MY BABY ISN’T CRAWLING, DOES HE NEED THERAPY?

ANNIE PETRELLI, PT

The body is wondrously designed to develop in steps, from the ground up. When a baby develops naturally, passing all milestones, he gets the perfect muscle strengthening, workout, and practice for future development.

When a baby misses a step, such as crawling on all fours, the question is whether there is a developmental weakness causing this. Not crawling or missing any other step may be a sign letting us know there is a weak link in the process. If so, there will likely be ramifications later, such as with handwriting, sports, or other coordination. In such a case, therapy is recommended.

If the baby displays no weaknesses in any of the muscles and processes involved in crawling, their lack of crawling is more likely a matter of preference and will not have long-term physical effects on the child.

Another point to consider is that the workout the body get from crawling on all fours is very intense, and this level of exercising the core, shoulder, wrist, and thigh muscles is rarely achieved later on in life. It should therefore be strongly encouraged.

Next Stage

Once toddlers reach the walking stage and hopefully progress from there to jumping, hopping, and skipping, there is very little opportunity for them to work out the core muscles. Encouraging kids to participate in outdoor activities like rock wall climbing and monkey bars, as well as doing the all-fours shuffle consistently can ensure continued strengthening of core muscles.

For children who are obviously dealing with a weaker, tighter core, some ways for them to work out those muscles include gym play, and games that involve bending over from side to side (leaning rather than squatting), such as stacking cups from one side of the room to another.