Asymmetrical crawling

[Daniellen7456]

My 9 month old son recently started crawling on all 4s. He was army crawling for a bit but will now crawl on all 4s from a seated position. I noticed right away that his left leg is always blended up under him and he drags it as he goes. Has anyone else seen this? I'm worried that asymmetrical crawling could mean there is a muscle or skeletal problem or could lead to one in the future. I've attached a picture below which kind of shows how his left leg is folded under.

Would appreciate any advice!!

My son crawled like this at the beginning. He crawls in a typical way now.

@Firebird83 thanks so much for your reply. Do you about how long it took for him to crawl regularly? Prob being a bit too nervous as a first time mum 🤷‍♀️

I was also nervous about this. My baby did it after army crawling. He was 6mo though. But he crawls normally now (he’s 9mo) and can stand, climb, can climb stairs, taken his first steps unaided at 9 months. So really it took him almost 3months to crawl “normally.” If you google it it’s all horror stories. But is very normal! Just keep an eye and in a few weeks if it hasn’t changed maybe ask for a second opinion. He’s still tiny

My LO used to crawl similar to this but one knee would be up at a 90 degree angle, it caused no issues, she's now a healthy 4 YO!

DD crawls like this and has always done so. She started crawling at 6 months and walked at 10 months. She is very steady on her feet and walks perfectly. I had similar worries at first but a friend told me their now 10 year old always crawled with one leg bent too. DD now 11 months. We didn't get her checked out but if it's bothering you or you need the piece of mind call the HV.

Hi @Daniellen7456, we have been through this and my recommendation would be to speak with your HV or GP. Chances are it is nothing. Our LO didn’t use one leg when crawling at all for months and everyone told me it was fine and would even out eventually. When it didn’t we were referred to a specialist and I felt guilty for waiting so long. We had to wait the better part of a year in which time everything did balance out and we have a very steady little toddler now.

I don’t want to scare you and do believe that this is fairly common. Feel free to message me if you’d like more details.

Thank you all so much for the advice. When you google stuff I swear the scariest stuff comes up. I am going to keep an eye on it for the next few weeks and reach out to my GP as well. He is pulling to stand and seems to put weight on both legs so that's a good sign.

The weight bearing is a good sign! They may also ask about any other weakness on that side, such as his arm. And if he is cruising is he doing it in both directions.