Babies usually start crawling when they are between 7 and 12 months old. Crawling is an important skill for your baby to learn and is a big milestone in their development. Your baby will crawl when they’re ready, with their own unique style. Your baby will love this new freedom and will have lots of fun exploring and discovering everything around them.

Is my baby crawling normally?

Your baby will probably crawl on their hands and knees, but not all babies crawl the same way, and that’s okay. There are some other crawling styles you might notice, such as:

  • shuffling on the tummy ‘commando-style’
  • sliding along on their bottom (‘bum-shuffling’)
  • crawling backwards instead of forward

Here are some more tips on helping your baby learn to crawl:

Tummy time

Tummy time is when you place your baby on their stomach as part of their daily play routine. This helps strengthen and prepare your baby’s head, neck, back and leg muscles for crawling. Try tummy time in different locations to make it fun for you both, such as indoors on a mat or outdoors on a blanket and talk and sing while you do it. You can start doing tummy time from birth and increase with age and ability (10 seconds to 10 minutes). Always supervise your baby during tummy time.

Play on the floor together

Play is how your baby learns and playing with you is fun for your baby. Incorporating movement during your play, such as moving objects from side to side in front of their face or turning pages of a picture book, can help build your baby’s physical skills.

Encourage reaching

Place a favourite object or toy (or even you!) just out of your baby’s reach, to get them reaching and moving. Reaching across the midline (from the left side of their body to the right, and right to left) is particularly good for your baby’s motor development.

Make your home safe

Move any obstacles (such as furniture) out of the way so your baby can crawl around without the risk of getting injured. Move any dangerous items out of reach, such as:

  • small toys that could present a choking hazard
  • cords that could get wrapped round your baby’s neck
  • hot drinks

Avoid baby walkers

Baby walkers do not help your baby’s crawling or movement and can delay their crawling. They also result in thousands of injuries!!!