby'ed her.