Seeking Advice from Moms Whose Children Did Not Crawl.

Give her opportunities to pull herself up on furniture and other pieces. We have a great activity wall that helped with this. Another helpful thing for my daughter was being around crawlers. She liked to mimic them. Once her cousin was doing she gave it a try as well.

My daughter walked at 10 months and started crawling about a month later.

My son was like this as well, Walked at 10ish months and didn't learn to crawl until closer to 18. Even as an infant, 3 months old, he preferred to stand on peoples laps than to sit or be laying down. We just put him near our couch/chairs/ottoman and he was pulling himself up from sitting. Apparently Crawling took too much time for him, he wanted to run! that started at about 12 months and still hasn't stopped, 2 years later. He also did, as another poster mentioned, do the triangle walk to get back to furniture and stand up properly.

Stop standing her up, let her get a little frustrated and she'll figure it out on her own. She might not like it at first, but it'll save you a lot of bending once she gets the hang of things.

My daughter walked at 12 months and crawed at 14-15 months. She did the bear crawl for awhile and now thinks it's hysterical to do a real crawl, as if she's figured out something that no one else has : ) Try not to worry. My daughter has consistently done everything backwards but she's developing just fine, she's just unique. We try to laugh about it and not focus on what should be happening according to books. That said, you are completely normal to be concerned as I was too but hopefully these posts will calm your concerns. I think patience is the best method. If she has a strong personality like mine then forcing her into things may just cause more frustration on both your parts.

My oldest walked independently at 10 months also and never crawled. It seems like to get up he would put his toes on the ground, bend at the waist and push himself up with his hands. Kind of hard to explain, but he never even tried to crawl until he was quite a bit older. Maybe just try showing her different ways to push herself up and then let her work on it by herself. She will figure it out eventually though it might frustrate her at first.

Hi J.,
My son walked early also he was 10.5 months old. He never crawled either. He just went from pulling himself up on things and walking. He was a big, chubby, rolly polly baby
and everyone said it would take him forever to learn to pull up his body weight. Well he proved that theory wrong. By the way he is the tallest and skinnest kid now.
Anyway, getting back to your question. Perhaps you could put her near the couch and have her go through the motions of pulling up with your help. Maybe she will catch on.
Good Luck. No matter what she will get it eventually.
M.

My daughter never crawled. She walked before she crawled. And even after that she had no interest in crawling. She started walking quickly but always scooted on her butt. The doc said their finding alot more babies walk before they crawl and may not even do it. It says that in alot of magazines I read. The doc also said babies can walk anywhere from 12-18 months. This is my first child as well and I felt at times the same way you do. It's so normal to feel that way. Just so you know. It will all come together. It's up to your baby and when she wants to start. I always held her favorite toy in my hand and put her against something and told her to come and get it. That worked like a charm. Try it. I hope I helped a little.

That's a new one..... How did she get on her feet at 10mo old? Just stop propping her back up and she'll figure it out.

Two of my 3 children walked before they crawled and I too was worried from hearing they weren't developing right. However they are 10 and 14 and straight A students. Walking v crawling is just a personality trait. THey two that walked first are very driven and competitive. Granted they don't care to sit and read a book, but they can read and get good grade. They would prefer to do other things. That's what makes us all different. Relax as your daughter will be fine. But don't keep picking her up. Let her gain her independence.

Your daughter sounds exactly like my son (who is now 4.5). He started walking at 9 months and didn't crawl until he was over 14 months. One day my brother-in-law was crawling around on the floor playing with him and he just started to follow. It was very awkward for him at first - he kind of looked like a dinosaur - but he was excited by his new skill and eventually got better at it.

We didn't really do a whole lot to encourage it, just playing on the floor with him and modeling it. We did try to develop his upper body strength by offering him our hands to let him try to pull himself up when he wanted to stand up instead of just propping him up.

He continued to lack in upper body strength, even after he learned how to crawl (since he still preferred walking), so we did lots of climbing on monkey bars as he grew and swinging on the trapeze rings on the swingset. We obviously had to help him out a lot at first, but as he got stronger he was able to hold on by himself for longer and longer (this was more when he was 2-3 years old). Now at 4.5 his strength has caught up and is perfectly normal.

We had lots of people who said, "if he doesn't crawl he'll never learn to read (or do math, etc)", and I can assure you that he is developing just fine in all areas. So try not to worry too much, and just look for opportunities during play to encourage her upper body strength.

And I have to add, I didn't realize how good I had it with a kid who could only be mobile when I set him up. My daughter started crawling (and climbing) at 9 months and it was much more difficult to keep her out of trouble! Good luck!

I agree with the above poster and had the same question. While my oldest also skipped crawling and went straight to walking at 8 months, he had already been pulling himself up into a standing position for at least two months before he took his first independent step. (First, by holding onto furniture near him, then eventually by pushing himself off the floor without the aid of anything or anyone.) He had been "cruising" (walking while holding onto furniture) for at least a month before walking independently at 8 months.

We NEVER stood him up and "encouraged" him to walk by holding onto our hands. I'm assuming that has been the culprit with your daughter....people standing her up to encourage walking (because after all, it's so cute to watch them toddle!) I don't think the problem is that she didn't crawl, the problem is that she wasn't allowed the time to develop the necessary skill of getting into a standing position independently. (If she hadn't gotten "help" with walking, it's very possible she would have eventually crawled too.)

The solution (imnsho!) is to stop standing her up. Do lots of floor play, have her build her upper-body strength, but don't "allow" her to walk unless she does it on her own (which means standing up, too). I don't think she'll develop this important skill unless she has no other choice.

GL!

encourage her to crawl..........it is becoming more common for kids to walk first but they still need to crawl as it helps in the forming of certain brain connections necessary for reading and other such things in school(I'm not saying she won't read just that it will be harder than necessary), even kindergarten teachers will tell you to teach your kid to crawl if they never learned

My first child never crawled. He would cruise the furniture, and then just took off from there. He could pull himself up on the furniture on his own, and when he would fall, he would get into a triangle postition, with feet and hands on the floor, butt pointing up, and then walk in his hands while bending his knees, gaining his balance so he could stand up. He had figured this all out on his own, and i never had to help him, so maybe trying to teach her something like this might help? Good luck to you!