Standing Baby

[1timemum]

Our 15 week old DS loves to stand up with us holding his hands. He's been doing it for a couple of weeks now. When we hold his hands to pull him up into a sitting position, he'll stand instead. I've heard recently that it's bad developmentally if they walk before they crawl and I'm a bit concerned that he might not crawl if we let him keep standing up like this. Does anyone know if babies standing like this stop them from learning to crawl?

[shellbell3]

I don't think so. My bub loves to stand up with our help too, they love to look around and see everything. I know its good to play with them getting them to lie to sit to stand but if your son wants to skip the sitting it may just be cause he wants to see everything. Plus I don't think it will affect his crawling.
Can I ask in what way its bad if they walk before crawling? It sounds interesting.

[Liz]

Tallon ALWAYS stood up from early on.. but he's a happy crawler now! He may be an early walker, i don't know.. he's cruising around the furniture with ease... no idea when he'll actually let go tho

I think the fear of them standing when very little is the bow leg thing.. but I've also read that that isn't really a problem anyway? I say if he's wanting to stand up, his little legs are ready for it, and I wouldn't worry about it

ETA: Shellbel - my mum has a thing about he HAS to crawl before walking - something about using certain parts of the brain? I have no idea tho. Would be interesting if someone knows something 'official' about it tho.

[Soph]

I'm no expert but I don't think it is really a huge problem, like it was once thought to be. Re the crawling stuff, I have heard from quite a few people (but again no experts LOL!) that apparently if they can crawl they'll definately be able to read with no probs. Not really sure how or why that is though

[ShootingStar]

Jesse starts to stand too. Mum told me i walked before i was crawling at 9 months old as my brother and sister kept pulling me up and around everywhere, and theres nothing wrong with my legs or posture

[MantaRay]

Jack would stand up instead of sitting by that age too. He crawled at 5.5 months and walked at 9.5 months. Early, but he was crawling for ages before walking so it wasn't a problem in that way (although 9.5 months is too early to understand simple commands so it is challenging for mum and dad!!).

I don't believe early standing is a problem at all, and they wouldn't do it if their bodies weren't ready I'm sure.

[1timemum]

Thanks everyone. I'm not sure what the devlopmental issues are with the walking before crawling. Just heard it in passing from a friend. Haven't been able to find it any books. I have read that the bow-legged thing is a myth though.

[Fi]

Jenna had really strong legs when she was a little tot. They were also very strong under my ribs when I was pregnant!! She used to like standing up on her legs in our laps from very early.
She was comfortably crawling at about 6m though, and then was properly walking just before 10m, so she had plenty of time to get all the stages in.

I didn't realise how strong Jenna's legs were until I cuddled a baby that had softer/weaker legs. For your info, the baby with the weaker legs was still walking by about 12-13m, after crawling for a good amount of time, which is completely normal

[Pandora]

I don't know whether standing before crawling is a problem developmentally, but never crawling is.

think that the thing about crawling is that they get spacial relations from crawling. They learn the very basics from my face is this close to my hands, it takes this long to get to here, etc. And the distance from hand to face while crawling correlates to the distance between where they have their head when writing later on (or something, I can't remember if its writing or something else LOL).

I'm not sure if the reason is that stated above, but its something similar. My friends is a primary school teacher, and she "teaches" her grade 2 class to crawl every year, as she found that some kids have never done it as babies.

[Fee]

I'm not sure about walking before crawling, but holding bubs up in a standing position is good for them. You won't do any harm.

My son loves it!

[Debbie Lee]

Gab used to love doing this too. She thought she was so clever. People used to comment on how strong she was with standing and with holding her head up during tummy time.
She still went through the crawling stage then was walking confidently by 14 months. I wouldn't worry about it. I think it's only an issue if bubs is constantly put in a walker or in a jolly jumper for hours on end, iykwim?

[MantaRay]

I heard from a physio (and a nurse said the same thing) that crawling is important for developing the shoulder muscles (and some other muscles I think). Apparently it's also good to do wheel barrows with them for the same reason.

[Debbie Lee]

LOL... yet, wheelbarrows are banned in schools because of the potential "risk" of kids hurting themselves. Any wonder kids don't have much upper body strength! They can't climb trees, can't swing on monkey bars and can't play wheelbarrows...

Sorry... bit of a tangent there