Crawling when tummy time is absent

[Monstermoomin]

Just wanted to get other people's experiences really.

My youngest is 7.5 months and will not tolerate tummy time. This has been the way since birth. I've tried to make it fun, not done it when she's too tired etc and if she's started crying I turn her over/sit her up or pick her up so she doesn't associate it with so much upset.

But she absolutely hates it. She doesn't put weight onto her arms doing it and just smooshes her face and screams.

She is able to bear weight on her arms cos she is held on us and will push off etc, but won't do it on her tummy.

My eldest would go on her tummy so crawling was normal at around 8-9 months.

But I just wanted to see if others had found there was a delay with crawling if they couldn't get there LO to go on their tummy? She really is frustrated she isn't moving I think but just won't go on her tummy (or back really).

My eldest was like this and she never crawled but walked at 9 months.

If tummy time wasa thing when my children were babies I was totally unaware of it, we have spent the past 4 hours at a very physical event and believe me the lack of tummy time has had no effect on their ability to participate

Honestly, it's not something you need to worry about, ask your Mum - was it something she did with you?

DS1 never crawled. Walked holding on to our fingers from 10 back breaking months.

ds hated it too and it always looked so uncomfortable so we didn't push it.

He never crawled, was fine sitting, went straight to cruising then walking all within the average timeframes.

I doubt you will get a single post on here with tragic tales of babies that failed to do tummy time!

Both hated it. First time around did loads of tummy time and he didn't crawl. Second time didn't bother and he crawled at 4months and walked at 9 months. I don't think that the tummy time was a factor in either.

My baby is 9 months and has only just started crawling. He hated tummy time and would just scream and keep his head on the floor till he was flipped on to his back. He wasn’t able to roll at all until now where he can roll back to belly but doesn’t roll the other way yet. He has been sitting unaided since 6 months and has learnt to crawl by sitting on his bum, reaching out for toys and going on to his knees/belly. He quickly learnt to sit back on his bum from being on his tummy, he was going backwards for ages and spinning on his tummy. I was worried he wouldn’t crawl because he hated tummy time so much… he is also pulling himself to stand up all in such a short space of time.
At 7.5 months he had no interest in crawling at all..

Mine wouldn't tolerate it. Crawled at 9 months on the dot.

Literally woke up one day and decided he was mobile

We never did tummy time. I tried it to begin with but my ds had severe reflux and is pretty demanding so would cry and scream whenever we tried to get him to do something he didn’t like so gave up.
he started army crawling at 8 months and was fully crawling at 8.5ish. Crawls at the speed of light and now at 13 months just starting to walk so I would say don’t worry about it.

Tummy time on you is just as good.

I don't really care for tummy time.

My DS (3) never really done it and he crawled at 8 months and walked at 10 months.

My twins (4 months) aren't really bothered by tummy time either. It doesn't bother me tbh.

Tummy time includes time spent on her tummy on your chest too. Just in case this helps. It doesn't have to be restricted to being facedown on the floor.

I have two children and neither of them crawled at all. The youngest walked unaided at 10 months and was a bit too mobile! It was quite a long time ago and I can't remember whether we did tummy time but I definitely didn't put any emphasis on it. I wouldn't worry.

Honestly I think it's just another thing to get new parents worked up about.

DD hated it so we never did it. Crawled at 8 months and walked at 12.

DS hated it and we more or less gave up on it. Rolled over at 5 months, crawled at 10, walked at 15months. The one thing I did do was put him on his front on my chest while I was lying down for a few minutes a day which helped him to practice pushing up

They all do it eventually so don't worry. Have you ever heard of a non-disabled child not learning to walk?

My 11mo hated tummy time (tbh didn't push him) and just wanted to be on his feet all the time. He's crawling now but not walking yet.

Never did tummy time with my 3 and all 3 crawled. They rolled from back to front independently and then went from there. It's also possible to go to crawling from sitting as they lean forward to reach for a toy etc. Some move around by bum shuffling. Easier said than done, but try not to worry and if she isn't moving herself around after 10-11 months speak to your health visitor.

My DD had reflux so tummy time was torture, the best I could do was putting her on her front on my chests when I was slightly reclined and she'd lift her head to look around. She started crawling at 9 months so didn't do her any harm.

They can go straight from a sitting posture to crawling, tummy time isn't required.

Is there science behind tummy time? Any properly recorded adverse affects from babies not having tummy time? In short-is it a real thing? Because if it was, surely there would be loads of people 20 and over with issues caused by it not being something anyone thought of until relatively recently.

I suspect it’s bollocks. It probably is true that babies who like being on their front crawl earlier, but I doubt that forcing an unhappy baby onto their front will do much.

Even if it does encourage crawling, it makes zero difference when they do it, or even if they do it at all.

One woman did tell me that her 6 year old has great handwriting because they did lots of tummy time, but I wrote her off as a loon.

Babies used to be placed on their stomachs to sleep and in the bassinet of the pram so they spent most of their time on their front. Then SIDS research showed sleeping on their back was much safer and tummy time was started to compensate for that, mainly because of flat heads etc. The back to sleep campaign was 1994 (I think), so depends how old you are but that’s why it wasn’t a thing when a lot of us were babies. Then later research 90s research on the effects of the campaign showed that babies were rolling and crawling later than they used to, so that’s when it really became a big thing. But crawling has such a varied range the CDC in the US has recently removed it from the milestone checklist so perhaps the thinking is going the other way? Studies have also shown that the average for walking hasn’t increased. So yes it’s a real thing, but does it matter that much? Probably not!

We never had tummy time when my kids were babies. They both crawled at 6 months and walked at 9 months. If the baby doesn't like it, don't do it.

My DS hated it and could only managed a few mins now and again. He never crawled but walked pretty early, can't quite remember when. He had/has quite a big head so think it was just hard for him. I wouldn't worry about it.

@RoxanaRoxana "
One woman did tell me that her 6 year old has great handwriting because they did lots of tummy time, but I wrote her off as a loon."

There was a very plausible but now discredited theory about 20 years ago that crawling facilitated the brain/muscle link that helped with handwriting. Some schools had those cargo net things for reception children to crawl under in an attempt to re-educate their neural pathways. Much more fun than many interventions at least!

Mine hated tummy time and used to cry so we never really bothered with it.

He never crawled at all, used to bum shuffle at high speed to get around and started walking around 13 months.

I'm not sure why some people are so fixed on 'tummy time' if the baby doesn't like it tbh.

My little boy had a huge umbilical hernia when he was really small, he physically couldn't do tummy time, never did it ever! He started crawling late and walked late but I think he's just lazy 🤣