Crawling - VERY angry and frustrated baby!

[missmakesstuff]

DD is nearly 8 months, very happy and contented usually, but has been threatening to crawl for weeks - this last week is up on hands and knees, sometimes feet and hands, rocking, but unable to get anywhere. she is able to wriggle and roll to most places, quicker than we would have thought (quick enough to grab some coal from the fireplace and eat it!) but can only go backwards and sideways.

She is very frustrated, crying several times a day, grunting and moaning whilst looking at where she wants to be. I can imagine it would really piss one off, this only going backwards thing, I'm sure it's very annoying!

just wondering , has anyone experienced this with their baby, and how soon after did they crawl?

or are we in for an extended period of grumpy baby until she gets it?!

DS used to be grumpy for two weeks before any developmental milestones. We were away on holiday for the two weeks before he learnt to commando crawl and every time we put him down he would scream. I realised after it was frustration.
It was the same before he started to speak. He was one of those children who can't do it one day, then overnight he would become an expert ie 2 days before his 2nd birthday he seemed to have swallowed a dictionary in the night and was spouting new words all day.
It was if he was planning it all out in his head first, hense the two weeks of frustration before.
He never actually learned to crawl properly on all fours, he went from dragging himself around to walking at 10 months.
Even when he was older say 4 or 5 we would have a grumpy few weeks then his speach would improve or reading would suddenly click.

My DD took about 2 months to learn to crawl. She was getting closer and closer and closer and closer for ages. then one day she just did it. To help with her frustration I brought her this: www.wilkinsonplus.com/Pre-School-Toys/Baby-Roller/invt/0203632 it was a bit rubbish to be honest but two weeks later she was crawling and she does like to play with it so it maybe worth a punt. We also used to wheelbarrow her which she found hilarious (us holding her feet and her moving her arms) and also crawl on top of her so my knees would move her legs and my arms move her arms- again she loved this and it stopped her getting too cross and maybe taught her how to do it (doubt it).

But basically it was just patience.
Oh and they can get around better on slippy floors rather than carpets so I used to leave her on bathroom floor for ages exploring while I showered etc- then at least she wasn't getting as cross because she was still getting about albeit not crawling.

Great, thanks, nice to know it's not just mine then - she actually had a proper tantrum this morning, on belly, arms and legs going and screaming.

will try that roller, we have one of those inflatable doughnut things, she sits in themiddle of that, and once she is bored she tries to crawl out of it, usually ends up wearing it around her middle, so possibly doing the same job.

We have wooden floors, hence the going backwards! She moves her arms and not her legs!

Guess its just patience then...

Had excatly this with my DD, now 9 months. She would rock on her hands and knees unable to go forward. We had backwards dragging just like you describe it for about a month, which then progressed to forwards dragging when she tried to grab hold of another baby who was in front of her. Then soon after that she did a mixture of dragging and proper crawling, then a week or so after that she was crawling properly.

Sound like your DD is very determined - like mine - I think this frustration makes them do it quicker cos they just want to SO badly.
To get her to crawl properly I gave her lots of time in our bedroom which is carpeted so better grip, downstairs is all wood floors.

What a crock!!
Begone, Quack!!

Yes panto. Quite a harmful post imo.

Both mine were the same and crawled within a couple of weeks - they were SO much more contented then.

ah drarimihailidis, truly the nations favourite baby expert. please do contact her with any Q's.
is that sort of nonsense allowed ?
missmakestuff, i think your baby is on the verge of crawling, i remember dd being the same, making a tiny, balled up noise in her throat when unable to formulate her arms and legs to move quite as she'd like to, crawling backwards and then the tears of frustration. (hers, not mine)
it's such a beautiful time, isn't it?

i always felt a bit funny about 'encouraging' her to crawl as i thought it may frustrate her more but what actually got her going in the end was blowing bubbles (we bought some bubble mix and added washing up liquid as detergent bubbles tend to stick to surfaces) and she would roll/drag herself to where the bubbles landed and 'pop' them. as other posters have mentioned anything which rolls is good (especially something which makes noise, i.e a ball with a bell in, a rainmaker etc) and i found getting on the floor with dd when she was getting frustrated helped, i think she found it annoying that i was up and about and she was 'stuck' so when i was on the floor with her she didn't feel quite so alienated.

hope this helps, i'm sure in a day or so she will be crawling or lurching or dragging, however she chooses to do it, it sounds like she's almost there. i think the backwards crawling was the most frustrating for my dd (and yours by the sounds of it) but if i'm honest now that dd has been crawling for a few weeks she is grunting and moaning because she is pulling herself up on everything to try to stand, so get used to that noise!

'Reflex Locomotion Practitioner'

DS did the backwards crawling for a while, but he actually got going when I put him on the floor in a shoe shop, which had a Flotex-type carpet -he could really get a grip on that.

arfity arf GMajor7SwansASwimming
i like to call myself a Forward Propulsion Expert.
Please contact me with any Q's.

Riiight..thanks for the weirdy 'locomotion' post, not sure about that...

yes, think the angryness and frustration is that she knows what she wants to do, she sees things in front of her and wants them so badly - in fact has made herself a bit hoarse with all the grunting!

Will just have to keep encouraging her and wait it out then!

please can i ask that you let us know when it happens (in whatever form) ?
from my (admittedly limited) experience it sounds SO close to actual crawling, especially the sense of frustration at being so near yet so far ?

and will try the bubbles, thanks! Got the rolling tube thingmajig, loves it already. possibly will take her shoe shopping too, any excuse...

Right better get on with my training in being a wine to gob propulsion expert!

Just remembered I meant to update...sorry! If anyone is interested, it took only another week or so, before she was getting around by commando crawling - she hasn't every really got up onto knees and hands as such, but gets around really happily like that! Now crawling is so last month though, now we are currently pulling up to knees and standing, occasionally!

Does seem to have got over the frustration, for now anyway, thanks so much for all your advice. (well, nearly all..)