Worried about developmental delays

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone. Nothing much new with Jacob – same old, same old. Living for the next doc appt on Feb 15th.

OF COURSE, now I am really worried about something else with him. I have noticed for awhile that he seems delayed (he is still not sitting completely on his own at 7and 1/2 mths) and he is nowhere near crawling. It is really starting to upset me. SO, for all of the poor Mom’s who have dealt with severe reflux like Jake’s…..can reflux cause these types of developmental delays??? When did your babies sit, crawl, walk??? He seems okay otherwise – no muscle tone problems, and very social, etc. But I am scared out of my mind right now. I just can’t deal with one more thing (I didn’t even mention that we think he is going to have to get a helmet because of the lovely flat spot that has developed on the back of his head). I am so, so exhausted.

Johanna

[Anonymous]

Johanna:

Abby just finally learned to crawl in mid December at 10 1/2 months. She seems so far behind where Kayla was at this age but my doctor kept reminding me that babies do these things on such different schedules. I know it is hard to not worry and if you are, I certainly would discuss it with your doc. Still searching for the instruction book…

Robin

[hellbennt]

There are mamas who post that their GERDlings do seem to hit some milestones slower than others…

I wouldn’t worry about crawling, so you can cross that one off of your list of worries, lol…it’s not even considered a dev’pmt’l milestone nowadays…many babies skip right over that one and go to cruising/walking (oy!)…jonah didn’t crawl until 8 &1/2 months and then he got so good that he didn’t want to walk– he didn’t walk until 15 months and now at 3&1/2 you can’t stop him (he just got a bloody fat lip the other night because he was trying to hop around the playroom & fell onto the corner of hte coffee table)

just keep trying to sit him upright every day – do you have a boppy? maybe sit him in that? he probably will go from floppy/falling over to sitting upright overnight. it’s so weird how they do that!

I’m sure others will post more to reassure you!

HTH

~laura

[Anonymous]

Myles didn’t sit alone until around 7 months. My first two were sitting at 5 months. Myles didn’t crawl until 10 months. He didn’t cruise until he was a year old and didn’t walk until 15 months. I worried alot too, but he’s perfectly normal and doing great now.

I think reflux babies tend to be slower because they are held so much and they don’t get the tummy time that non-refluxers get. Lots of moms here have said that.

7.5 mos is quite early for crawling. 9 mos is average. I think my doc said they don’t worry about sitting alone until after 8 months. Like Laura said, try the boppy to help him sit. I did that for a while with all of my babies and I think it did help them learn to keep their balance and sit alone. Also, it’s best not to keep him in bouncy chairs, swings, saucers, etc. for long periods of time, as over use of these things can slow development.

Does he do the tripod? (Sitting leaning forward with arms outstretched to keep himself from falling). This is usually the precursor of sitting alone.

Good luck. I hope you’re running around after him before you know it.

[Anonymous]

Hailey has a vicious case of reflux, and she had developmental delays. Not because she was developmentally delayed overall, but because she had a lot of pain from her reflux, and she avoided certain positions (like being on her tummy), and needed to be held more than other babies, and didn’t sleep, and didn’t have enough time doing typical baby things b/c we were consumed with her eating (or lack thereof).

Many moms on this forum have posted that their refluxers were slower to reach milestones, and I personally think that when a baby is in pain, they can’t focus on doing what they need to do like other babies. Think about what a day is like for you when you’re in pain.

I would try to get him into sitting as much as possible, and also give him tummy time to strenthen those muscles for small spurts throughout the day. If you’re concerned (which it sounds like you are) I would get an evaluation by EI and see if you can get some therapy to help move him along.

Hailey never rolled over consistently, but she did sit up at 5.5 months, mainly because I held her up in sitting as much as I could. (Someone had CLEARLY misinformed me that babies outgrow reflux when they can sit up on their own, so I was pretty eager to reach that milestone, LOL!). But she wouldn’t go on her tummy, and I never really pushed it much, so she was a bit weak that way. At around 10 months, I finally felt like her pain was better controlled and she started playing a lot more. Immediately I could see her trying to do more things for herself and explore, and by 11 months she was crawling, pulling up, and getting down and moving from tummy to sitting and vise versa. In fact, she discovered all these things in 1-2 days! We did during that time, get an EI evaluation, and we had PT and OT to work with her in our home.

