just got our materials for our crawling track

[cassidy336]

I'm excited about this.  I'm due next week and we will hopefully have the crawling track together soon after she is born.  I don't think I'll have her sleep in it at night because we will co-sleep, but during naps.  My son is much more interested in intellectual things rather than physicall so I'm hoping to see if starting the Doman physical ideas early with my daughter makes a difference. 

[khatty]

I am very excited for you.  I was not even aware of the crawling track with my first.  I would like to try it with my second child.  I would be interested in updates and details (if you have time).  How often and for how long will your co-sleeping baby spend on the track?  I am concerned about the temperature - I think Doman recommends 90 degrees.  How are you accomodating your child's need for warmth vs your child's need to be bare armed and legged to crawl? 

Thanks for posting, and I am looking forward to reading more.

[cassidy336]

My son never liked to be put down, and I'll also wear my daughter in a carrier, but sometimes you have to cook or go to the bathroom, etc.  I'm hoping she will like the crawling track enough for me to use it those times.  I wonder if the vibrating seats/swings just puts them in the tummy exposed position which they don't like which is why he thought all those things were terrible.  It is worth a try.  I held him for a solid year every time he napped because he wouldn't sleep on his back.  I can't do that with #2 so I hope she will be ok with this idea.

As far as temperature, we are lucky that we live in Florida.  It is a bit cold now but should warm up very soon.  I'm comfortable around 80 and the house certainly gets that hot during the day.  I also have a space heater that I can put near her (in a very safe way) to warm things up a bit more if necessary. 

[khatty]

Florida - that would make the temperature less of a concern   I like the idea of a space heater, but I currently don't own one and I am worried about how to make it safe - any suggestions?

I agree, my daughter hated the swing, and never really tolerated the crib.  She much preferred sleeping on her side curled up to me.  Perhaps a crawling track is the answer.

I read in the Physically Suberb book that a parent can just staple leather over the carpet instead of making a full crawling track.  Has anyone tried that?  What happens to the carpet underneath?  Not that baby doesn't come first, but I just put brand new carpet in the baby room - I would hate to wreck it.

I really do appreciate everones' ideas - sometimes it is tough to figure out the most practical way to implement these great ideas.

[Plarka]

Exciting! We have a crawling track ready to go and my baby is due on Sunday! I also have a camping mat we bought, which I will cut in half and tape together to make a big square mat for the baby to have tummy time on, I think like what Doman suggested about fixing leather or leatherette onto the carpet.  I don't like the leatherette because it's made of PVC which is toxic.  We also covered our crawling track with camping mats cut to size. They're made of EVA foam which is non-toxic.

The idea is that the baby is in the inclined track for a certain amount of time, which I can't remember right now, and then the other time is spent flat on the tummy on a mat. With the track they can learn to go forward by kicking off the sides, and with the mat they can experiment going all over the place.

[khatty]

Plarka.  Sounds awesome.  Do you have any pictures?

[gd215]

Where did you buy the crawling track ? I am very interested but the one the GD org. sells is pretty expensive . Thank You in advance

[oliveplants10]

can you share your pattern and specs, please!

[Plarka]

I don't have pictures, it's packed away.  But as soon as the baby's born we'll be putting her on it and taking pictures! I'll put some up then! 

To the person wanting a pattern, it's in the back of How to teach your baby to be physically superb, and also in How Smart is your baby.

I can explain ours though.  4 feet of plywood, with sides on it of 6 inch high plywood, camping mat cut to size lying flat on the bottom piece, taped on the ends with clear duck tape.  Then camping mat cut to size for the sides, folding over the top of sides about 2 inches over to the outside.  The tape didn't hold it so my husband nailed in a long piece of maybe 2 inch wide wood on the sides over the foam where it folds over, to hold it in place.  I hope that makes sense, but I'll try and put up a picture ones babe is here and all that!

[Joha]

Unfortunately we waited until our daughter was almost six months to build the crawling track, so we built it with pine instead of playwood so it will be more sturdy. We just got it at a home store. It was about US$40. We used the instructions from the back of Doman's book, but made a moditfiaction to easy store the track. The track fols in half. We didn't attach the "run" but built a padded mat that went through the middle that way the area she was on was totally flat. At the end of each side of the mat there a couple of flats with velcro that attached to the bottom of the track. The only thing is that the velcro came off, so we need to figure out something different for the next baby so it attaches complety. We didn't use for sleeping purposes, but just for crawling "training". We plan tu use it in with the next baby for sleeping. I'm attaching a couple of pictures that may give you an idea how it looks. It is put away, so the pictures are "old" and may not be the best, but just an idea . We are glad we did it to be folded. It was so much easier to store it.

[khatty]

Joha, Thanks for the pictures.  The track looks very well done.  What type of material did you use to cover it?  Thanks for the inspiration.

[Joha]

You are very welcome. We actually had help from a couple of handy friends since both of us aren't very crafty  The track was cover with vynil. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Plarka]

I got the track out and took some photos.  It's made of plywood, duck tape, foam camping mats cut up, and some wood along the sides to hold the foam in place.  The duck tape seems to be coming away at the ends, so I'm not sure I'd recommend that, maybe it needs more.  Explained in more detail in previous post.

Hm, the pictures seem to come up really huge when you click on them, but this is the best I can do right now!

[Plarka]

I was wondering, what did people use to raise the track to make in incline so the baby can go down it more easily?  I'm thinking scrap pieces of wood piled up that we have leftover from projects but there must be a better way.

[hypatia]

Just wondering: when did your babies stop crawling? My daughter hasn't crawled since she was 11mo and it's mission impossible to get her to crawl 'for fun' (she's 18m now)...

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