Crawling: is it important?

[Maddy]

I really don't know the answer to this question. Some children bypass crawling and just start walking - and lots of pediatricians think this is okay.

However, right-brain educator Glenn Doman believes crawling is essential not just to a child's physical development but to her mental development as well.

It's a question I've discussed this on the BrillBaby website here:
http://www.brillbaby.com/teaching/physical/crawling.php

Personally, I would like my baby to learn to crawl - I don't want to bypass any stages! I'm not sure how I will feel if she doesn't crawl at all, but she is still 9.5 months old and two of my friends have babies who started crawling at 10 months.

It's not what I was expecting though, as I started crawling at 7-8 months (and am not a particularly sporty person!). Naimah is very active - always striving to move somewhere, to get at something or to grab at something. When you change her, she's always kicking and writhing and rolling onto her tummy. Once on her tummy, she's only happy if she can pull books or magazines out of a stack (her toys are not half as interesting!). Then, when we don't let her eat or shred paper, she'll start fussing for someone to rescue her from the prone position.

Anyway, she can now crawl (sort of) using the Glenn Doman crawling track - it's just that she hates it. Check out this video I shot yesterday, on my blog. (Lappy says it reminds her of the video I posted earlier of the boy attending the Shichida school. )

As for encouraging physical development, we have always given Nim daily tummy time, but not four hours per day as recommended by Glenn Doman, because we can't stand to see her so upset (when she was small, she would be much more upset than you see in the video).

Is crawling important to you? Or do you have a child who never crawled?

At what age did your baby start crawling (if ever)? Do you think it's more a case of nature than nurture, or vice versa, as to when babies start crawling?

Do you think crawling - and the age at which it starts - has an impact on someone's future development? Or could it be a predictor?

(Wouldn't it be interesting to know when professional athletes learned to crawl and walk??)

Although I started crawling at an average age, I didn't walk until 16 months (I cruised from 12 months - so it was all a question of fear factor ). My brother started crawling not much younger than me, but started walking at 10 months!

I see it in our personalities to this day. If we go skiing, I won't do any jumps, but my brother will. He'll ski faster and take more risks. But then my brother has also had broken bones and stitches in his life...

[nohayo]

I can't really answer your questions because I don't have babies yet, but I am wondering if you do attachement parenting or carry Nim around all the time or stuff like that that might be a reason why she likes to be held and doesn't like to crawl on her own? I'm just curious, i know these things might have nothing to do with it, I just want to hear your story that's all

Nim is adorable by the way

[nhockaday]

After reading the article on Brillbaby's website, http://www.brillbaby.com/teaching/physical/crawling.php, I wanted Gabriel to crawl more than ever. Before I read this, it didn't make much of a difference if he crawled or not. All of the baby magazines and books that I read say many babies now walk before they crawl, so I thought it to be no big deal. But what I read in the article makes perfect sense.

Gabriel has always been a very active baby (even fetus). He is always moving, squirming and grabbing for things, so it seems like he'd be a crawling expert by now! But I think the reason he isn't is mostly my fault because I hold him so much during the day. He has always been very attached to me, and I don't like to let him cry for more than a couple of minutes. Plus, he never liked "belly time" for more than a few minutes, but still, I tried to implement it into his daily routine, for as long as he would stand it.

I was crawling at 6 months and taking my first steps by myself at 10 months. I know that's early, but there's a part of me that wishes Gabriel, now almost 8 months, was following after his mom's, AH-HEM, footsteps....

When I got back from a trip a couple of months ago, I decided to include more "belly time" in Gabriel's day. I wanted him to learn to crawl, and I wanted him to enjoy being on the floor instead of attached to me all of the time. So I started putting out his play mat and some toys and letting him play. It didn't take him long to learn how to use his arms to drag himself about and rotate full circles over and over. He can even back himself up using his arms (although he hasn't quite figured out how to move forward or use his legs yet). He enjoys scooting himself back to the entertainment center, turning around to face it, and pulling out the dvd's! And now, if he's in a good mood, he will play on the floor for a long time without fussing. He now prefers being on his belly during playtime and even sleep. He always slept on his back, but last month, he kept waking up every couple of hours or so and waking up early, which was driving me crazy! He started rolling over to his stomach when I was trying to get him to sleep, and if I turned him back over, he would roll over again, so I decided to try to let him sleep on his stomach. The first night, he slept 9 uninterupted hours! It's interesting to note that when I am trying to get him to sleep at night (he falls asleep in my bed and then I transfer him to his crib), he puts his legs under him and uses them to push his body up. I have seen him almost do this on the floor too, but something about going to sleep brings out all the wiggles in him! It seems like he may learn to crawl off the side of the bed before he crawls on the floor! 

I know that most experts say that what he is doing is a form of crawling, but I cannot wait until he does it on his hands and knees. It's definatley an important milestone in my eyes.

