3 Tips to Help Your Baby Crawl!
Affiliate and Referral links are used below to promote products I love and recommend. I receive a commission on any purchases made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Is crawling really that important to your baby's development? The question I seem to get asked most these days is, “Is she walking yet?” Walking is a major milestone, but let's not forget about the equally important skill of crawling. Today I am going to share 3 tips on how to encourage your baby to crawl.
In the last couple of weeks my daughter has mastered crawling. She is 10 1/2 months old and decided that our vacation to VA a couple weeks ago would be the perfect time to start teething, crawling, and trying to stand up.
As an Occupational Therapy Assistant this made me happy. I will be honest, I was worried about what to do if my baby never crawled. I know many of you wonder if crawling is really important. Many doctors and others now say that crawling is no longer important and if you baby skips it they will be fine. However, I tend to disagree with this. Crawling is huge milestone and is important for future learning experiences your baby will have.
Why is Crawling So Important for Baby?
The first reason is it is excellent practice in bilateral coordination, or using both sides of the body together to do something. Other skills your babies will use this for down the road are many gross motor skills such as riding a bike and fine motor skills such as cutting with scissors or writing.
Binocular vision, which is the eyes being able to look ahead in the distance and then back at hands during crawling is another important skill. Can you think of something an older child may use this for? Sitting in a classroom looking up at the chalk board or white board and then back down at their paper or hands at their desk.
There is also an interesting hypothesis or idea with the lack of crawling and ADHD. Not crawling will not allow the STNR (symmetric tonic neck reflex) or the reflex of coordinating ones body in a baby to be inhibited or matured. This reflex is matured after the child is able to crawl for at least 6 months.
If this reflex is not matured, then it can cause many issues down the road such as slumping in chairs, poor eye-hand coordination, poor attention and many others.
3 Tips to Help Your Baby Crawl
So now that you can see some of the benefits of crawling let's get to the 3 tips that will help your baby to crawl. These are what have worked for my daughter. Remember that all babies are different so you may need to tweak or change some of these to fit the temperament or interests of your baby.
1. Tummy Time
I am a huge supporter of tummy time. With the age of containers for carrying babies everywhere and the Back to Sleep campaign, which is important, tummy time is now equally important. When doing tummy time babies learn to hold their heads up, use good head control, and strengthen neck and trunk muscles, which then turns into being able to roll, get up on hands and feet, and then start coordinating crawling.
Guess what? Sometimes, babies hate tummy time. You would too if your mom stuck you on the floor and you had no way to move and your head was buried and it was sore to lift it up time and time again!
But patience, patience, little baby steps. Start out with 15 seconds, even 5 seconds at a time if you have to, a few times a day.
I will be honest here; I let my daughter fuss. I didn't help her much. When she got to a full-out cry, then I picked her up. But let them get frustrated a little bit, that is when they are learning and figuring things out.
Obviously, if they are screaming at the top of their lungs and thrashing around, no one is learning anything. Pick that baby up and comfort them, then try again later.
For more tips on tummy time, you can check out my Tummy Time Therapy Blogger series here or my 4 Tips to Include Tummy Time in Your Baby's Day.
2. Encourage With Toys
Nothing encourages a baby to go after something more than their favorite toys. Set them just out of reach so that they have to learn to roll initially, then farther away once they master that. My daughter became quite the expert roller. She was a speed demon on the floor! We ended up taking our coffee table out of the living room so she had a nice open space to roll in. I placed toys throughout the room and just let her do her thing.
Again, I kind of sat back and let her take the lead. I didn't help out much. I left her to figure things out and then praised her greatly when she succeeded. Rolling turned into hands and knees, and the cutest little baby bum in the air that you ever did see.
By far the most exciting things to her that got her moving were not “toys.” Laundry baskets, remotes, my cell phone, computers, and especially my water bottle or the cat walking through, would get her so excited she would try to take off after them or reach as far as she could to get it.
3. Let Them Figure It Out
Babies are so smart, they are humans after all. They can figure things out perfectly fine on their own. Honestly, sitting around worried that they aren't doing something quite right or not reaching for that toy you are dangling in front of their face is not going to help much.
The most important thing is to have things for them to look at, areas large enough to explore, and then let them at it. Sit back and watch the hilariousness that is bound to happen. The happy little squeals when they get something they want. They are their best when we as parents sit back on our hands a bit and let them figure it out, without helping unless they absolutely need it (or start crying or screaming).
Here are some more resources for learning about and encouraging crawling:
- What Can I Do If My Baby Doesn't Crawl? – CanDo Kiddo
Heather Greutman, COTA
Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with experience in school-based OT services for preschool through high school. She uses her background to share child development tips, tools, and strategies for parents, educators, and therapists. She is the author of many ebooks including The Basics of Fine Motor Skills, and Basics of Pre-Writing Skills, and co-author of Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.
these are some great tips. I know my little guy crawled before his siblings – he wanted to catch up with them! Thanks so much for linking up at Ultimate Mom Resources
I would like to mention about tummy time that carried time counts as tummy time too. It also helps with balance. It really isnt necessary to lay a baby on the floor if he/she doesnt like it.
Love your third tip 🙂
Yes, excellent idea Tessa! Thank you for sharing that!
My baby is 10 months and a half still doesnt crawl yet. She hates tummy time she stays on her tummy max for 5 min then starts crying. She sits independently and scouts on her bum to reach for things while seated. Should i be worried? Everyone is telling me its ok shel walk soon.
Some children truly never crawl. My daughter didn’t crawl until 10 months old and then starting walking at 13 months. I would focus on getting her on her stomach in other ways, such as laying over a large exercise ball with you gently rolling her forward/backward, side to side etc. Also tunnels are a great way to encourage crawling. Try focusing on some other activities that involve the bilateral coordination, or using both sides of the body together, which is what crawling helps to integrate. Again, if you have true concerns about her not crawling, it is best to talk to your physician.
My baby is 8 month old .I m trying to lean roll over, crawling but she doesn’t like it. Before she never took tummy time .I have so many questions about that .why she is not interested any activity. Now I will start tummy time . Can she able to crawl?
Hi Trusha,
Yes, she can definitely still crawl! Both of mine did not start crawling till around 10 months old, I think my son was maybe a little more closer to 9 months. Girls tend to be a little later in gross motor skill development than boys too. Just keep encouraging the tummy time and the crawling will come. If she is rolling both directions than you are well on your way.