learning to crawl

[admin]

Just wondering if anyone out there has any good tips on getting our little 9 month old to crawl. He is trying to bypass that with walking but his therapist has made it very clear that he needs to learn to bear some kind of weight on his arm. I worry about this because he has a partially dislocated shoulder. I am diligent in his therapy but I don't want to be so gung ho about it that he gets frustrated. Does anyone have any ideas as to how to make this stuff fun? I try to incorporate toys and stuff but sometimes he just gets mad at those as well. Thanks.

[PeggyF]

Our daughter did the same...started walking at 8 mos. and didn't crawl. Her therapist tried very hard to get her to crawl...eventually, she did. Those play tunnels are good because they can't stand up in them. Put a favorite toy in there and have him go for it. You get at the other end so he can see you.
Is he around other children his age that he sees crawl? Be careful with the shoulder. Does he have a stabalizing splint or brace?

[Joshua]

Our daughter really never crawled in the traditional sense. When she was very young she would push herself backwards on her belly with her good arm and as she got older and learned to sit up, she began scooting along on her butt kind of diagonally (sideways and forward) always pushing against the floor with her good (left) arm. The therapists didn't like this and we tried to encourage her to crawl on all fours. She could and would "do it the right way" when we wanted her to but liked her way better and always resorted back to it when our therapy sessions were done. I think she believed that crawling was something that benefitted mom and dad or pleased us but that it was a stupid way to get around. She seems to have progressed throughout her tasks with developmental delay.

Joshua

[tina arvizu]

Gabrielle (now 3) never could crawl. We did lots of other weight bearing exercises with her. When she did try to weight bear on her own she would use the top of her hand which eventually stretched those tendens out. She had wrist surgery to correct with her Mod Quad. To get around she would sit on her butt, stretch her non BPI arm out then fling her entire body forward. It was the strangest thing we had ever seen. Plus at this point 15-18 months she weighed about 40 lbs. She has never had any problems with her should and Dr. Nath after Mod Quad said her shoulder looked great and no further surgery would be needed!!! Good luck, I sure this didn't help but you are not alone.

[terri0320]

Karen,

Our daughter never crawled in the traditional sense either. She is now 16 months old. She always done the army crawl is what the therapist called it. Her therapist didn't really worry about it too much, as long as she was doing other weight bearing exercises.

She always told us that it is not abnormal for babies with this kind of injury to not crawl. We worried about it for a while, but she did okay on the other exercises that we did with her.

We also try to force her to use her arm as much as possible. It is okay for a while, but a baby can only withstand so much before they start to get frustrated and upset. You just have to leave it alone for a little while and try again when they have calmed down a bit.

I don't know how much this will help, but hang in there.

The play tunnel is a good idea. Our therapist also recommended to get one of those blow up toys that have the balls inside and the button on the outside that makes music when they roll it. It helps them to crawl. It might work. We tried it with TeNeisha. She played with it a while, but mostly used her good arm. She didn't seem interested once she started walking.

Hope this helps a little.

Terri

[admin]

Crawling is soooo important for many reasons, but my first thought is, is it physically possible for the child? If so, I agree with the parent that mentioned the crawling tunnel. We have one set up in our living room and have for the past 1 1/2 years. I think a huge way to influence kids is to start crawling yourself. May sound crazy but everyone in our family spent a lot of time crawling around, trying to influence him to crawl and it really can work. It was a good work out for me too! We actually tried to discourage walking somewhat because we believed it was much more important for him to crawl with this injury. I was thrilled when he started walking later. I really think it helped his recovery. If you can't get your little one to crawl anytime soon, try to encourage weight bearing by play on big ball, propping the child up and holding, etc. We also did a lot of crawling and playing animals, but your child may be a little young for that. I would certainly not encourage the use of a walker. Maybe get rid of the coffee table for a little bit or things that only assist in standing and walking. May sound a little crazy but crawling for this injury is important and makes the inconveniences well worth it. Good luck.

[admin]

Get a ball pit - we just got one for my son for his second birthday and wish we'd bought it when he was an infant - he loves it and gets great weight-bearing in!

[PeggyF]

Just wanted to say that Emma did the "camando crawl" also and she didn't actually do that until well after she was walking. It took a lot of encouragement and prodding; and yes, we got down and crawled too. The therapist thought that it was very important developmentally (even though she was already walking).

Peggy

[Cara]

Rosalynn is two and a half now. She crawls more now than she ever did as a baby. It is all about games with her. She likes to pretend she is a dog or tiger or elephant. When she was smaller we would put a mirror on the floor and position her so that if she wanted to see herself good, she had to push up with her effected arm. Also we would make an obstacle course. We had a table that fit nicely in the door way. we would put a treat at the end and she would have to crawl under and climb over stuff to get to it.