8 months old and no creeping and crawling... any advice?

[verita]

hello, my third child seems to develop slowly. She is 8 months and a week, doesn't creep crawl, sit, or trying to sit, she mostly turns around now. I'm not good at vocab here - physical activities of a baby, but I hope you'll get the meaning. Should I do sth to help her? How? I don't have that Doman book and don't know much. My older ones developed physically much faster even though the third got some Doman reading etc early on (i found out about it some time after the third was born). So please, any advice will be welcome!
She also doesn't try to be on all four, always on her belly. Unless I put her so - then about 15 sec she can manage.

[andreasro]

I would advise you to buy the book "How Smart Is Your Baby" or "How To Teach Your Baby To Be Physically Superb".
But if you can't afford them, I'll try writing here basics.
If your baby is on her belly most of the time, it's very good.
One help would be to put your child on the belly and on an inclined position to help him feel the need to move forward.
Most of the first months of my second baby I did balance exercises, either holding the baby in my arms, or placing her on the belly on a pillow or a mat that I would incline one side to another or back and forth.
Trying patterning movements is another help - move the baby's arms and legs just like she would do by creeping.
Put the baby on floor and the favourite toy few inches in front of her hands to make her come forward.
Or put her on a pillow and help her go down moving her arms and legs.
The crawling track is good but you may use the same principle in many ways, depending on your imagination or materials available in the house.

There's a wonderful book, and very cheap, written years ago by the PlayWisely/Sparkabilities founder, and I'll quote from recommended reading about her program, http://www.playwisely.com/Documents/More%20Reading.pdf:

“Teaching Your Child Basic Body Confidence”,
by Patty Carmichael Gerard*
*The Author is a former collegiate All
-
Ameri
can Gymnast from the
University of Nebraska. This book presents the first application of the
„body axis‟ as a physical development approach to achieving body confidence.

If at this age the baby doesn't at least creep... it may be a delayed issue unless it solves in few months. I suggest you buy at least one book and start stimulating your baby. Sometimes time matters... My second baby didn't creep much, but he sat at around 6-7 and about that time he started crawling, though he was more confident in crawling later, at 8 months I think. I did stimulate him though, both with Doman and Patty's book. He started walking at 10 months and a half, and walking holded by one hand at 11 months.

It basically depends on the child. And the more stimulate he is, the better.
Patty has exercises arranged by age and they are meant to help the baby develop at each physical stage.


Andrea

[Korrale4kq]

I don't think you have anything to be concerned about yet, unless there are other global delays. Not reaching for things, not responding to voices, not making sounds etc. In this case it wouldn't hurt to talk to your baby's dr.

For now give her as much floor time as possible. Put baby down on their belly a lot. Also sit cross legged on the floor when you can with baby in your lap to strenghen her trunk muscles.
Put things behind her feet and have her push off them to propel herself forward.
Most of all avoid contraptions like sit in walkers, jumpers, exercersaucers etc when not necessary.

If by 10 months there is no progress consult your child's doctor.
Some kids don't crawl, some kids crawl later than 10 months and are just fine. But if there is any delay, the earliest intervention has the best results.

[verita]

I'd never use the contraptions you mentioned
But by sitting on the floor with her - do you mean she is to sit too? Or put her on her belly on my legs?

Thnak you both for advice.


She does react in all other ways correctly.
And today when I tried sth on her - I held her feet in a way and she was able to push away as in crawl. So I'm hoping for better tomorrow

[Korrale4kq]

Hold her sitting up. She will be well supported by you. But she will still need to use her trunk muscles. When my son was really little he only was on his belly or sitting in my lap like that when he was awake.

[kmum]

I have a couple of ideas to add to the great advice you've already received.  Try to give as much tummy time as possible. She may be very close to crawling but you may want to try building a crawling track to get her started. Another thing I've seen help is to have other kids model crawling  especially if you can find babies similar in age. Otherwise big brothers & sisters can be a great help.

[verita]

kmum, i just did that a couple of days ago :)
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/m3MipC3CQ2A&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/m3MipC3CQ2A&rel=1</a>

As for track - why does it help? I don't understand... I haven't read that particular Doman book, but I've seen the track on you tube. How is it different from the simple floor, where there is so much place to crawl?
And how do I do that if I have no wooden materials?

But perhaps all the other advice works, she now turnes around all (staying on her tummy, I'm not sure how you call that activity) the time and tries to lift her hips (with torso), though briefly, and manages onlyto lift the torso. Yet, that's a start.

[Korrale4kq]

The track gives them something to propel them selves off. I never used a track, I just kept my hands behind his feet, or I used my leg or a book.
The track can also be used on an incline. Gravity will help give some momentum.

[verita]

Yes, I did that, I put my hands behind her feet and she pushed away nicely. I'll do more of that then. Thank you all

[kmum]

Love the way your little guy is watching so intently - I'm certain he's learning!

The best thing about a crawling track is that if you place it on an angle, kind of like a slide, gravity will help the baby to realize that if he moves his body he can propel himself forward. Gradually as his movements be one more controlled you can gradually reduce the angle of the track until be can crawl on fiat ground.

I have heard of people making temporary crawling tracks with a sheet of plywood, table top or even an actual playground slide. Of course you have to supervise carefully.

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