Preparing to crawl activities

I have had quite a few questions recently about activities to promote crawling, prepare for crawling or activities to initiate crawling.

Crawling can be fairly simple when broken down. If you think about the positioning of crawling on hands and knees. Their weight is going through their hand and knees to hold them upright. The #1 thing to help them build this skill is STRENGTH! So, we want to do activities that strengthen these muscles and help put weight through their hand and knees. The more exposure they have to weight bearing on their hand and knees more comfortable and the quicker they will pick up crawling.

Activities to help strengthen hands and knees:

• Playing on their knees. You might have to get them into that position and it can be tricky. But, if you can find something to hold their interest you should be able to manipulate them onto their knees. Even if it is for brief periods of time, any time spent weight bearing through their knees is beneficial.

• Laying your baby over your lap. If you lay your baby on their belly over your legs, this allows them to put weight through their hand and knees (or just hands if they are too small). When they are in this position they don't have to use their core and strength AS much so this would be a good activity for babies 6-9 months or babies that are delayed in crawling.

• Holding their core and placing their hands on the ground. This looks like a wheelbarrow walk if you remember those from P.E. You are essentially lifting their legs off the ground so they HAVE to put weight through their arms and hands. *Warning* your baby will probably face plant so please do all of these on a soft surface and be prepared!

• Using a towel under their belly to help hold them up. This allows them to weight bear on hand and knees but if they are a little weak, you can help support them by holding a towel underneath them.

Videos coming soon!