My daughter, now a bright, healthy toddler, didn't crawl until she was nearly ten and a half months old. Of course, like all first-time young mothers, I was in a panic and believed that there was something wrong. I pored over page after page of articles and studies, trying to find out what might be wrong with my baby. Cerebral palsy, said one website. Muscular dystrophy, said another. My daughter did have some minor gross motor delays, but they were relatively mild-- and, now three years old, she does not have any muscular or spinal disorders.
My daughter's pediatrician reassured me that many babies are late to crawl, and that many go straight from scooting to walking. Failure to crawl is never the only sign of a serious medical condition. If your baby hasn't yet reached the crawling "milestone" in his development, here are five important facts to consider.
1. Crawling is rare in some countries. In cultures where most floors are made of soil, and outdoor-ground is covered in animal dung, babies are almost never placed on the ground or encouraged to crawl. In these cultures, a baby who crawls on all fours is viewed as an oddity and a developmental exception. Nevertheless, almost all of these non-crawling babies grow up to be healthy, happy adults with no gross motor problems or coordination difficulties. Crawling, as a developmental milestone, is largely an invention of Western culture in the modern era.
2. It's getting less common. The "back to sleep" campaign, which was responsible for saving thousands of babies' lives, has instructed parents to place young babies on their backs, rather than stomachs, to sleep at night. This campaign has caused an amazing drop in the number of deaths from sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. However, it has also caused babies to get less tummy-time exercise upon awakening at night. So, while your mother-in-law may insist that her children crawled at six to seven months, their early crawling was almost certainly caused by belly-sleeping at night. If your baby sleeps on her back-- which she absolutely should-- she will inevitably crawl later than previous generations of tummy-sleepers.
3. It's movement that's important. If your baby is able to move at all, by shuffling, scooting, walking, dragging or creeping, by 10 months of age, chances are good that you're in the clear. Although crawling is not a true developmental milestone, movement itself is. As long as your baby is able to move around to some degree before his first birthday, he does not have a diagnosable gross motor delay. Late crawling itself is rarely, if ever, the only sign of a serious medical problem.
4. It's not a sign of future development. A 2000 study looked at the gross motor skills of children who crawled at a "normal" age, as well as those who moved around by bottom-shuffling at any point during the first two years. The study found that bottom-shufflers were no more developed than crawlers later in childhood. Bottom-shuffling babies who received physical therapy for failure to crawl were also in no better (or worse) shape than their peers who did not receive treatment. We now understand that a baby who does not crawl doesn't need treatment to meet this "milestone," and that late crawling itself is not a reason for concern.
5. There are times to worry. If your baby is limp or "floppy," and unable to move around a room at all by one year of age, you do have reason to be concerned. Other red flags for a gross motor delay include a strong preference for one side of the body, an inability to coordinate movements of the hands and legs, and notable delays with common fine motor skills such as shaking a rattle or waving. Under these circumstances, you should schedule a promptly consult your child's health care provider for an evaluation. Early treatment could ease the long-term effects of an underlying illness.
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