2 Little-Known Tips To Make Crawling Happen

"What crawling? My 8-12 month old baby has no desire to do that. He won't hold himself up with his arms or his knees. How do I get him to start moving?"

Is this also your anxiety?

Don't worry. Anyone can do the following 2 little-known tips to get their baby crawling.

How To Use Your Body

Sit down on the floor. Legs stretched out in front of you. Lie your baby on his tummy across both your legs -- his arms and upper body on one side of your legs and his legs on the other side.

It's usually easier to lay your baby across your upper legs where you can easily reach and handle him.

In this position your baby should be on all fours.

This position forces the baby to carry some weight on both arms and knees... thereby strengthening them at the same time. Once the arms and legs strengthen, crawling will come naturally.

At this age your baby is also very much interested in himself. So, to make things even easier, sit with your shoulder next to a mirror. Let your baby face the mirror and see himself. You can also use any other reflective surface for this purpose.

It's not necessary to use a very large reflecting surface... only large enough for your baby to see himself.

Once your baby is strong enough to get on all fours continue to encourage moving on the floor. In no time you'll see the results.

Another technique that works very well to speed up a baby's crawling is by discovering there's...

One More Way To Use A Towel

You'll need a normal large bathroom towel to support and to lift your baby off the floor.

The aim of this technique is to encourage crawling by slightly raising your baby to an all fours position with the towel. And to strengthen the arms and legs.

This's how to do it...

Lay the towel flat on the floor. Don't spread the towel in its width.

Lie your baby on his tummy across the towel... head and arms on one side and legs on the other side. Now take the two towel ends, one in each hand, forming the U-shape.

Gently raise your baby... just off the floor. Your child's natural reaction will be to assume an all fours position.

Your only task is now to support your baby to increasingly take more weight on his arms and legs. With a bit of trying and encouragement you'll strengthen the legs and arms which is much needed to bring about crawling.

Of the two techniques, you may find laying your baby across your thighs easier. But using the towel suspender with a brightly colored toy as encouragement may actually work better for others. Best is to try both tips.

Finally, think about this: you're concerned about your baby's crawling and may be wasting time and money on things that don't work. Why won't you try these little-known tips?

For more baby development ideas and tips, click here

For many more crawling ideas and tips... click here