[teresa]

I think Brillbaby's article said it all and I totally agree with it!  My husband told me that a mother in Hong Kong flew to the United States to learn right brain education for her son (a few years back... I guess right brain education was not as common as it is these days). After finishing the course she always made her son crawl. She even brought her son to some indoor areas that had more space for her son to crawl. Her friends and relatives thought she was crazy - until her son became the first junior astronaut in Hong Kong (who joined the US airspace team) at 6 years old!

The TweedleWink Teleseminar also mentioned that crawling is an important stage for kids as babies are using their right brain when they are doing cross motion (i.e. crawling). It's recommended that we play foreign language, scientific facts or classical music to them when they are crawling because they will absorb those information like a sponge!

My son loved to crawl but since he wasn't walking when he was 1 year and 3 months old, our infant development consultant insisted that he should learn to walk (because he was physically ready) and so forced him to walk. If I had taken the teleseminar earlier, I would not have forced my son to walk this early! 

Teresa

[KL]

I have always been a very big advocate of crawling, and I always advise my parent friends and relatives to maximize tummy-time right from early on.  The article already talks about why this is important so I won't rehash it here.

Let me share with you my experience with Felicity on this matter.

SLEEPING

From the time when we noticed her neck muscles were strong enough that she could turn her head from side to side when lying on her tummy, we started letting her sleep on her tummy in the daytime when someone was around, as she would sleep so much better.  We would lie her on a mattress, no pillow, and with bedsheets pulled tight.  We felt that the risk of her suffocating from having her nose pressed against the bed was about as high as a comet crashing into her bedroom from outer space.
However, at night, since there was far less supervision, we would let her sleep on her side, on a pillow, and being supported from the back.

WHEN AWAKE

When awake, we started putting her on her tummy for extended periods when she was around 2 months old.  Because we hadn't put her on her tummy for long periods before that, she was not used to being on her tummy for long periods, and would cry after a while. At first we would give in and turn her back to lie on her back, but after reading the Doman books, we decided to 'rough it out' and left her on her tummy. We would lie beside her to comfort her and let her know that we weren't trying to 'torture' her.  I think the first time, she cried herself to sleep! It was heart-breaking but we knew that she's not crying because there's anything 'wrong', but simply because she wasn't used to that position.
The next times, she cried for shorter and shorter periods, and very soon, she became very used to lying on her tummy, and positively LOVED it!  She would now fuss if she was put on her back!! And once she learnt how to roll-over from back to front, there was literally no longer any time when you'd be able to find her awake on her back.

CRAWLING

All that led to her crawling quite early. At 4 or 5 months, she was mobile already, being able to push herself around like a walrus/seal.  At 8 months, she finally mastered cross-pattern crawling.

WALKING

She started walking independently at 12 months, though we believe she actually could have walked much earlier because she would hold our finger to walk, and we could feel that she didn't really need to, but everytime we let go, she would be afraid and she would sit down and crawl.  When she finally walked a few steps on her own and wasn't scared anymore, she actually walked about 15 metres after a few minutes.  But we were actually glad she didn't walk any earlier and crawled instead, since we believed in the importance of crawling.
So on this, what I would say you other parents is - don't rush your child to walk, cos crawling is a very good thing!!

LINK WITH SPEECH?

According to Doman, there is a link between crawling and speech. Felicity seems to be a very early talker, and I would think that her case supports this theory.


To sum up, the biggest advice I could give is:

MAXIMIZE TUMMY TIME!!!

KL

[Maddy]

Hi NOHA, it's funny you should mention attachment parenting - I only heard about it for the first time last week!

We don't practice any particular form of parenting - we just do what feels right.

When Naimah was very small, we did used to hold her a lot, because she would only stay asleep if she was on someone's chest!

These days, we put her down for a nap on the floor/on our bed, and we put her down by singing/patting(/nursing).

We were never comfortable with letting her cry it out.

Hi NIKKI, reading your post, I recognized a lot of myself - and Naimah, who is always moving, always striving, always questing for something (and in the womb, there was a lot of kicking!).

I also recognized the wish for our children to develop at least as fast as we did ourselves! But in my case, I have to take into account the fact that my husband never crawled. He definitely wasn't given the opportunity - his mother was actually opposed to her babies crawling! But I have to also say that this produced no adverse impact on his language skills. He was an early talker (counting at 9 months), an early reader (reading independently before he started school), and is now a senior writer for Time magazine.

I think the crawling track is a good thing though - and I would really like Nim to learn to crawl soon. Now that putting her on the track causes her to move down (whereas before, she was as immobile as if she were on a flat surface), we're going to be using it regularly.

The question of tummy sleeping at night is a very interesting one. All babies, it seems, sleep better on their tummies! I think we would have held Nim a lot less when she was small if we'd been able to put her to sleep on her tummy. Now that she is big enough to sleep safely on her tummy, she does it a lot. She actually rolls onto her tummy when she wants to sleep.

I have wondered sometimes why there are days when Nim won't let me sleep past 6:30 and other days when I get to sleep until 8 (what bliss) - perhaps the key to getting Nim to sleep longer will be to put her onto her tummy! (Often she's tired when she wakes up but doesn't know how to go back to sleep.)

