Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
Crawling is such an exciting and important milestone for your baby. Not only is your baby finally on the move, but crawling is great for your baby’s development too!
Crawling helps to develop the core muscles, as well as the shoulder and the pelvic girdle . It is also great for teaching your baby how to use both sides of his body together.
Most babies begin to crawl around 9 months old, some sooner and some later.
Here are some tips on how to get your baby to crawl:
Tummy Time
Giving your baby adequate tummy time will get your baby used to being on his tummy and help to build all the right muscles that he will need for crawling. You can put your baby over your knee with his knees bent and let him play with a toy. This will get your baby used to the crawling position.
Place A Towel Under Your Baby’s Chest
While your baby is having tummy time place a rolled up towel under your baby’s chest. If your baby is keen to get moving but does not yet have the strength to lift himself up you can help your baby by lifting him up a little bit using the ends of the towel.
Motivation
Put your baby’s favorite toy just out of reach while your baby is having some tummy time. This will encourage your baby to crawl forward to reach the toy.
Supportive Base
Very often your baby may be using his arms to try get moving but not his legs. Put your hands behind his feet giving him a platform to push off which will help him to start using his legs and make it easier to get started.
I used to let my baby have lots of tummy time. Thats sonething that helps. He started crawling around 8 months
Tummy time is really important! My first child started crawling at 8 months, second at 6 months, third around 8 months and my fourth child started crawling just before 7 months.
They need to be on the floor and trying to grab objects.
My last baby hated tummy time, so it was a challenge, but he got there.
I’m so glad to hear that all of them started at very different times. My daughter is 15 (going on 16 years now) and our little boy is almost 7 months now. I was getting anxious about what age he’s supposed to start crawling. He loves tummy time and rolls around like crazy, pushes himself up as well..so I’m veeeery excited to see when he’ll start crawling!
As a mom of three kids I realise that everyone is different. What works for one doesn’t always work for the other. My middle child started crawling at 5 months and the other at 11 months.
my baby is 7 months… she still doing tummy time. she pushes herself forward with her toes. my eldest daughter refused to crawl. at 7 months she wanted to walk. i had to force her to crawl first. but as they say, all kids are different.
I spent days and days crawling around and just when I was wondering is she ever going to crawl she started all on her own. The most important thing that I could do wwhen she started getting on all fours was place her over a beach ball and help her support her weight and move her legs and arms.
Recently i read that crawling is the hardest for the baby to learn. Practise makes perfect though! My baby girl started crawling at 8 months and is 9 months now.
Thank you for the article. Crawling is indeed a very important milestones a child needs to achieve. Is hold is different and develop at different ages. We as parents just need to help them but giving them activities as mention above.
Tummy time is a lovely activity. Both my kids love to sleep on they’re tummy so there neck,core and upper body became strong very quickly. ( just to add… I would not let my 3 week old baby sleep on his/her tummy if I didn’t have a breathing monitor)
Crawling also helps develop the fine muscles in the hands and wrists which can have a impact on there writing
I also love the activity of the pillow and favorite toy. It works like a bomb!!
Great article!
I was so scared that JD would skip the crawling stage, which is a very important stage in their development.
I was cautious when buying him a baby walker because I read that If you get them a walker too soon they might get used to be in the upright position and skip the crawling stage with is imperative for them.
I only bought him a walker after he started crawling and when I could see that he is ready to start walking. The signs were there. He was standing up against furniture.
The baby walker wasn’t even used for long before he started walking.
I am struggling with my 9 month old – but she’ll get there! Very helpful article. Thank you.
My eldest daughter hated tummy time with a passion! Her crawling was not traditional crawling for a long time. At 8 we discovered her core was still not as strong as it could be but thanks to a great OT she got back on track quickly. Get the basics done early and it definitely helps later on!!
Great article! One cannot overestimate the importance of tummy time! I would add to this baby massage and sensory stimulation for awareness of the different body parts for example, tickling with a feather on the thighs down to the feet. My son loved mimicking the rocking motion I did on all fours in front of a big mirror with him and soon figured out it was one knee in front of the other!
Thanks for the great read!!
My little boy is just over 6 months and i think we are at that stage where he is getting ready for crawling. He is such a busy body, legs and arms always moving and wiggling!! Will definitely try all the above mentioned, they will come in handy while we practice.
Very helpful and great article!
All too often mommies get told ; “Oh, do not worry! He/she does not need to crawl” or “My little one did not crawl, nothing wrong with that.”
When, infact they HAVE to crawl. As mentioned in above article.
My first born started crawling on 8 months. My second born only started at 9 months.
Tummy time is most definitely important!
When ever we do tummy time he just cry
Im literally doing all these things after just learning about the towel method yesterday!
A friend showed me how to put the clothy under her, lifting her up to help her get into position (where she does the wiggle thing), and to help her move forward.
It has made an instant improvement.
Thank you for the cute article. I almost want to say it’s all happening so fast and I’m barely ready! ♡
My baby girl is 6 months old
I have 4 children of my own, they all started by leopard crawling. They got so good at it that I was afraid they would never crawl properly. As an Occupational Therapist I am all too aware of the importance of crawling. Leopard crawling offers a lot of the same benefits, but weight bearing with extended arms, on hands and knees are still very important. Once I was confident that they were strong enough (by doing a lot of the above mentioned exercises) I put one of those plastic balls (found in ball pits) inside their vests. It forced them to push up on their arms. A little unorthodox, but it worked like a charm.
I have always read such fantastic comments where kids have done tummy time and speed up the crawling process, my little one refused tummy time he used to make himself completely upset to a point where I even stopped trying as he used to fuss and kick up a big fuss about it.
