United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My 9 month old son robpi scoots and hops on his butt, sometimes he will try to crawl but when he puts pressure on his bad arm he goes down pretty much the same happens when he tries to pull up on something

Salina,
My daughter never crawled. She just scooted on her bottom around at about 8 months. She had primary surgery at 11 mos. And did not walk until 22 months. She had poor balance and needed braces in her shoes. Now at almost 4, you'd never know it. She walks and rums just fine. Heather

Hi Salina,
My son never crawled but wanted to get going so we held his hands and he practiced walking and was walking independently by the time he was 9 months.
Crawling , is not necessary for our kids and could be detrimental to the shoulder so don't worry about getting them crawling they can walk and you get the bone growth by doing other things that won't over load the weak areas of the injury. apparently muscle pulling on the bones makes bone grow and increase density not just bearing alot of weight as once thought- also the weight bearing can be detrimental and cause further biomechanical issues and damage. So doing exercise that activates the muscles around the bones etc will grow the bone you don't need to crawl, wheelbarrow , crab walk etc as these can force the joints that are weak to not grow properly. Wheelbarrowing for us did not make the the shoulder blade grow properly on the injured side because the weight bearing forces are not transmitted through the joint normally in our injured kids, but it did make the acromiom and clavicle overgrow and the scapular muscles overstretch all contributing to a severe winging problem and a posterior subluxation.
That is the understanding I have of it at this point and I am sure there are divergent ideas about this out there - but thought I would offer the perspective that seems to make sense to me from the Dr. that is helping us finally get some recovery.

My daughter who is not BPI did not crawl until she was almost 10 months old. She didn't walk until about 15 months. Now she is 17 months and seems to be just fine. She is my 6th child and was by far the latest to reach those milestones. My son, who is LOBPI, started crawling at about 7 1/2 months. He crawled normally for about a month and then at 8 1/2 months he started crawling with his left fist closed and we worked with that for a long time afterward.

I wouldn't worry too much about not crawling at 8 months. I don't think that's too far behind. Good luck.

Connie

Promoting crawling has always been recommended to us to help strengthen our daughter's arm. We have never been cautioned to risks of crawling b/c it's only the child's weight putting pressure and it's not their entire body's weight going into one arm -- it's split b/w all four limbs. The only times we've had to cut out all weight-bearing activities were for a particular period of time following surgeries. I think that wheelbarrow walking and crab walking are much different and more risky though. Our daughter has never been able to wheelbarrow walk the traditional way from the ankles anyway. When we've tried it, we've always supported her at the waist or high up on the legs. Of course, every child and every BPI is different, so as with anything, it's best to discuss this with a BPI specialist. Do you have a regular specialist that you see? Does your daughter get PT from an early intervention program or from a private PT? Another thing is we've always taken therapy at our daughter's pace. Our weight-bearing activities started with probabaly less than a minute and gradually worked up. I'm sure as a parent, you would use common sense not to overwork your baby as well, but again, professional opinions can often assure you and give you confidence about what to do. BTW, one of the reasons we used the wrist splint was b/c our BP specialist told us that if the baby bears weight on the wrist w/the hand not supporting the arm, it could stretch the tendons in the wrist and cause damage that might not be repairable later so we were always very aware of the hand position.

~Tina

Regardless of bpi or not, the milestones are changing. Now that babies are put to sleep on their backs, instead of their stomachs, they do things at a different time. When kids used to sleep on their tummies, they strengthened their backs and necks naturally. And, they pushed up off their arms so they could turn their heads.

Now, they sleep on their backs and they need "tummy time."

My point is, that I wouldn't worry about not crawling at 8 months, I think most kids aren't crawling, sitting up, etc as early as they used to. Two babies I know of, one 7 months, the other 8 months aren't doing anything like what my kids did at that age.

Oh, and Juliana scooted. She walked at a year.

claudia

My granddaughter, lobpi, did not learn to crawl until after she was walking. However, she did do a "bottom" scoot to get around before she began walking. She had primary surgery at 5 months and the mod quad at 12 months and not until after those surgeries and a lot of therapy did she learn to crawl. As I understand it, crawling is important, and we had to encourage her to crawl even though she was already walking. Crawling became easier for her as her arm grew stronger. I would encourage you to consult a bpi specialist. My granddaughter had her surgeries at TCH in Houston, and her parents send videos of her progress every 6 months to Dr. Nath. We are very pleased with how well she has done.

thank you again everyone,
Now i get it.
Im going to try to get her in to a Dr.
To discuss Primary surgery by 11 months.
She has made a lil progress of lifting her hand a little but not enoughf.
She does scoot a lil in the bath tub lol.
Thanks.
Salina & Vivian

Here are some tips that might help with teaching you daughter to crawl. My son is almost 18months. He was crawling @ 8 months. We wrapped a magazine around his arm and put a big peace of tape around the magazine to hold it on. This kept the elbow striaght and made it easier for weight bearing. The best trick that our therapist taught us was getting him up onto all fours (you'll have to assist at first) and then wrap a baby blanket under his tummy. I then would hold the ends of his blanket above his back and get on my knees and walk him along on the floor. My son loved doing this because he wanted to crawl but just didn't have the strength at first. At first we could only make it a small distance. He gradually got enough strength and was able to take off on his own. Of course his crawling looked different. He held his hand in a fist since he couldn't put the palm of his hand down. Good luck! Crystal