Crawling

[min]

hmm, i swear i posted a topic in here last night. I dont think pregnancy brain ever leaves!

Was just wondering when everyones bubs started crawling. Jackson is 10 months old, and isnt even trying. He has pushed himself backwards a few times, but doesnt even try to get up on his knees, just lies on his stomach sky diving and expecting to will the toys to him and getting very frustrated!

has anyone had babies that have gone straight to pulling themselves up and walking, byassing the crawling stage.

it is hard when i see all the other babies i know that are younger than Jacko and they are crawling. and when i take him swimming and the bubs are craling over the mats and every week i say he isnt crawling, and i swear the mothers look at me like it is my fault. Surely there is nothing i can to to help him along?

[sunbeam koala]

Hi min,

You could encourage him to move a little by putting toys a little out of reach. Then while he's on his tummy, have your hands on the floor behind his feet, let him push off from your hands and he should move forwards. It might help him to work out how to do it. Go Jackson!

[{sarah}]

Hey Min, it was tacked onto the end of another post - so you're not going nuts!! Here it is.

[Trillian]

Min, Jackson is just fine. My three all started it at different ages, Lindsay was 8months, Erin was 4.5 months (I kid you not!) and Paige was 6 months. A woman I know has a little girl 3 weeks older than Erin and she didn't start crawling until she was 10 months and Erin was walking for ages by then. It will vary so much between each baby. Another woman I know through a friend took her little boy to early intervention because he wasn't crawling at 10 months and she thought there must be something wrong with him and he was fine.

It is possible that once he starts he may not crawl for long before walking, or he may not start walking until a lot later. But do what Deb said and put his toys out of reach to encourage him to move to them.

[Lucy]

Min, Don't stress! Olivia NEVER crawled at all. She just sat on her bottom until she was 11 months and then bottom shuffled. To this day she has never crawled. Her bottom shuffling got pretty speedy.

We encouraged her to lay on her tummy in an attempt to encourage her to crawl, but she never did.

She did take a long time to weight bear/pull herself up (15 months) and a long time to walk (19 months) but as I speak she is running up and down the house, so whilst it all took her a fair while, she is now rock steady and just like any other 2 year old.........

[Ambah]

Hi Min, I also dont think you should stress too much about it!
Aidyn didn't start crawling until he was 10 months as well... he never commando crawled, just started crawling on his hands and knees at 10 months.
And it didnt take him much longer to start walking after that - he took his first step at 12 months, and was walking properly by 13 months!

I know how hard it is when other people's babies do things before yours... I have had many worries about that in the past, and still do!
But try not to let it concern you too much, as I'm sure he is just taking things at his own pace which is perfectly natural and normal for him!

[angelfish]

Min, I know it's really hard and you have already been told this, but DON"T WORRY.

They all develop at their own pace. Some children never crawl but go straight to standing up. (In some cultures, crawling is considered animal-like, and parents feel very ashamed if they can't stop their kids crawling!) Some don't crawl until after they are a year old. Slow to crawl does not indicate any problem and a couple of years down the track nobody will be able to tell when he started crawling.

I had a similar experience with my first baby. As all his friends started rolling, crawling, standing up and walking, he just sat. Until he was 10 months old. He hated "tummy time" and no matter what I did he wouldn't stay on his tummy for more than a few minutes a day. I tried everything I could think of and agonised over what I could have done wrong. And of course, no matter how sincerely you believe that variation is natural and fine, we all secretly want to have the baby the does things early!

After months of me trying to "teach" him to roll onto his front, push up and crawl (as per the text books and what other bubs were doing), one day he just rocked forward from a sitting position and started crawling by himself. So all my trying to help him had been pointless anyway. Incidentally, he only learned to roll when he saw his sister (2 years younger) do it!

This is what I suggest you do:
(1) Repeat after me "Jackson is developing beautifully. He will crawl or walk when he is ready"
(2) By all means try to teach him as long as it's fun and no pressure. But if you don't feel like it, just let him do it himself - he will
(3) If he's slow at crawling, he's most likely fast at something else, like vocalising, making expressive faces, fine motor skills (manipulating things with his hands) etc. If you look at his overall development, it might turn out that he's not getting moving because he's concentrating on some other aspect right now. My son was a couple of months behind with crawling and walking, but way ahead with talking.
(4) If he gets to about 18 months and still makes no attempt at all to walk, crawl or bottom-shuffle, then you have my permission to get concerned and take him to a paediatrician.

[Lucy]

If he's slow at crawling, he's most likely fast at something else

So true, I reckon.

I think babies have "pockets" of learning. Some have big gross motor skill pockets, others fine motor, and others verbal........

(Whilst Olivia never moved much, she could manipulate sorting toys brilliantly, so the point where some of the other Mums in my mothers group thought their babies were "slow" at things like that. And NOW they are all at the same level in most skills.........)

