What should our next step be?

Our daughter is 23 months old and is still not walking.  She is a very healthy child (has never been sick other than a cold) and is extremely bright (speaks in sentences, counts to  30, spells her name, knows alphabet, etc.)  She has shown no other developmental delay, except for her gross motor skills. Her fine motor skills have been exceptional. As a baby she was physically passive (enjoyed reading her books at 4 months, but did not crawl until late)  She has always had hypermobility in her joints, which we believe has contributed to her lack of stability.  In addition, her body is in the 25 percentile, while her head has always been >95%. Also, we noticed that early on she would turn her head to one side and look at an object through the corners of her eyes. Now, she looks straight at the object.

We have had her working with an occupational therapist since she was 14 months old.  She has shown tremendous improvement in her physical strength and stamina, but is still not interested in walking.  We have visited with a neurologist, but were unconvinced that putting our 23 month old under general anesthesia in order to perform an MRI that would tell us to ultimately put her in physical therapy was the right avenue to take. What else should we be doing to help our daughter at this point?  Do we have reason to believe she will never walk?  Is there a child development specialist in this area (Texas, or even nationally) that can provide us a solid medical opinion?  Thank you for your time and attention to this.  Looking forward to your response.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It is certainly reasonable to pursue whatever diagnostic course is required to determine why your daughter is displaying such a significant delay in her gross motor skills. You have in Texas the largest, and one of the better, full-service pediatric hospitals in the country. Texas Children's Hospital, part of the Texas Medical center in Houston, is a wonderful resource. It is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and without doubt can offer you some expert help.

[nurse12hr]

I would chime in that absolutely, I would have my child undergo  available diagnostics to determine the reason for this delay.

A child undergoing MRI anesthesia is monitored by an anesthesiologist, just as if he/she were undergoing surgery.  I understand your concerns, but this needs evaluation.