Crab crawling

[bunny85]

Hello,

I'm a bit concerned after having made a huge mistake to goggle. My baby boy is 9.5 months old and he's crawling and cruising etc. All is well but his crawling style is unusual, crab-like. One knee is bent and on the floor as in normal crawl, and the other leg is bent too but with the foot pushing on the floor as he crawls. I googled and whereas some websites say it's one of many normal crawling styles, others suggest it could be a sign of a problem... Has anyone had any experience with this? Would be grateful for any info.

Thanks a lot.

Google, not goggle!

Sorry I have no proper advice but it sounds mega cute.

From my experience of baby groups, there's normally at least one baby that has a weird crawl.

Maybe re Google and rule out any website that are reputable and don't have any proper scientific backing. Eg just look at NHS, babycentre etc. The American sites are always mad ignore them. Deffo ignore yahoo answers! Maybe this will give you peace of mind. Or ask you health visitor.

Thank you for your reply. I've just called the heath visitor and she said it's impossible to tell over the phone so they told me to come in next week for them to have a look at how he crawls. Will have to try my best and not panic meanwhile.

My dd does this! I asked my hv at her 9m check and she said it was fine!

My 14 month old has only ever crawled like this! No-one has ever mentioned it as a bad thing, and our hv's seen him regularly (multiple allergies) - PLUS he's at nursery where they'd certainly mention anything concerning.

I'd never seen another baby like him until I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and there was another little boy around the same age doing exactly the same! I talked to his mum about how I'd never seen another child do it and she didn't seem in the least concerned either, just amused, and said it was clearly so they could get more traction with the ground.

I'm sure your hv just wants to check your ds isn't dragging his underneath leg, and whilst it may look like he is he almost certainly isn't, because if you think about it all that leg is doing is crawling normally! So please don't worry, I think it's far more common than you think

I was told that as long as the hands operated opposite to the feet, how the legs are positioned wasn't a cause for concern.

Thank you all for the reassurance. Glad to hear it's more common than I thought and other babies do that too.

Eatsleep, yes you are right, I'm pretty sure he isn't dragging the other leg as it can be seen moving very well in a proper crawling style, as you say. He isn't fast at crawling either, he's quite slow. But then he's chubby on 91st centile.

Out2pasture, interesting, that's good to know. Going to observe him tomorrow and see about the hands.