Calling parents whose children who did not crawl

[AtWitsEnd21]

Looking for some experiences of similar

DS 15m never crawled. Bum shuffled briefly and went straight to walking at just over 12m. DS is the most accident prone child I’ve ever met. He falls as typical for his age but does not put his hands to save himself. He has a few really bad falls in the last few weeks. Last week he was taken by ambulance to A&E because of a particularly bad fall on to his head. Yesterday he has cracked a front tooth falling. I have an appointment with a physio in two weeks. No other concerns, gross and fine motor all as expected. Speech typical for age.

Just wondering if anyone else’s non crawling child had similar issues with falling?

Thanks!

Yes - neither of mine crawled. Both bottom shuffled. DS now a teen is still very clumsy. He also never got hands out to save himself and often landed on his face/head. DD is very coordinated and sporty so not sure it’s linked to bottom shuffling.

Neither of mine crawled, one just sat, one bum-shuffled; starting walking at 16m and 19m. And no neither of them accident-prone (now both teens and only two A&E trips between them, one from injury, one illness).

Our DD bum shuffled and never crawled. Not noticeably more accident prone than other DCs or anyone else that I can see.

Mine did not crawl - they are both hypermobile...

I can’t help you with the falling but both my sibling and I didn’t crawl.

i commando crawled then started walking. I walked fine once I started.

my sibling was like your ds at roughly the same age. They were also very clumsy but didn’t as far as remember have regular bad falls resulting in A&E but they did pull a tv on themselves at about 2 or 3 because they were still grabbing on to things for balance occasionally! They were absolutely fine before they started school. Was skateboarding as a teenager and hiking and had a job that involved walking miles with no problems as an adult!

as far as I know it is normal to be clumsy for a while if the child misses crawling especially if they do it very young but with all the accidents I would get some advice as I’m in no way qualified to say it’s fine or not.

DS2 never crawled, only bum shuffled. Walked at 17 months.

I doubt he'll ever be in the Olympics, but he's not obviously clumsier than average.

Son didn't crawl, very much as you describe walking. Unsteady and poor reflexes. Was later diagnosed with Dyspraxia, which I think years ago was (not very pleasantly) described as 'clumsy child syndrome!

DD bum shuffled, then walked late at 18 months.
she’s quite sporty, but has inattentive adhd.

DD never crawled and was a horribly clumsy toddler- she once crash a scooter into a fountain and chipped a tooth, and went through numerous changes of clothes at nursery not because of potty accidents (she was rock solid there!) but because she kept falling in puddles in the playground, or into the flowerbeds. But outgrew it at about age 5 and is now really, really sporty.

My DS never crawled
Just bum shuffled like a little monkey
Started walking at 18 months on the dot

DD1 bottom shuffled before straight to running. I think she bypassed the walking too 😂 No issues with clumsiness though.

DS never crawled. He did a combination of rolling and throwing himself around, then walked from 10 months. He has always also been a huge baby/child, and was diagnosed with dyspraxia at 10.

I remember reading when mine were that age (now 8+ so a little while ago) that if your child 'missed' crawling it was advised to ensure they could as it aided their gross motor skills. So getting them to crawl through things like the pop up tunnels, small spaces at soft play etc to help build the connections in the brain.

No idea if this is connected, or where I read it, but I remember thinking that makes sense when I did read it. Its the connections of moving right arm left leg, left arm right leg to aid balance.

One of mine didn't crawl. He is autistic. It's one potential sign ( doesn't mean all non crawlers are, obv) But I later learned that crawling helps establish important neural pathways, so while they are young toddlers it might be worth playing pretend to be a horse/cat/ bear, to encourage them to do the crawling action for fun, even after they have learned to walk.

When I was teaching, a few years ago now, I had a child in my class that had a few difficulties and I remember a physio that visited him telling me about the importance of crawling.
Apparently when crawling a baby is using alternate legs and arms to move which encourages the development of both the left and right sides of the brain. In addition, the hands flat to the floor are feeling the surfaces and are important for sensory development.
There are most likely studies about this, and I remember that when children had co-ordination issues, then one question would be ‘did they crawl?’ Obviously I’m not saying this is black and white, and opinions have possibly changed, but is something that I remember.

My son never crawled and is so clumsy and has the worst balance I've ever seen on a child. Apparently even though I did crawl I was also incredibly clumsy it's weird that I've seen both hypermobility and autism mentioned here because I have both and my son is waiting on an asd assessment, he's not very bendy though

My two never crawled, too nosy and wanted to look around! They both walked very early: DD at 9 months and DS at 8 months. Neither of them were clumsy as toddlers.

my ds never crawled , walked really early and was very clumsy, he was later diagnosed with dyspraxia.

Mine never crawled. Went from rolling to cruising at 7m and walking by 9.

she’s an elite athlete so no, no coordination issues.

however because she was so mobile so early I had her in ballet/gymnastics/athletics etc as soon as she was old enough - baby ballet and gymnastics etc at 18m as it was exhausting keeping up with her and making sure she didn’t put herself in danger.

so whether the athletics is a result of being naturally coordinated, learning coordination early, or a mixture is unknown.

My youngest skipped crawling. He did it for about 5 minutes then decided to just start walking (typical time frame- 11/12 months).

He’s 10 years old now and a proficient cyclist and swimmer. Very good at both and cycles to and from school every day. He isn’t clumsy but he’s more accident prone, i.e. stubs his toes a lot, bangs his shins, bumps his hip on doorframes, that type of stuff. Not super clumsy, but not a smooth operator either. He’s not going to be athlete of the year or the next Rudolph Nureyev. He is by nature cautious and vigilant which is why I believe he’s not as clumsy as he could possibly be.

Thanks for all the replies. I wouldn’t actually call DS uncoordinated or clumsy as such, he just seems to fall badly. He definitely does not fall more frequently than typical, he just doesn’t put his hands out adequately. His fine motor skills are excellent and probably ahead
of where his brother was. He can walk very well and run (my nerves!). Autism is definitely not a concern right now as he has no red flags in terms of sensory/social behaviours

As to why he did not crawl- he was a terribly refluxy baby and hated being on his stomach. I suspect that he may hyper mobile (I am) and perhaps this interacting with the reflux meant it was not for him.

Thanks for this helpful advice. I have avoided soft play because they are so full of germs (not a germaphobe just have had a difficult few months of illness with older DS starting pre school) but really I just need to give him more opportunity to explore different environments and this would probably help

You can actually buy little pop out play tunnels from IKEA. I too avoided soft play with my youngest simply because we were getting stomach flu every thirty seconds it seemed. But I had a tunnel and a little tent. They still sell them.

Same, but with one child. Didn’t roll either. Played a lot of sports later on, ok and enjoyed which is the main thing but was never going to be a gold medalist.

I didn’t crawl and neither did my DS. We both bum-shuffled and “cruised” round furniture early. I walked fully at 11 months and DS at 13 months.

No dyspraxia, both NT, good gross and fine motor skills. I wasn’t aware of the links until just now (I am old…).