Mar 20 2008
Crawling
When my son was an infant I was constantly being asked, “So is he crawling yet?” When I would say, “No, not yet,” I would get a concerned glance and then a, “Oh, don’t worry, he’ll crawl soon.”
I wasn’t actually nervous but as each person reflected their own opinion on the matter I quickly began to stress about it. Wait a minute, he’s 7 months old and he hasn’t crawled yet, now he’s 8 months old and he hasn’t crawled yet. What is going on? Fear found a nice spot in my stomach and I repeatedly searched through my various resource materials from the books I had in college on Child Development to the countless handouts I had picked up at various workshops and parenting classes. I’m sure that you have probably been in the same place and maybe you still are. There is so much stress with having to wait for that developmental milestone where you can say, “Whew, my child is just like all the rest, maybe even better because he or she did this before everyone else.”
If you are worried about your infant’s development, you should sit back and take a deep breath and remember this phrase, “Range of Normalcy.”
Repeat that over and over to yourself and whenever someone asks if your child is crawling or has accomplished any other developmental milestone, say, “No but he is still in the range of normalcy.”
You will hear me say it often enough in all my developmental articles and all it refers to is the normal range of ages where a milestone takes place. So with crawling, the range of normalcy is 6 to 10 months. Yes some children crawl before 6 months and others crawl after 10 but the majority of children crawl between 6 to 10 months. I knew this when I had my first son and I still stressed over his lack of interest in crawling. In fact, my son didn’t crawl for the first time until he was just over 10 months old, on Father’s Day of all days!
Now that you know the range of normalcy for crawling, there are a few things that you can do to help promote crawling in your child.
1) Get down on the floor with him or her. Nothing encourages play and crawling more than if their mom and dad are sprawled out on their tummies moving around the floor with their child. Not only does this give you a chance to play with your baby but it gives you the opportunity to see the world from his or her vantage point. You can find little safety risks and deal with them before your baby gets a chance to pursue them.
2) Place toys in front of your baby just out of reach so that rocking motions forward will bring the toy into his or her grasp. Your baby will start reaching and will be encouraged to move forward. This also helps with other developmental milestones such as hand eye coordination, and grasping.
3) Limit the amount of time that you place your baby in a walker. I’m not a big fan of walkers since they are the cause of many infant related injuries and there are some studies that point to walkers causing developmental delays but I have been guilty of using the saucers without the wheels. They can be a great toy for any infant old enough to hold himself up but they should only be used for very short periods of time. Even though many studies disagree over the impact, the chance of there being an impact is enough to avoid using them excessively.
4) Remind yourself that your child will develop at his or her own speed. If you have concerns and if your child is not crawling by 12 months of age, please speak with your pediatrician.
One last note about crawling: Some children do not crawl, they go from sitting up to walking while others will scoot on their bottoms instead of crawling. There is nothing unusual about this and you shouldn’t have any concerns if your child gains his mobility by sitting and scooting. In the end, every child will find his or her own way in a manner that is uniquely theirs so just enjoy and love every moment of it.
Happy crawling,
Sirena
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