How Can You Help a Baby Crawl?

How can I help my baby crawl and when can I expect my baby to crawl are questions of concern for new parents. If, as a new parent, we are concerned that our baby does not seem to be crawling as early as we think they should, we can help them with this developmental milestone.

Since the Back to Sleep campaign which began in 1994, encouraging parents to put their babies on their backs to sleep so as to reduce the risk of SIDS, babies often don't crawl as early as they once did. It is suspected that the reason for this is that some babies spend very little time on their tummies. It is this tummy time that helps to encourage crawling so it is important to give your baby as much time on their tummies as possible.

Some babies, because of too little tummy time, skip crawling altogether. They instead will begin to pull themselves up, as their strength allows, will stand and hold onto things, and eventually will walk when they are ready, completely bypassing the crawling stage.

As for crawling, babies do this in many different ways. There is the traditional crawl on hands and knees and usually begins between six and ten months. Some will also do the bottom shuffle or will slide on their stomachs, pulling themselves along with their arms to get where they want to go, and some will walk on all fours as my daughter did, not using her knees at all. And often they will begin to move backwards before they get the forward motion happening.

Some of the ways to encourage your baby to crawl are:

- Lay baby on his tummy with a soft but firm cylindrical-shaped object under the upper portion of his body for support so he can get a good view of his surroundings from the tummy position.
- Put baby on his tummy and lie on the floor in front of your child and talk, sing and amuse him. Perhaps hold a toy that he is interested in trying to reach.
- When baby is lying on the floor on his tummy, put his arms and legs in the crawl position and put brightly colored toys on the floor in front of him. When one of my sons was ten months old and had shown no interest in crawling, I put the budgie cage on the floor in front of him. The budgies were his motivator.
- Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Lay baby across your legs with his upper body on one side of your legs and his lower body on the other. This position will encourage him to try and get over your legs.
- Lay a bath towel on the floor and place baby tummy down across the width of the towel. Pick up the ends and raise until baby's hands and knees touch the floor encouraging him with some of his weight on the floor and a brightly colored toy on the floor in front of him to reach for.
- Get a colorful floor/play mat for baby to have his tummy time on. Many of them have areas that squeak or crunch and have various textures that babies like. When he becomes familiar with the different things on the mat, his curiosity will encourage him to reach for them.
- One thing I found very good and which takes advantage of a baby's natural curiosity is placing a mirror in front of, but out of reach of your baby. Curiosity will encourage him to move towards the other baby.
- Keep in mind also that babies love bright colors, toys that roll, ones with visual stimulation and those that are musical.

If your baby is still not inclined to crawl, he may just be waiting for the walking stage. I believe that the personality of babies also have a bearing on their readiness. My son who didn't crawl until he was over ten months, didn't walk until he was fifteen months. And today he has a peaceful nature and is an easy-going person.