Are you aware of the importance of crawling to your child's (or grandchild's) health?

As parents we always want kids to do their best. We want them to learn, to develop, to progress to the next stage. But is this always a good thing? When it comes to crawling, it may not be.

 

Many parents are unaware of the vital importance of this stage of their child's development. Crawling is in fact vitally important for a baby's neurological development. In particular it helps children to develop good communication between the left and ride sides of their brain. This is due to the ‘cross crawl' nature of their movement. A child's crawl should involve using the right arm at the same time as the left leg and vice versa. These left and right brain connections are vital for the body to function at its best and in particular are important for learning.

Crawling also helps your child develop its musculature ready for walking. Combined with regular tummy time in the pre-crawling stage, crawling helps to develop adequate musculature and hence good posture in their neck. Crawling also helps children develop their back extensor muscles ready for proper upright gait.

So whilst it is tempting to want to help your child accelerate past the crawling to the walking phase, it is important to exercise patience. Refrain from using apparatus like baby walkers that tend to encourage your child to start the walking phase before their body is ready, and let your baby develop at her natural rate. Because in the end when it comes to neurological development, posture and learning ability, a slight delay in your baby's progress now may help to prevent a significant developmental delay later in life.

And remember that if you are still concerned about the time it is taking your baby to progress from crawling to walking, or if your baby is not developing a proper ‘cross crawl' crawling pattern, then there may be some developmental or neurological reason. A check-up with a chiropractor or your health care professional may help to alleviate you concerns.