Baby crawling

Baby crawling is an essential stage prior to the first steps. There is a great variety of stimulation exercises that you can do with your baby to start crawling. The first thing you have to do is get him to kneel face down, in a crawling position, then the most important thing is to attract his attention so that he can move.

Before learning the first steps, the baby has to cross a first stage: crawling. To start crawling, the baby will need to have control of his back, which he will get once he can remain seated. Between 6 and 12 months of age begins the crawling of the baby and parents can do many stimulation exercises with them to gain confidence.

As the enigma of the sphinx asked, man is a being that walks on all fours when he is small, two when he is an adult, and three when he is older ... It is very important that the baby crawls with freedom, since it is his first walking experience; both forward and sideways. Crawling verifies that you can move, approach the objects that attract your attention and so, when you are learning to walk, you will not feel disappointed after the first unsuccessful attempts.

Stimulation exercises for baby crawling

1. Before crawling
Before starting to crawl, you have to get used to the baby. One of the first exercises that we can perform consists of lifting the child, from the position of lying face down, holding him by the hands. We will do it slowly, until you get on your knees.
Then, later, we can continue to lift from the kneeling position until you stand up, taking out one of your legs to get the necessary support.

2. With a pillow
During the first stage we will have to help our son and "teach" him to crawl. To force him and get used to the crawling position (kneeling with palms on the floor) we can put a pillow under his body, so he does not tend to lie down, when he is face down.
As in the rest of the exercises, at the beginning we will have to help our son a lot until he masters what is asked of him.

3. Ready, ready ...
At first, until they develop their muscles enough, children tend to slip, as they can not push themselves sufficiently with their feet. Therefore, when you begin to crawl, we can place something hard on your feet, so that they get used to lean.
Speed athletes also use cleats to give themselves a good start.

4. ... And now!
The previous exercises are aimed, especially, to prepare the stage of crawling. Once done, we will have to teach him the action of crawling. It is a reflex, but you have to check it at the beginning. Thus, we will put the child in a crawling position, and we will promote his body in such a way that there is a swing that provokes the alternative support of the hands and knees.
We will take care not to push too hard or to pretend that the baby gets it first.

5. Come for this toy
To get our baby's attention and get him to crawl to where we are, we can offer him a toy that he likes, so that he is directed towards it. Normally, it will crawl, especially if we accompany this exercise of all kinds of fuss, laughter and affectionate words. We can also use rattles or rope toys that move on their own.
We will encourage you every time you achieve it and progressively increase the distance you have to crawl.

6. At your height
To treat a child, you have to catch up. And what better way to teach him to crawl than to crawl ourselves? We will have a lot of fun if for one day we leave our erect posture to catch up with our baby, playing crawling with him. In this way he will look at our example.
We must exaggerate our movements, so that they are clear to the baby. You can also correct the movements of the baby by holding his hands and feet.

Beatriz Bengoechea. Psychologist and family counselor