My son was very behind on his milestones. It wasn't my fault nor his fault; it was actually no ones fault he was just a baby who took his time.
As being his mother I didn't mind him being behind because he did have a helmet when he was about 5 months old. There was nothing wrong with him; he just had a very hard time getting into this world.
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| This is my son in his helmet. He was 6 months in this pic. |
Now other people including my doctor thought it was odd that he was so far behind. They would say "its not because of the helmet", well when he got his helmet the therapist said that he was going to be behind on his milestones. I was fine with that as long as his the helmet would help him.
Nash had a hard time rolling over and tummy time and even sitting up by himself. He had some extra weight on him that made it difficult to learn certain milestones. At a certain point in this time I blamed myself for his lack in his milestones. I thought I wasn't teaching him well enough and that I wasn't being a very good mother to him. He didn't roll over till he was about 6 months he was rolling over and sitting up by himself. Instead of crawling he was rolling everywhere. He went everywhere rolling; he would just pivot himself and go the direction he wanted to go. At 13 months he started crawling and he didn't start fully walking till he was at least 19 almost 20 months. They say that they need to start walking by 18 months. His doctor said she was concerned and wanted to send him to therapy. I didn't want to believe it, we have been through enough therapy I did not want to put him back in therapy because he wasn't walking. I told the doctor he had the helmet on for almost 5 months and they said that it will put him that far behind. She said there is not way that its the helmet. His other milestones were fine but the
walking she was worried about. He was standing up by himself and cruising around furniture, he just didn't know what to do next.
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| Hes looks so big when he started walking. He is 20 months in this pic. |
I got worried cause his doctor was, I talked to my mom and husband about it and they said he'll walk when he wants to. Than I thought I wasn't the only one that felt this way about my son and his milestones. I went onto babycenter.com and went onto their January 2014 birth club and I started writing about Nash. Some moms said that their kid didn't walk till he was 22 months!!! One said at least 20 months. I felt better about Nash's milestone, these other moms made me stop worrying and to stop forcing him to walk. Than I decided to wait till he wanted to walk. I didn't want to force something on him that he didn't want to do. I've seen mothers force things on their little kids like potty training and walking. Its horrible... I say if your kid doesn't want to do it don't force it. Let your kid decide when he/she is ready not you. Just encourage them and show them it can be fun to do it or make it into a game. I read that if you do force it they'll rebel later on ( I don't know if that includes the walking problem). When they are ready you will know, when Nash was ready to walk we helped him out and now he is as happy as can be.
All Nash needed was a little help and encouragment to start walking. He couldn't quite understand what to do when he stood up. My sons aunt worked with him for a while and now he's walking everywhere. He has learned so much since he started... even when he wasn't walking he was learning to count to 3 and what the horsey says. He is so smart and will learn anything you teach him.
This post is for those mothers with the same problem and feelings I had. I have to say if your kid isn't walking by 2 than you need to step in. At some point parents need to step in and help.
Anyway don't blame you or how you are raising him; don't let other people tell you what to do. You know your kid better than anyone. I've had other mothers shove it in my face about their kid was crawling or walking before 12 months or at 12 months. I just ignored them and became the mom I was raised to be.
I hope this helps other mothers and every parent who reads this.
Nash has taught me more that I taught him.
