One of a baby’s most important developmental milestones is learning to crawl. It usually happens between the ages of 6 and 10 months, though each kid may experience it differently. Certain babies may even forego crawling entirely in favour of pulling themselves up, cruising, and walking.

A summary of the crawling stage is as follows:

Before Crawling:

A newborn must go through certain stages of preparation before they may start to crawl. These entail improving coordination and physical strength. Here are a few indicators that your child is ready to start crawling:

• Stomach Time: Babies strengthen their neck and shoulder muscles during supervised stomach time. They get the ability to support themselves with their elbows while holding up their heads and shoulders.
• Rolling over: Good core strength and coordination are demonstrated by the ability to roll over from front to back and back to front.
• Rocking: Babies can practice balancing by rocking back and forth on their hands and knees.

Styles of Crawling:

Babies do not have a single way of crawling. Common crawling forms include the following:

• Classic hands-and-knee crawl: The most typical type of crawling is the classic hands-and-knee crawl, in which the infant moves only on their hands and knees.
• Belly Crawling: When a baby is belly crawling, they use their arms to move themselves forward.
• Army Crawl: The infant moves forward with an “army training kind of crawl,” using their arms and legs like a swimming stroke while lying on their tummy.
• Inchworm Crawl: The infant does an inchworm crawl, in which they straighten their legs and push up with their arms before shuffle-walking their legs forward to meet their hands. To advance, they do this action again.

The Value of Crawling

The ability to crawl is significant for several reasons:

• Strengthens muscles: A baby’s arms, legs, shoulders, and core muscles are all strengthened by crawling. This strength is crucial for developing other skills like walking and running.
• Enhances coordination: Babies must synchronize their arms and legs to crawl. Their general balance and coordination are improved as a result.
• Encourages exploration: Babies can more freely explore their surroundings when they are crawling. This aids in their development of problem-solving abilities and knowledge of the world around them.

Ways to Promote Crawling

• Give the floor a lot of time: Give your infant lots of chances to get comfortable with their movements on a level, stable surface.

• Toys should be placed just out of reach for your infant to be motivated to reach for them.
• Play games: You can play a variety of games with your baby to help them crawl, like rolling a ball or peek-a-boo.

Way to Encourage Crawling through Competition:

For the first time in Ahmedabad and Gujarat, MTEI (Mother and Toddler Expo India) is organizing a baby crawling competition on 13th April 2024 from 10 am onwards, especially for babies from 6-13 months at Shri Shri Radha Govind Dham, S.G Highway, ISKON Char Rasta, Ahmedabad – 380059

For more details contact = +91 0725050728