Toe walking?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone! I have a 18 month old son who out of nowhere over the last 2 weeks, will randomly start walking on his toes. Obviously google isn’t your friend with stuff like this so I’m curious if anyone else had a toddler who did this? He has 0 signs of autism and his pediatrician was actually super impressed with his skills at his 18 month appt last month. He says over 20 words, knows 6 animal sounds, knows 8 sign language signs, knows 2 colors, can count to 3, etc. He was a preemie (34 weeker) but his dr said at this point, you wouldn’t know he was a preemie and is 100% on track with an actual 18 month old and not his adjusted age.

Im a FTM so the toe walking may not be a big thing at all but I’m just wondering if anyone else dealt with it / it was just a random toddler thing.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

My daughter (now 8) did that and is not on the autism spectrum. Sometimes kids are weird

[Anonymous]

Try to nip it in the bud. Tell him heels down. My friends kid did this for years and now can’t walk normally, even w surgery. It’s really tough.

[Anonymous]

My DD did this, and actually her gait is still toe-heel. Not on the spectrum at all but sensitive to textures and I think that's related.

We did not successfully fix it but the ped suggested calf and heel stretches, and squeaker shoes as a toddler.

[Anonymous]

My child toe walks. They were diagnosed on the spectrum as a teen.

[Anonymous]

My seemingly NT 2yo daughter did a fair amount of toe walking between 14-22 months. She doesn’t do it anymore (25 months.) my MIL didn’t stop talking about it and it was super annoying. Neither her doctor nor I were concerned; she met all milestones early or on time and is super social and verbal.

We also have an older son who has adhd. He didn’t toe walk, and while he technically met all of his milestones on time, I intuitively knew early on that there was something ND about him. Trust your instincts.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 kids, one NT and one on the spectrum. The NT child was the toewalker. She largely grew out of it by age 4.

[Anonymous]

I was a toe walker as a kid. I am not autistic. I outgrew it but my feet were very wide as a kid - but not sure if it resulted from toe walking though.

[Anonymous]

This is typical behavior before 3 or 4.

[Anonymous]

Muscular Dystrophy?

[Anonymous]

DMD is usually first diagnosed when a child is three to four years old, although symptoms are common earlier than this. Early signs of DMD include: toe-walking – children start walking on their tip toes. larger than normal calf muscles, which is called pseudohypertrophy (see-you-doe-hyper-truh-fee)

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Please google it.

[Anonymous]

This is not something you should be crowdsourcing on an anonymous internet forum. Take this to your pediatrician or other trusted childcare provider who can tell you if this is within the normal range.

[Anonymous]

Buy Timberland boots. They are heavy and will nip the toe walking in the bud

[Anonymous]

Consult a PT, this is not something you want to continue.

[Anonymous]

op here: thank you everyone. We only notice it when we are home and he’s not wearing shoes. He has never done it out and about with shoes on. We were out all morning Saturday running errands and he was walking around the stores perfectly normal in his shoes. But when we are home and he’s in just socks, he will randomly just start toe walking out of nowhere for a few steps.

He doesn’t go back to his ped until he turns 2 in May but I may put a call in just to see him and see if he thinks it’s an issue or not.