Where Are All the Zombie Children on the Walking Dead?

As one of the more emphasized facets of The Walking Dead, the variety of zombies used in each season is always consistently changing. Greg Nicotero, the special effects designer for the zombies on The Walking Dead, has made unique zombies for each new season. And while he continues to create new variations of walkers, there's one specific sect of zombies who have been mostly excluded: children.

There have been children on The Walking Dead going as far back as the pilot episode, but the last zombie under the age of 18 was seen in Season 5 when Noah's younger brother was found hiding in their old home. The undead kid wound up biting Tyreese, resulting in his death. Since then, no zombie children have been seen on the series.

Now, some could argue a majority of children have been killed off by this point in the post-apocalypse era ,which is why we don't see many children around, but reasonably speaking, wouldn't we see the zombies left in their wake? It's not like the child population just vanished — they either survived or became zombies like everyone else — so their absence is intriguing to say the least.

The explanation is probably rooted somewhere in the mythology built around #TheWalkingDead. For now, let's take a look at all zombie children featured on The Walking Dead thus far.

Unnamed Little Zombie Girl

The first zombie to appear on The Walking Dead was a little girl no older than 8 years old. She's introduced in the opening scene of Episode 1 wandering among a blocked highway of cars. She unfortunately gets shot in the face by Rick Grimes, but you can't blame Rick — she is a zombie, after all.

Sophia

In Season 2, Sophia appears in Herschel's barn. At some point after she was separated from the group, she was bit, turned into a walker, and placed in the barn by Otis. When she's found by the group, it's not only a devastating loss for Carol, but for the entire group. Rick ends up being the one to pull the trigger this time as well.

Penny Blake, The Governor's Daughter

Another child casualty came in the form of the Governor's daughter, Penny. Back in Season 3, Michonne found Penny tied in chains. It wasn't until Michonne removed the bag from her head that she realized Penny had already become a zombie. Penny remains this way until later on in the season when Michonne returns and puts the poor girl to rest.

Patrick

During the zombie flu outbreak in Season 4, one of the new occupants at the prison becomes infected. Despite only being a teenager, Patrick infects a number of people, leading to their deaths. If I recall correctly, I think it was Rick who put a knife through Patrick's brain.

Little Zombie Boy In Alexandria

There was one young zombie kid back in Season 5 when Alexandria was overrun with a horde but we don't get a very good look at the kid. We don't even know if he's related to any living character on The Walking Dead. Nonetheless, he adds to the list of zombie children on the series.

Noah's Unnamed Brother

Back in Season 5, Rick's group runs into a bit of trouble in their attempt to return Noah to his home in Atlanta. Upon arriving to Noah's community, the group splits up to look for any survivors. Tyreese accompanies Noah to his family's home, where his undead brothers are trapped in the house. Unfortunately, they could not act fast enough and Tyreese gets bit by one of them.

Most of the episode depicts Tyreese coming to terms with his death before he's inevitably put in the ground. Tyreese's death was definitely an unfortunate one but that just goes to show no one is safe on The Walking Dead.

No More Zombie Children After Season 6, Episode 9

Since Noah's brothers were put to rest, there hasn't been a single child zombie featured on the series. Not even Sam or Ron turned into zombies, which seemed like a real possibility after they were killed in Season 6. But we can't fail to acknowledge the little zombie boy in Alexandria when it was overun in Season 6. Nevertheless, there is a notable absence of zombie children on The Walking Dead and there's no prevalent reasoning as to why. Hopefully Robert Kirkman will shed a bit of light on this question at some point. Who knows, perhaps we'll see a horde of zombie children one day.