Crawling is a classic of children's movement development that precedes the baby's first steps and that provides advantages, such as movement coordination training, but if it is not present, it does not imply any brake on the child's development .

A child crawls between 7 and 10 months of age, but not all babies do.

Crawling is a “particular way of moving for babies that is reminiscent of the way cats do when they are puppies and that is the prelude to the first steps, which occur between twelve and fifteen months of age.

The fact that a baby does not crawl is not considered pathological, nor is there scientific evidence about why some do and others do not.

Crawling could facilitate walking and coordination of movements, but there are no studies that show that it improves visual capacity, manual dexterity, strength of the lower extremities or lung capacity ”, explains Iván Carabaño, pediatrician and editor of the Revista de Primary Care Pediatrics.

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A child who does not crawl will eventually walk too.

Although “crawling can be a good training to exercise arms and legs and gain confidence when the baby starts to walk.

However, parents do not have to obsess if their baby does not crawl, but the rest of his neurological development has taken place normally.

It should be considered that when a baby crawls, there may be a risk of domestic accidents, so it is advisable to prevent them with guidelines, such as covering the sockets or making sure that he does not pick up small objects from the floor, such as coins, that he can ingest or access places where he can fall down ”, explains Carabaño.

The benefits of crawling for babies

Crawling can bring certain benefits to the baby, such as those mentioned by Sonsoles París, physiotherapist and director of the Sarua Clinic:

Why do some children crawl and others not?

The reasons why there are babies who start crawling while others go directly to their first steps without going through that phase are unknown.

“Around 20% of healthy children do not crawl and there is no reason to explain it.

There are children who practice other variants of crawling, such as what is called

or creeping, because children move sitting on the ground and rowing or propelling the body with their arms, but there are also others who crawl supporting one knee and one foot.

Likewise, it can be the case of babies who after starting to walk return to crawling, which in many cases worries parents.

This should not be seen as a problem.

If she has returned to the ground, it is because, probably, she was not yet fully prepared to walk, and when she is, she will try again and strengthen her march, ”says Cristina Cordero, a neuropediatrician expert in neurodevelopmental disorders and director of the Neuroymás program.

How to encourage the baby to crawl

The baby's crawling can be stimulated, but not provoked, since it arises naturally in the child who is going to go through this phase.

However, from home you can motivate the baby to practice crawling.

“In the first months of the child's life, it is important to place her face down;

talk to him and stimulate him from that position so that, little by little, he strengthens the muscles that he will use when crawling.

Although, initially, you do not usually like this position very much, it can be placed like that when the baby is calm and not insist if it is uncomfortable.

The baby will gradually get used to it and from that position will acquire skills that must be developed before crawling.

Another way to stimulate crawling in babies is by playing with them when they are slightly older, such as from six months, with a ball on the ground, play tunnels or by imitating the adult who crawls next to them.

It is essential that they have freedom of movement and play a lot with them on the floor ”, concludes the neuropediatrician Cristina Cordero.

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