Do Babies Need To Crawl?

Posted on in For Moms, Kid's Health by Dr. Marie Battaglia

fredericton chiropractor

Back in 2022 the CDC updated its infant milestone guidelines. 

In their studies, over 80% of infants progressed through hands and knees crawling. And, despite only 4% of babies not achieving some type of crawling, they decided to remove this major milestone from their lists. 

On average, babies start to crawl around 8-9 months. as with all milestones, there’s a range of 1st to 99th percentile that can be 5-13 months. 

There are well documented benefits of crawling from a developmental perspective: strength and stability, coordination, integration of primitive reflexes, fine motor skills, problem solving, exploration…

So then why did the CDC remove it from their checklist? 

Simply because unlike walking, there’s minimal research and age based normative data on crawling. Again unlike walking there’s minimal lab based research on the types of crawling or long term studies on the effects of skipping crawling altogether. 

This lack of evidence does not equal a good reason to eliminate it from a parent’s awareness altogether. Here is some good evidence for the importance of crawling as a major developmental milestone:

Crawling is important because: 

  • It develops grip strength and the arches of hands (fine motor skills in the future!) 
  • Helps develop the visual tracking necessary for things like reading later on
  • Enhances body awareness and balance
  • Works on coordination due to the use of opposite upper and lower limb movements
  • Strengthens the arms and shoulders which is a prerequisite to good shoulder stability and posture later on!

Red flags for crawling:

  • An inability to play on knees at a toy by 8-9 months 
  • Poor independent sitting or favors sitting in only one position past 6 months 
  • An inability to transition in and out of sitting by 8 months 
  • Preference for W sitting
  • Ongoing dislike for tummy time 
  • Starts to scoot forward on their bum to get around 

Some crawling tips: 

  • Take off their pants and socks to increase their ability to feel the floor 
  • Get them on carpet (more traction and grip!) 
  • Avoid using jumpers 
  • If they like to stand, keep toys on the ground so they are more inclined to be on the ground 
  • Improve their tolerance to tummy time by doing it on an exercise ball 
  • Seek out chiropractic care with a trained pediatric chiro who specializes in gross motor development!
I’m Dr. Marie and helping moms and their children is my passion. I support women through conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. I help babies with feeding challenges, torticollis, flat spots, and tongue ties. I help babies and kids optimize their neurodevelopment. Dr. Graham and I are life partners, business partners, and parenting partners to our two daughters, Zoey & Eloise. It definitely keeps life interesting but we wouldn’t have it any other way.