When do babies start to crawl?

[girlylala0807]

Ds is 12 weeks today and he seems to be trying to roll himself over. I have never laid him down on his tummy yet as i thought that you were not supposed to but my mum thinks I should be to try and encourage him to move.

I thought he was still a bit too little.

Any thoughts?

You can and should put him on his tummy as long as you don't leave him to sleep on it. If you do supervised 'tummy time' it'll help him when he comes to learn to crawl.

Tummy time is so very important. As long as you are with him he will be fine.

I so wish there was more information given about letting babies have tummy time. So many get confused and never put their baby on their front when they are awake because they read the Back to Bed info and assume it means they should never lie on their front.

Right...

So he can lie on his front.

Ok. As long as im watching him he should be ok.

Yes its great for developing his muscles however please try not to think in terms of milestones like crawling & walking as it all comes eventualy! Just enjoy the fact that he can't move yet. He is much safer as he can't have accidents and you can relax much more!

I was putting my ds on his tummy from day one first for small amounts of time and then longer as time went on,

I have no idea if this was linked to him rolling over at 15 weeks,
spinning himself around on his tummy to face different directions by 18 weeks,
shunting himself backwards by 22weeks
and crawling at just over 6mths,

but this may have just been genetic,

every baby I have know is different some crawl early and walk early,
some crawl early and walk much later,
some crawl late but walk quickly after this
some commando crawl and never properly crawl
some never crawl and bum shuffle or go straight to pulling themselves up and cruising

I suppose I am saying don't stress to much about when and if it happens,
encourage but don't stress

None of mine crawled they were all bum shufflers