The important thing to remember with all child development guidelines is that they are just that – guidelines – based on average ages at which most children will achieve certain things. So while we can say that most toddlers can stand alone at 12 months, there will be a percentage who have not yet reached that point. Activities, like walking, generally happen to the same pattern for most children, with the different milestones appearing in roughly the same order, but they may happen at different ages. The advice generally given would be that for a baby who still isn’t pulling himself up to stand or cruising holding the furniture by 14 months, that would be a good time to talk to your health visitor or GP just to make absolutely sure that everything is ok. The most likely reason is that a baby just hasn’t got to that stage yet. You can see from this that you can probably wait for another couple of months, though if you are quite worried it may be best to speak to your health visitor before then. Remember that if a baby is premature they will always take longer to reach developmental milestones. For the record, it might be useful to know:

• At one year most toddlers will be able to stand alone and some will be “cruising” while holding onto the furniture, but some will still be happy just crawling or shuffling around.

• At about 18 months, most children can walk.

But remember still these are based on averages, and many children do not fit into this and there is still absolutely nothing to worry about.

My baby has just turned a year old but is still not pulling herself up on the furniture yet. Is this normal?