Walking or Lazy?

My son is 15 months old and not walking on his own yet. He started crawling at 11 mo and can do all the other "normal" things children his age do...except walk on his own. He walks perfectly fine if he holds on to one of your fingers. If my husband and I try to make him walk on his own he just takes a step or two and then drops into a crawling position and crawls away...if we keep it up, he just refuses to walk at all and makes his legs limp as if he doesnt want to stand at all. We try all the time to get him to walk so it is not as if we are avoiding the matter. When he is in his playpen he walks fine if he holds onto the railing. Why won't he walk on his own like other kids his age. He is a rather large child for his age. He is 31 lbs and very tall. Everyone thinks he is 2 yrs old when they look at him. Both my father and brother are over 6'5" tall so I guess he takes it from my side of the family. I have asked the Dr. if he is too big for his age and he said no, he is perfect for his hight and weight...he is in the 95%. Can you please tell me if you see a problem with his development or is he just being laxy since he crawled so late? Thanks

Sincerely ACB

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Amy,

Your son is not lazy. This term really does not apply to young children. He is learning to walk, albeit on the late side. Natural developmental processes will run their course. You should be reassured at your doctor's guidance.

[Amy]

I would like to advise you that our son, 15 months old, just started walking this week. We started out by bribing him with cookies etc to get him to come to us and now he is walking all over the place. No bribing now! We are very happy to know that there is nothing wrong with him after all, I was really starting to worry since he was 15 months old and not walking like every one else. Thanks