Should I Worry if My Baby Isn't Walking?

Can you share data on walking and first steps? My almost-16-month-old is cruising on furniture and climbing up the couch, onto chairs, and onto us with surprising agility but is unwilling or unable to walk on his own. We’ve heard varying opinions, from “Oh, he’s fine, he’s just lazy” to “You should have called early intervention months ago!” We’re usually in the “free-range parenting” camp, where we let him develop on his own schedule, but now we’re worried that (1) we haven’t done enough to facilitate his walking and (2) he will be delayed with other motor development.

—My baby skips leg day

Physical milestones are incredibly fraught. On one hand, they are so visible; it’s hard to ignore them. On the other hand, there is a huge range of normal for development of everything from rolling to crawling to walking. Walking has, perhaps, the widest range — typically, children start walking anywhere from 7 to 18 months. That age range is enormous (there’s a nice graph in this longer article I wrote on the topic when Cribsheet came out). And there isn’t any good evidence that a child who walks sooner is, say, more likely to be an Olympic athlete (as I have said many times, your child almost certainly isn’t going to the Olympics, so please try not to think about it).

In your case: not walking at 16 months is totally within the range of normal. If you are worried, though, ask your pediatrician. They’ll be able to tell — by looking at other movement and at muscle tone — whether there is anything to be concerned about.

As a parent of two late walkers (17 months!), I totally hear you on the anxiety. But … you don’t need to try to teach your kid to walk.