I did try the procedure holding a blanket under him and getting him in the crawling position which was also short lived he preferred falling asleep as though I was creating a swing effect which happened for a week.
Randomly at 11 months he decided to stand.
For all the stress I experienced went in vein as he walked without crawling, and after that I have heard quite a few other children don’t crawl as well.
Best is to not force the little ones and stress yourself out for no apparent reason 🙂
My younger sister never crawled – at months she just got up and started walking. While I can understand that crawling has great developmental benefits for a baby it is hardly life threatening if your baby decides to skip this stage 🙂 My sister turned out just fine!
I think trying to encourage your baby to crawl is great, but there is no point in freaking out and pushing your baby to do it.
Love this! Tummy time is so crucially important, as it sets the tone (pun intended) for the body to learn to change position. Many parents complain that their kids do not enjoy tummy timr so they give up. But these suggestions to slowly transition the child to get used to the positioning will ease the process. Many years later, there is less chance of the child’s teacher complaining of low muscle tone and poor handwriting. Crawling is really a concrete foundation movement in a growing child’s repertoire. Also, please don’t let your child skip crawling by placing them into a walking ring to be mobile. It can be very detrimental to many physical components of function. That’s a whole post on its own ?.
It is crazy how we yearn for our babies to just start crawling and two years later you wish they were still at that age! Crawling is definitely something that requires patience and motivation. My knees were raw from crawling around the house on all fours to get baby to crawl. But they eventually get it. And you can eventually walk like a normal mom again. All above the tips definitely work, repeat them as often as possible and every day!
My confession: I didn’t know tummy time was so important as I’m a first time mum. But, with some research and very good friends, I learnt very quickly about tummy time!
I agree with one of the mum’s though, every baby is different so its important not to feel like your baby isn’t developing properly. My baby showed me when she was ready and started crawling when she was ready – i just made sure that the environment was conducive to her wanting to crawl (the flat pillows, the putting the soft toys just in reach etc). Then…BOOM! She crawled effortlessly and then start walking a few months later.
Well done mums!! You are all doing a great job!
Oh yes I couldn’t agree with you more there Carmen! We have so much mom guilt as it is, no need to add in more due to differences in development!
My little boy started to crawl like a week ago he is 7 months young going to 8 months but oh my world when they crawl they get very busy. HAHA. He just kept going onto is tummy and then he would push himself up and go back and forth and back and forth (looked so funny) and then next thing i know he crawled like a little pro…but with the crawling comes falling and my poor heart eish don’t know how I’m going to react to the first BIG fall. Goodluck to all the mommies whose little ones are starting to crawl or already crawling. oh and not to mention the dirty hands and the knees shame………
Tummy time is so important. We bought the Yookidoo baby Tummy time mat. My son really enjoyed it especially because it had a red car on a track that he could looked at while laying on his tummy.
I learned with time that every developmental stage is critical for every child and sometimes we get excited with wanting our little ones to do what we like, le walking.
Every stage has its own benefits for the child, emotional, physically with their gross motor and fine motor . As a parent try to help the child with different excercise that will help baby’s development and try not to skip one level because you think it is not as important . Every milestone is an essential one. Its amazing once you realise what each level of development does to benefit a child even when they are much older. Lovely articale.
When my boy was a baby, he refused tummy time. My pediatrician suggested all of the above and he would get frustrated a scream blue murder and cry. In the end, he started crawling because of our cat. He was a monster of a siamese mixed with a ginger and he would lie just out of grabbing reach and flap the end of his tail which got my boy huffing and puffing and grunting and grabbing to get to the cat. Before long he was leopard crawling. The moment he got close to the cat, the cat would get up, walk a meter and flop down again. This would carry on for hours. It didn’t take him long after that to crawl properly. It turned out all of the advice was right, we just had to find what motivated him
My LO is 5 months this week and loves time on his tummy. You can see he’s dying to get around by himself so will try the 4th tip – hopefully it will trigger the realisation that his feet also play a part in the whole getting around thing 🙂
This article is so relevant to me right now! my daughter is 6 and a half months and is trying her utmost best to start crawling. When she’s sitting she lunges forward to get on her tummy to start moving, her legs and arms move but she still needs to learn to lift her self up. I’m definitely going to try the towel idea to help her learn to lift her body off the ground. But when she starts crawling, there will be no more sitting still!
I think sometimes we have an image in our head of what crawling should look like. My little one started crawling at around 7 months and boy oh boy did he work his kneepads! He did the hands-and-knees crawl. And loved tummy time.
My sister, on the other hand, refused to crawl. She sat and moved forward on her bum. She still managed to get where she wanted to be. That is pretty much how she did it until she stood up and walked.
I think each child is different and reach milestones in a different way and at different stages.
Thank you for the tips!
My son started crawling back wards lol but afterwards he got the hang of it and crawling to the front. This was priceless to watch
Another milestone to look forward too thank you for the tips
It is so great to hear how other mommies had the experience of seeing their children crawl. My daughter refused to crawl. She would get anywhere on her bumbs. That’s how she moved around the house. In fact I would leave her on her tummy and she would not go anywhere but cry. So lol I had to joy and best laugh to see her moving on her behind and waving her hand around
Thank you so much for this very useful tips. I think that it doesn’t matter how many kids you have, with each one it’s like a complete new ball game, it’s as if I am learning from scratch, googling what I did with the first or second child and what has to be done at which age. I am definitely going to make use of these tips. The towel tip stood out for me, I never thought of that before.
the towel trick is the best one, really helped Bella
Yes I also did the towel one with both my babies, it really helped them along!
Love these tips thank you 🌸🤗
Definitely going to start doing it with my baby.