[Debbie Lee]

Min - one of the girls from my MG has a little boy who just turned 1 that isn't crawling yet. I think he has made attempts to move and can kind of slowly make his way toward something but, yeah... he's not big on moving.

Like the others have said, Jackson will get there eventually. I remember being worried that Gabby hadn't rolled from back to front ever! She only started doing it when she was 10 months old and after she had started crawling! So a milestone that "most" babies appeared to be reaching at 4 months, she didn't reach until 10 months. It's only now at 11.5 months that she is really confident to roll from her back to front. They just all develop differently! And... SOOOO much can happen in the space of just a few weeks! Gabby went from crawling to standing up on her own in just a couple of months. I don't think walking is far off (though I doubt it will be before her 1st birthday). Either way, she won't have been crawling for a very long time compared to other babies that start crawling early and walking later.

[min]

thanks girls, i know he will get ther eventually, just frustrating. actually in the last day he has started pushing himself forward on his toes, we have been putting him on his tummy with a wide circle of toys around him, and hey presto, he is actually trying, amazing how fast they learn.

true that he is faster at other things, he already has around 5 words, and has always been so fast to work out how toys work, and what to do to get them to do things etc. is great at copying too, we taught him how to wave and to click his tongue a few months ago, he is so clever!!

[Debbie Lee]

Well there you go, Min! His vocab is probably bigger than Gabby's. She will say Mum, Dad, Nan, ball, ta and hello... and she's almost 1! Goes to show they all develop at different rates!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

[/lurk]
Min, if it makes you feel any better, neither me nor my sister crawled. My 3 cousins, who are the same age as us, did, and my aunt told my mum that babies who don't crawl aren't as bright. Well, I'd say that none of us five are noticably dumber or brighter than the others, but we do have different skills now we're older. So why shouldn't babies have different skills when they're younger? My sister spoke fluently at an age where most babies are just about getting to grips with "mama" and "dada" (by one year old she was talking about tractors and catepillars) and I could read by the time I was 3 (OK, not novels, but could still read words and sentences). Everyone is different, huzzah, huzzah!
[lurk]

[min]

yup, my niece was such a lazy baby, she would just lie there all day long and not move unless someone moved her, but is so intelligent. by four she could write all our names and knew her address and telephone number, she had a huge vocabulary by one and now comes out with the most grown up phrases, it is scary!

Deb, jackson's words arent all fully formed, but we know what he means. he says properly mum, dad, ta, nannan and more, and he says ne for nonny (dummy) and dar for dog. also if you hold up two flash cards at a time to him, he can distinguish between some of them, he knows the dog, frog, star and flower.

jackson has progressed even since yesterday, he is also swaying from side to side up on his arms now

[mama mel]

Hi Min,

I just wanted to add I heard a lot of 'experts' don't even consider crawling a milestone b/c the age when they crawl is inconsequential... Something or other do to with the brain connections forming.. Can't quite remember.

As everyone else said, please don't stress out. My friend's baby didn't do anything until she was almost 8mths when she rolled but then she crawled at 9mths and walked at 11mths! I stressed with Adara for ages about her walking b/c she didn't even attempt it at all, even wondered if she was a bit slow. Then 1 day at 17mths she got up and walked away. Walked well and ever crawled again! Then 2 days later she pointed out the #2 on a letterbox (still don't know where she'd seen numbers before) and taught herself to count to 5 after reading a counting book once. That's when I realised she was fine and it's true, they just develop at their own pace and it means nothing at all.

So now I'm able to just really enjoy watching them grow up in their own time, without all the stressing.

[mama mel]

Oh, and ignore those other swimming mums if they really are looking at you funny b/c he's not crawling yet! You come accross competitive mums all the time and I find it quite funny. Just wait, there'll be a time when Jackson's able to do something much better or earlier at swimming in the future and you'll get the chance to see their nose out of place then

[MiyaMommy]

I am pretty sure Miya started at 3/4 months, she is very active and physically able but she is nearly 18 months and refuses to talk except about when and where daddy is ](*,)

So if your little one is all chatter then that is where she is developing atm
Each child develops at their own pace, so if your health nurse isnt worried you shouldnt either

As for those mom's Id say they are probably exagerating I have met a few, who claim they have a super child and make their littlies sound better than others |Competitive parents!!!!!

Instead of encouraging they are humiliating the child for what they cant do.

[sherrie]

This may sound silly but I used to get on the floor and crawl myself, I figured she just needed some ideas on what to do. For example with walking they see us do it from day one so they know what to do they just have to build up their strength and confidence for it. But, with crawling, unless they are around a crawling bub they are really on their own which I'd imagine can be pretty overwhelming at first?

You know those times where we are really stuck on how to do something when no-one shows us then one day something clicks and you 'get it' and find it was easy after all? I imagine its like that.