Late crawling?

[clare458]

My dd is 9 months and one week old. She is sitting up confidently. She leans forward to reach for toys and twists to the left and right and rocks forwards and back.

At the moment she is showing no signs of wanting to crawl. She is always happy and smiley and has siblings who she loves watching.

A HV put the idea in my head that she was late to crawl at 8 months? Which to be honest I thought was a bit ridiculous. We do tummy time which she really use to hate but has got used to it.

At what age should I start to be concerned?

Dd2 (now 4 yo) never crawled - she went straight from sitting to walking at about 12 months. Very fast runner now! I think some babies just don't do the crawling bit.

Thank you for your reply. My friends ds was a really early crawler, was quick to stand and cruise around furniture but has stopped progressing for the time being (13 months.) We were all certain he'd walk early.

I have wondered if my dd will just walk, instead of crawling or possibly bum shuffle. Thanks for your reply.

My gorgeous chubby little boy just mastered crawling at 11mths. I was told by gb at 8 mths he was under stimulated - havnt been back since!
He's so laid back he didn't need to move and I'm sure your ds is the same. I have 3 girls who all crawled ju 6 mths and walked by a year and I've treated all my children the same. I just think the more contented they are the less reason to learn to move!

The hv who said your baby would have been late to crawl at 8 months was wrong. Seven to ten months is the usual window.

DS didn't learn to crawl until 19/20 months! He walked at 17 months.

Your DD is doing fine :)

I'd agree that your hv is wrong/misguided to tell you your DD is slow to crawl. DS is 12 months now, commando crawled from 8 1/2 months and then crawled 'properly' on hands and knees at 10 1/2 months. Other babies I know are still not crawling at 9 or 10 months, or doing weird and wonderful variations! If your DD is developing 'normally' in other ways, I wouldn't worry too much.

My dd crawled at 9 months which seemed later than some of her peers (though by all accounts perfectly normal still) but very quickly caught up and is standing/cruising as well as the early crawlers now (she's nearly 11 months now). She never did tummy time - would just flip herself straight onto her back - but crawled from sitting, and was like your dd reaching around and rocking, so she might be nearly there. You could always try enticing her with things she really wants just out of reach while she's sitting, but she'll get the hang of it when she's ready anyway!

DS crawled at 13 months. He walked holding our hands at 7 months and completely alone at 11months. According to my mum, I first crawled when I was just over 2 years but I walked by myself at 10 months...

Two of mine crawled at over a year!

How rubbish of your HV, making you feel worried for no reason! Crawling is not actually a necessary developmental stage (unlike things like sitting up unaided, which is important). I've heard of quite a few babies who never crawled, but just went straight to cruising/walking at some point. Or ones that walked first, and then only learned to crawl months later. My DS is 9m (+1 week) and just started crawling two days ago, pretty much out of nowhere!

OP this was me this time last year. My youngest sat up at 8m didn't roll over until 9m, crawled at dead on 11m and started walking at 17m, by 19m was running faster than I ever imagined. I think Hvs can cause worry sometimes with flyaway comments. My child was not too large to move nor understimulated but just had no inclination to do it.

My dd sat up at 7m, rolled and crawled at 13m, cruised at 14-15m and walked at 16.5m. She also had no inclination to move she was content!! My Hv was very sensible and helpful though and never made me feel Like I should worry. She led me to believe that if they sit up well and weight bear there are usually no causes for concern!!!

What a daft thing for the HV to say, as if parents don't do enough worrying!

DD is 18 months now. She sat quite confidently from about 5 months, but that was it for the next 4 months, despite lots of coaxing and putting goodies just out of her reach for encouragement.

She didn't roll over (back to front or front to back) until she was 9 months and didn't crawl until she was 11 months, but within a few weeks of that she was pulling herself up to standing and cruising using furniture and a walker, then walking well by 13 months.

Sometimes they just do a lot of stuff at once or miss out stages completely. The problem is these babies haven't read the same books as the experts...