Possible Gross Motor Delay in 9.5mo...what comes next?

[Anonymous]

Good advice - call your county early intervention program and start with that. My DD was way behind your DS at that age - couldn't roll over or hold her head up. She had PT until age 3 and now in 5th grade plays softball and field hockey. Definitely no indications to panic! My DD has low muscle tone. Still has it, but totally compensates for it now.

[Anonymous]

PT isn't that time consuming or hard to coordinate if your child is in daycare or with a nanny. At least in DC I found most of the PTs will come to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Where do you live? Every jurisdiction in the US has some program like the Arlington one. We can help you find it.

I'm in California Bay Area now. My friend says she looked into programs here, because her son was on the cusp of still needing PT when they moved here. Apparently the ones here are reserved for low-income families (which I understand). But she said she didn't locate a private one that comes to your home. I will obviously learn more about options from his doctor, but it's Kaiser so I'm doubtful there are in-home type programs available through them. I'd definitely be open to exploring OOP options, if need be.

If anyone has experience with Kaiser for these kinds of issues, that would be appreciated as well. I feel very certain that he's now clearly outside of the late end of typical development...and the pediatrician yesterday confirmed that. She said she wouldn't be worried if he were interested in bearing weight on his legs or able to get onto all fours, but he can't.

I would ask the doc about early intervention and not rely on what a friend thinks she understands about how it works. The doc should be able to get you a referral at minimum for n evaluation. Good luck (I'm the PP with the 16 month old--the doc referred us to strong start here in DC).

I wasn't saying not to have an evaluation. But you can't leave it all to the professionals either. As a parent, we did tummy time in bursts. You have to expect that they won't like it, but that's okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Where do you live? Every jurisdiction in the US has some program like the Arlington one. We can help you find it.

I'm in California Bay Area now. My friend says she looked into programs here, because her son was on the cusp of still needing PT when they moved here. Apparently the ones here are reserved for low-income families (which I understand). But she said she didn't locate a private one that comes to your home. I will obviously learn more about options from his doctor, but it's Kaiser so I'm doubtful there are in-home type programs available through them. I'd definitely be open to exploring OOP options, if need be.

If anyone has experience with Kaiser for these kinds of issues, that would be appreciated as well. I feel very certain that he's now clearly outside of the late end of typical development...and the pediatrician yesterday confirmed that. She said she wouldn't be worried if he were interested in bearing weight on his legs or able to get onto all fours, but he can't.

I would ask the doc about early intervention and not rely on what a friend thinks she understands about how it works. The doc should be able to get you a referral at minimum for n evaluation. Good luck (I'm the PP with the 16 month old--the doc referred us to strong start here in DC).

I wasn't saying not to have an evaluation. But you can't leave it all to the professionals either. As a parent, we did tummy time in bursts. You have to expect that they won't like it, but that's okay.

Of course you don't leave it all to the pros, the idea with PT is that they teach parent/caretaker things to do with kid, not that it's a one off for an hour a week.

[Anonymous]

My second child was diagnosed w/low muscle tone at 4 months - he couldn't hold his head up sufficiently. They diagnosed him w/significant gross motor delays (forget the percentage now.) We did 2x week PT for about 6 months and he caught up. He had a few other issues as a toddler related to low tone but he turned out to be the athlete of our family - a total demon in soccer, football, basketball and probably anything else he tries. He's 8yo now and until I saw this post I'd almost forgotten how scary it all sounded when he was an infant!

[Anonymous]

It's way too soon to say a 9.5 month old has a gross motor delay. Back to sleep has significantly delayed sitting up, crawling and walking but the literature hasn't caught up.

[Anonymous]

Completely agree with the majority that it very well could be nothing, but I think it makes sense to have it checked out as soon as you can. And for the record, PT / OT and your other providers won't always give it to you straight (or have the experience to do so)... our daughter expressed preference for left hand at 9 months (which we now know is a red flag). Pediatrician didn't think she needed PT or EI eval (we pushed anyway). In retrospect, everyone was afraid to even mention the possibility that it could be neurological (CP). After pushing for developmental pediatrician and neuro evals, we got a CP diagnosis, immediately into therapy and headed off a lot of problems. 2.5 now, doing excellent and is right on track.