United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I am just concerned about my daughter.
She is 8 months and has not crawled.
Has anyone else had problems with this?
Do they just skip it and walk ?
I dont know how this will work?
Thanks salina

My son didn't sit-up until 11 months, crawled shortly after & walked at 14 months. He has had great recovery without surgery.

Salina, Hello My daughter Julia used to scoot on her butt along with her good arm pulling herself across the floor. She didn't start walking until about 13mths. It happened just as you imagined she just got up and within 1 week of standing was on the go. Her balance was obviously affected, but she amazed us how determined she was. Falling becomes scary onto affacted side so we tried to confine her to carpet for the first couple of weeks. Even when she falls now it's hard to watch because she, what we call .. face plants because theres no arm to break the fall. This is one of the things that really upsets me.
GOOD LUCK and once they start you'll never stop.
God Bless
Dan N.J.

my oldest daughter, non bpi, never did crawl. She went from rolling all over to holding onto furniture, to walking. Sarah, robpi, crawled at like 5.5 mths. Every day I got behind her and put her in a crawling position while holding on to her and rocked her back and forth. She started doing it on her own and then just took off.

Good luck!

My daughter never crawled "as a means of transportation." She finally was able to crawl at about 1 1/2 y.o. (after she was already walking). Before walking, she got around by doing what we called a "butt scoot." She sat down on the floor and with her arms by her sides, used her right palm on the floor and bent on leg to pull herself along. She got quite quick at it too. Crawling is very important not only developmentally, but physically. Any kind of weight bearing is going to help strengthen your daughter's arm. Does she bear weight on her injured arm at all? If so, how is her hand positioned? Does she keep it fisted or does she open her fingers onto the floor? Is her elbow strong enough to support weight-bearing? Does she like to be on her tummy? Initially, we had to struggle to even get our daughter to do tummy-time. It was very uncomfortable for her. When we worked on weight-bearing, a lot of times we'd try to have her side-sit while we supported her BP arm. I had to use a Pedi-wrap on her arm to keep her elbow straight. One of our therapists made a hand splint for her to support her wrist and to keep her hand palm down / fingers extended on the floor. Of course, once we got her into position, the key was to find games / toys for her to play with using her right hand while her left hand would bear weight. It was easier if there were two people available -- one of us to help keep her body positioned right and ensure her arm was supported while the other played with her. There are pics of the splints we used on Francine's site http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/splints.html (I hope the link is still the same.) We bought a tunnel to help encourage crawling and we'd put toys through it for her to crawl after. FYI, bone growth is stimulated by muscle movement. The more weight bearing you do, the more the arm will grow / less weight bearing will likely lead to a smaller arm. With all that in mind, my son who doesn't have a BPI, didn't really start crawling until 9 months. I think the typical age is 6-9 months to start crawling, so I don't think your daughter is necessarily delayed at this point. She might not be ready to work on crawling, but the way to help prepare her for that now is to do a lot of weight bearing. Do you have any other children? Maybe your family could make a game out of it and spend some time everyday all crawling around on the floor. Pretend to be different animals, etc. Have fun with it.

~Tina

Salina, Makenna never crawled and still has a difficult time weight bearing even though we try it every day.

Hey everyone thank you verry much the only thing she can do is roll across the floor and sit up.
She can not put any weight on her arm and when her arm is down on the ground when we try it is fist inside wrist bent.
Im really starting to get even more sad cause im not sure she will ever crawl.
Thanks salina

Do you think maybe you should have her seen again by a bpi spcialist to access her recovery? It's always a good idea to have an evaluation done, even if you choose not to have surgery.

Maybe there is some sort of splint that will help hold her wrist in the right position to help her learn to crawl?? We bought one of those fabric tubes that the babies/toddlers can crawl through to encourage crawling time.

My son never crawled either. He did what we call a "monkey scoot". He would sit with both hands out to the side and use his good arm to sord of scoot around the house. It was very amusing to watch. He was walking before he could actually crawl.