I personally would not worry at this point. All kids do develop differently, and you can talk to your ped if you’re concerned. What about his other milestones- did he smile on time, hold his head up, reach for things? If so, then I really wouldn’t worry too much. But I do like to be proactive and I think that it’s great to get help if it’s available to you. We have so many things to worry about when our babies have uncontrolled reflux, that we don’t need to add development onto the heap. Getting help now (or at least an evaluation) can help to make sure that you’re on the right track. Therapists can show you things that you can do at home to help him move forward.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

BTW, I should add that I may be biased about the value of therapy because I’m an OT. But even trying to be objective, I was glad that I got some direction for Hailey.

[hellbennt]

for the ‘flat head’ issues:

http://www.cranialtech.com

link to a Yahoo Plagio group http://http://health.groups.yahoo.co…Plagiocephaly/

[Anonymous]

did he sleep on his tummy or back? shane has been crawling since 6 mos. and sitting up at 4 mos. i think because he ONLY will lay on his tummy… and never ever on his back.soo he got really strong pushing himself up and so on. my neice only layed on her back, and she is 11 mos now and STILL will not lay on her stomach sooo, she does sit up but has no clue what its like to crawl. soo, maybe the tummy time does have a lot to do with it as well?

[Anonymous]

my son wears a docband because of positional plagiocephaly. babies with flat spots in general can be delayed because things are off balance. he has torticollis which lots of babies with flat spots have. before my son started physical therapy he was labeled as delayed. he couldnt even push up on his arms at 5 months. well, thanks to physical therapy,he was sitting at 6 months and crawling at 7 months. he started standing at 8 months and now at almost 9 he can stand up on his own.
he is what some people say is advanced now.
i just think its amazing what the PT and also the chiro have done for him.

oh yeah, do lots and lots of tummy time!!

good luck.

nataliachick72007-2-5 11:33:10

[Anonymous]

If your baby is in pain, he will not want to put pressure on his stomach. Some reflux babies are just delayed because of that reason. I have no idea when Matthew sat on his own because he was standing really early on and taking steps at 10months old. HOWEVER, his trunk muscles are not well developed and he is still unable to crawul. (although crawling is not a milestone, a baby should be able to get on all 4s, even if they then prefer to walk).

So, Matthew was walking at 10months and he is pretty delayed overall on motor issues – that tells you there is no normal for pain-free babies and even less normal for medical babies.

BTW – if you already checked on tone, i would really not worry – did a physiatrist tell you about tone? After a ton of doctors and research i believe that when you think your baby has motor issues, you shoudl go to a physiatrist first and then get some PT to correct whatever issues

[Anonymous]

Hi Johanna,
Bryce is also quite behind developmentally. He’s had other issues, but I think a lot of it has been caused by the reflux. I think Bryce is really extreme, but he didn’t roll over until 9 months, didn’t sit up until 11 months, and still hasn’t crawled at 13.5 months – but he had/has a lot of other stuff going on too.

Also, Bryce had to wear a helmet for his flat spot. It’s best the earlier you can start with a helmet, so their head can have time to grow into the right shape. Bryce didn’t get his until 9 months though, and it still worked really well. His head looks much better, and he only had to wear it for 3 months. They really aren’t as bad as they seem. I wasn’t thrilled about Bryce getting one at first, but the time went by really quickly. We had one called a Starband that was really light weight and clear.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t worry yet. I’m amazed at the different ways that my girls have hit their milestones. Kaelyn sat and cruised early, but was late to crawl and she took forever to figure out how to get from crawling back to sitting. Alex didn’t sit up until almost 7 months, but quickly learned to get from her hands and knees back to sitting, and then started crawling all in less than 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Isaac took a little longer to sit up than normal and it was thought to be from the reflux. Maybe you could mention it to you dr and see what they think. Try not to worry too much

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for all of the posts. Jacob is able to sit in the boppy for long periods of time before falling over, but he is not using his hands yet to support himself. He has always been a HUGE back archer because of the reflux, so he wouldn’t even bend his poor little body until about one and a half months ago. I guess that would naturally delay him with sitting….. Also, he loves to be on his back and hates tummy time, so naturally that will probably delay crawling. Finally, he sees a PT for torticollis (which is almost gone – yay!) and both she and the doc have zero concerns re: tone. It just seems to me that I’ll have to be patient (we’re slowly getting used to that over here). 🙂 It’s good to hear that the delays are fairly common though…thank you again to everyone.

So, since we have extremely HIGH maintenance babies, does that mean they’ll be easy teenagers???!!!??? That’s only fair, I think.

Johanna

[Anonymous]

“So, since we have extremely HIGH maintenance babies, does that mean they’ll be easy teenagers???!!!??? That’s only fair, I think. “

I so totally agree – now how do we make THAT happen

Robin

[Author]

Posts