KL did a great job with Felicity - she's always been really advanced in terms of motor skills (not to mention language). But I do wonder how much of that might be nature rather than nurture...

[KL]

We were never comfortable with letting her cry it out.

Yes, I understand that can be very heart-breaking for us parents to watch our babies cry.  Our first instinct is to do whatever we can to stop the crying.  For us, we keep focused on what we believe is the best for Felicity, and we were convinced that we wanted her to get comfortable being on her front asap.  As I mentioned, thankfully, the crying didn't last for long at all, and again, we made sure we were there with her, comforting her, so she didn't feel abandoned.

Watching the infant swimming videos just now reminded me of this topic. There, you can see parents/instructors teaching infants to turn over so that their faces/mouth can be above the water.  Obviously, there is going to be a LOT of discomfort and crying involved.  (I'm talking about the infant, btw... ) But isn't this the same (or similar) principle?

The swimming video I referred to can be seen here:
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/your-baby-can-swim!-(split-from-'when-will-the-swimming-article-be-up')/

Returning to the subject of crawling, after she got used to being on her front, we felt really good about our decision to let her cry it out because after she got used to it, there was no looking back.  She was so much happier on her front, and even happier when she became mobile at 5 months.  Similarly, I can also imagine those babies, after having gone through the uncomfortable learning process in the beginning, learning to absolutely LOVE the water and LOVE swimming.

[[email protected]]

Wow, I had not known that babies learning how to crawl had so much impact on a baby's mental growth.  I read through the article on the BrillBaby site and it made so much sense to me.  I willd efinitely keep this in mind while raising Diego.  It's good to know this ahead of time, and it's just amazing how small things like these will make an impact on my baby's development.

[tina]

Hi all,
I am new here, and for this question, I think it's important from what I was told.
I have also attended the tweedlewink program from rightbrainkids.com and I found it very useful! 

When my baby was 2 month old, someone from those A+ education came over to my house to explain what program they have to offer to my baby!  And that guy told me that my baby doesn't need to go to any preschool if we bought that package.  Well, it's a long story but at the end, we didn't buy the package because it's very very expensive, like $5000+CAD.   But what I have learnt from that guy is that crawling is very very important for baby's back brain development!  He even told me if my baby skips the crawling stage (I know some babies do), we should let her swim as much as she can.  It's the coordination between hands and legs that's important!

Hope this helps

[kmum]

I did a very small,informal survey amongst 9 or 10 acquaintances whose kids where having trouble reading and only one had done a proper cross pattern crawl.  I would love to see a large study done on it!

Does anyone know if the child will  reap the same benefits when " bear walking " on hands and feet rather than crawling on the knees?
thanks

[KL]

I would think so, because it seems like the key is actually in the 'cross-pattern' nature of crawling, so, so long as the 'bear walking' is also cross-pattern, then I don't see why not.

[kmum]

Thanks, she does seem to consistantly use a cross pattern.

[texaslady22]

I did a very small,informal survey amongst 9 or 10 acquaintances whose kids where having trouble reading and only one had done a proper cross pattern crawl.  I would love to see a large study done on it!

Does anyone know if the child will  reap the same benefits when " bear walking " on hands and feet rather than crawling on the knees?
thanks

Sorry, I know this is an old post, but I wanted to add that we had our son evaluated by a Doman-trained neurodevelopmentalist and we were told that Bear Crawling does NOTHING for the brain but it does help muslces.

Bear crawling will not grow the brain like creeping and crawling, according to this highly-trained individual.

[mandiq]

My first son we never allowed him to cry not for an instant... so at the first big sigh of tummy time he was picked up. I took the Doman course when he was over a year... and of course I was worried that I never gave my son the opportunity to crawl.  The results to date...
He spoke in full sentances when he was 18 months old... he could sign around 600 words (thanks signingtime) and our pediatrian had said in all his years he has never seen such a bright baby... He never crawled he walked at 10 months.
 My second son... we did attachment parenting meaning when he wasnt on the floor he was in a sling or a wrap and attached to me.  He slept in a crib at night on his tummy.  He is 4 months old and did the army crawl once this week about 1 foot... he hasnt been able to replicate the distance but lovesssssssss tummy time now.  He is so determined to do that again
I still dont believe in letting a child cry it out.  1 minute oftummy time 30or 40 times a day is 30 - 40 minutes... slinging is a easy way to say okay go on the floor in this room while I work a bit and is you fuss come up... My second son loved his tummy time just as much s being in the sling... there are times when hes fed up with being on his back, being in the sling, and being on hs tummy... but the constant switch is good I believe.

[kmum]

K also hated tummy time.  We started laying on the floor with her - reading books, playing with toys & doing anything we could to keep her on the floor longer.  Gradually she went from hating it to loving it & even sleeping on her tummy.

texaslady - I just realized that I forgot to say thanks for the info.

Lately K seems to bear walk some of the time, but also creep - no walking yet so even creeping half of the time should help some.

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