No. We get this question all the time these days now that our daughter is 10-months. But she still isn’t crawling, and really hates to be on her stomach for more than a few minutes. Although she has been standing (holding onto things like chairs, sofa’s, etc.) for some time now, walks while we hold her hands, and points to where she wants to go. At first, I thought something was wrong because she didn’t even attempt to crawl. Reading all the books, guides, doctor office literature, online, you get this feeling that you did something wrong along the way, stuff went through my head like ‘maybe I shouldn’t have given my wife a sip of soda when she was 5 months pregnant—now our baby will never get into college because the caffeine stumped her development!!’ Yes, that’s what goes though my mind.
But I read something that eased my fears today from Huggies “Happy Baby” (by the way—I don’t really trust diaper companies and their “let your child stay in diapers until they’re in 2nd grade approach” but the site is interesting) which was the first time I saw this nugget of information:
“Not all babies crawl before they learn to walk. In general, babies are achieving motor milestones at a later age than they did 15 or 20 years ago, in part because most of them are now put to sleep on their back. The Back to Sleep Campaign has significantly reduced the risk of SIDS, but the unintended fallout is that babies spend less time on their stomach.”
Yes, she does everything on her back because SIDS was always portrayed, at least to us, as the #1 killer of babies. It’s actually the 3rd,. #1 is birth defects, #2 premature/low birth weight -- the SIDS (which in itself is serious and tragic) campaign never announces the first two for some reason (?) and we became extremely paranoid about any notion of her spending more than a few minutes on her stomach for fear that the tragic could happen right before our eyes. Thanks SIDS campaign – in my book - for taking this to the extreme.
Now I know where the term “Tummy Time” came from later, to help compensate what babies have been doing for millions of years – spending more time on their stomachs.
On the bright side, I’m not feeling too bad about her skipping this crawling business anymore now that it seems like it wasn’t stuff like soda. Strangely, out of all this, it is a little nice not having to chase her around the house as other friends with infants around the same age have. We can still put her in one place without worrying about her sneaking off and pulling down the wine rack or dumping dishes on the floor. Which reminds me, maybe I should start baby proofing…
CDC Mortality Tables
March of Dimes: Infant Mortality Overview
Huggies Happy Baby: How Baby Learns to Crawl
2 comments:
The latest theory is that modern mattresses are so sealed up and dense and plasticky that when a baby is on their tummy and has their face down on the mattress, they are inhaling too much of their own carbon dioxide.
Wow-I haven't heard of that one!
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