Great Toys & Tips For Getting Your
Baby Crawling

"What can I do to get my baby crawling?" is probably one of the most frequently asked questions relating to baby development... both online and offline. Maybe it's because parents know about the physical and perceptual stimulation the milestone brings... or maybe, it's because it's such an easy milestone to track.

Regardless of the reason, let's look at a great technique and a few learning toys that get results playfully.

Baby crawling tips and technique

Probably the best thing about the 6-step baby crawling technique described below is...

1. Put your baby on his/her stomach on a carpet on the floor.

2. Gently hold your baby by the elbows and encourage supporting him/herself on elbows. Continue to provide support.
3. Measure or estimate the distance between the floor and Baby's armpit in the supported position.
    
4. Use a roller with approximately the same diameter as you've just measured. Rollers are soft cylindrical shaped toys... preferably firm. You do get inflatable ones, but firm, dense ones normally last much longer and can also be a valuable aid to get Baby to sit and walk.
   
   The roller will be placed underneath Baby's upper body for support. It's important that your roller isn't too big. Baby's elbows must still reach the floor when lying on the roller
   
   If you'd like to make your own baby crawling roller, click here for one of the easiest ways
    

5. Carefully place the roller underneath Baby's upper body... elbows touching the ground in front of the roller. This supported position also allow Baby to lift his/her head and discover the surroundings.

6. Get down on the floor directly in front of your baby, facing him. Now, let Baby look at your face while you talk to, amuse and encourage him to lift his head and take part in the conversation.
   
   Step six is probably the most important step of this activity. It focuses your baby's attention on you and the surroundings, rather on the activity.
   
   You may also want to slowly and very carefully turn the roller forward, effectively forcing your baby to reach out with his arms. Turning the roller also encourages him to move his legs and knees. 

The biggest advantage of using a roller lies in helping to raise your baby's upper body thereby giving him the chance to look around. This not only gives some stimulation from the surroundings, but also necessary physical strengthening. This is a great way to encourage baby crawling.

Remember, the goal is for your baby to naturally develop a sense of using both legs for support. Use this technique for 3-5 minutes daily... maybe even longer if your baby would endure it.

In no time you'll see your baby supporting his upper body using straight arms and bearing weight on both knees... ready to crawl.

Of course, using a roller is not the only way to stimulate baby crawling. Many of the leading educational toy brands nowadays also make playthings to get such results. One thing I know... they're much more fun!

Here are 3 baby crawling toys to stimulate and encourage your child. Click any of the links below to go directly to our description of that learning toy lower down on this page.

• Lamaze Mirror Crawl Toy
• First Years Happy Flyer Tummy Time
• Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym

Lamaze Mirror Crawl Toy

As infants master baby crawling, they also discover newer worlds. It comes as no surprise then that, toys that help stimulate and encourage a child to crawl, are said to be extremely important in a child's growing years.

The Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy is one such object that can literally help boost your child's skills.

Designed to intrigue your baby and encourage her to move forward, the Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy is the perfect amalgamation of safety, utility and beauty. The toy works by tickling almost all the sense of the baby and luring her towards the toy.

Remember just like adults, kids will also be attracted to colorful things rather than dull ones.

Visually this toy is a delight from a toddler's point of view. The lovely array of primary colors combines with the animal pictures on the side of the wheels to excite the visual senses of the baby. We particularly like the 2 fat wheels this mirror comes with.

The baby proof mirror gets your child to squeal with delight ever so often on seeing her own reflection in the toy. The lights help grab your child's attention and beckon the baby to come closer. As the toy rolls slightly, the need for further visual stimulation drives the child to move closer to the Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy and explore it some more.

The Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy comes with something for the auditory senses too. The music and the rolling sound of the beads are highly fascinating for your child. Wanting to have a closer look at a toy that creates this music, your child is tempted to crawl behind the toy while it rolls.

The best stimulation of the toy comes in helping your baby understand the cause and effect relationship as a default advantage to learning how to crawl. As the baby pushes the Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy, it rolls further, creating some light and sound.

Over time your baby learns that in order to create the desired music and light effect, one has to push the toy with some force. Soon enough the child will learn that to create a certain effect, it is important to cause it. Wanting to repeat this action over and over and take pride in her discovery, your child will make all efforts to crawl along with the toy.

The last but definitely not the least; The Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy is completely baby safe. All the edges have been rounded off and there are no small parts that may pose as a chocking risk to the baby.

Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy is a wholesome contraption for stimulating baby crawling, especially a child who is on the threshold of learning how to crawl. Every aspect of the toy is designed to attract your baby and then entice her to crawl towards it.

It would not be wrong to say that the Lamaze Mirror Crawl toy is indeed the perfect way to let your child learn to crawl and have fun at it too.

First Years Happy Flyer Tummy Time

Baby crawling is the first real taste of self inspired mobility that your child experiences. And helping her in this attempt may also work rather well in her physical and mental capacities.

The First Years Happy Flyer Tummy Time is a toy designed mainly for stimulating baby crawling.

This 3 pound (1.4kg) toy helps children to develop the muscles of both their upper and lower body. The happy flyer seat is where the baby is placed tummy down. As the child uses her arms and legs, not to mention tummy muscles, to move the seat round and round, she gains strength in these body parts.

Stronger tummy, leg and arm muscles eventually assist your child to crawl. The experience of being suspended in air adds to the magic of the toy and children seem happy to play around in a floating mode.

Shaped like an airplane, the multicolored mat serves as a great tool to stimulate the mind of the child in order to build on her physical facilities.

The baby proof mirror, the teething ring, the soft squeezing toy and the several textures of the mat combine to entice the child to spin the flyer seat in order to examine each aspect of the mat.

By focusing on your baby’s sense of touch, sight and sound, the mat serves the dual purpose of developing both her mental and physical abilities.

The First Years Happy Flyer Tummy Time has been designed with great attention to detail. Safety is given primary importance. The material of the mat is user friendly and the toy has no small parts that can pose any chocking hazards.

However, it is suggested that you use the toy only under adult supervision.

Comfort is primary to a child. Irrespective of the purpose or the look of a contraption, the baby will only enjoy it, if it is comfortable to use.

The First Years Happy Flyer Tummy Time's seat is properly padded to avoid any bruising. And the edges are smoothened out to prevent any injury.

Bottom line is, there are no pokey parts in the toy that could cause discomfort or injury to your child while she is enjoying her flying time.

It would not be wrong to say that the First Years Happy Flyer Tummy Time creates the desired environment to encourage baby crawling. Once your baby learns to move and starts crawling all over the place, the seat of the toy can be removed. Even if you then only use the mat, it's still great to fascinate, stimulate and entertain her!

Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym

The Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym is another popular baby crawling toy that aims at stimulating physical and mental development, while at the same time being an effective aid for your baby.

The Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym is ideally suited for those infants who are learning to hold their head and gain control of their spine. Most importantly, the gym targets developing the stomach muscles of the child, since they help the baby to crawl in the coming months.

Aptly named, the Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym provides for all aspect of a child’s physical development. The baby is placed on the toy with her tummy perched on the ‘saddle’.

As the child pushes her way around in order to see the petals of this flower shaped gym, she automatically exercises her stomach muscles and thus makes them strong. The arms and the shoulders also come into play here as the child moves in the saddle.

Learning to hold their heads up and balance it properly is another important lesson the babies learn with this toy. The legs are often used by the baby in order to seek that much needed push to gain momentum in the saddle and therefore are strengthened also.

In short, the Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym is providing exercise to all the parts of the body that will later be used in crawling smoothly.

Interestingly, the Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym teases the child’s senses in order to stimulate the baby into a physical workout. This flower shaped toy has five petals. Each petal excites the baby in a different way. While the squeaking red bird bearing petal and the petal with the peek-a- boo leaf flap are ideal for the child’s auditory senses, they also drives the cause and effect point home.

The Lamaze Spin & Explore the Sea is a variation of the Garden Gym described here.

The petal bearing the child proof mirror helps in developing the visual senses of the baby. The petals with the bee rattles and the three dimensional butterfly are both greatly beneficial in teaching the child about various textures and encouraging her sense of touch.

The Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym also throws in a riot of colors on the child’s visual platter. All these aids are used in order to keep the baby interested in the variety that the toy offers and continue moving, thus gaining physical strength.  

It would not be wrong to say that the Lamaze Spin & Explore Garden Gym offers a wholesome development to the baby. The gym is completely safe for infants too, though it is advisable to not leave the baby unattended on the saddle.

 Go from Toy & Tips For Getting Your Baby Crawling to Baby Toys

Privacy Policy | Terms | Disclosure | Contact | Newsletter