When it comes to crawling Molly has been getting herself into the launch position for a couple of weeks or so and getting ready for the first attempt. She has been seriously practicing and would sit on all fours and rock back and forth a bit but just as everyone thought she would go she would frustratingly abandon the effort at the last moment. But not any more though and now she has mastered the technique of synchronising arms and legs and has discovered forward movement using the hands and knees crawl. The energy that she was using up by kicking and thrashing about has been transferred into motion.
According to the experts most babies will crawl between six and nine months so Molly’s crawl is right on schedule. They can’t do this any earlier because they must learn quite a few physical skills in order to learn to do it. Before they will be able to crawl babies need to be able to hold their heads up on their own, develop arm and leg muscles to keep their body weight up while they are lifting themselves onto their hands and knees as well as understand how to move opposite limbs at the same time.
Now that Molly is mobile there will have to be changes around the house because nothing below a metre high will be safe from her inquisitive investigation. Already she is showing a preference for the Television remote controller over the Night Garden characters and it a set of car keys that makes her crawl the quickest. A fascination for car keys must be a family thing because my brother Richard had an obsession from a very early age and I can remember lots of frantic searches for them around the house usually just before we were going out. I have always assumed that that was why he went on to have a career in motor mechanics and car sales and can score 100% in the Facebook car recognition quiz.
According to the experts most babies will crawl between six and nine months so Molly’s crawl is right on schedule. They can’t do this any earlier because they must learn quite a few physical skills in order to learn to do it. Before they will be able to crawl babies need to be able to hold their heads up on their own, develop arm and leg muscles to keep their body weight up while they are lifting themselves onto their hands and knees as well as understand how to move opposite limbs at the same time.
Now that Molly is mobile there will have to be changes around the house because nothing below a metre high will be safe from her inquisitive investigation. Already she is showing a preference for the Television remote controller over the Night Garden characters and it a set of car keys that makes her crawl the quickest. A fascination for car keys must be a family thing because my brother Richard had an obsession from a very early age and I can remember lots of frantic searches for them around the house usually just before we were going out. I have always assumed that that was why he went on to have a career in motor mechanics and car sales and can score 100% in the Facebook car recognition quiz.
Making the house baby safe is really a matter of common sense so I was surprised to find so many child development web sites giving basic and patronising advice to parents. Surely everyone knows not to leave sharp knives lying on the floor or to make sure dangerous bits of electrical equipment are kept well out of reach? And as for taking health and safety too far what about this that I found on the website http://www.mamasandmunchkins.com/ - ‘Crawling Knee Pads in Strawberry – only $19.99’:
‘Protect your baby! Knee pads from Snazzy Baby - Australia. No more harm from redness, cuts, rashes, or carpet burn. Uniquely designed to protect your baby’s knees while learning to crawl and walk. Non-slip embossed grips enhance traction and allow a comfortable stretch. Your baby will have the ultimate protection from dive suit-quality Neoprene. Just slip on your baby and relax! One size fits all. Adjustable. Soft, durable and machine washable.’
I think this has to go straight to the top of my list of unnecessary and waste of money baby purchases. That’s what knees are for!
As well as crawling the other news is that Molly has learnt to drive:
1 comment:
isn`t it great when they start crawling Andrew? Mind you, the proverbial `eyes in the back of your head` become second nature again. How ridiculous that somebody actually invented something to `protect` babies from injuring themselves while crawling! More like a marketing ploy like so many other gadgets that are aimed at young parents these days. One of the worst to my mind the the bath support to save your arms while bathing baby. I had words with a salesperson in Mothercare about that one. She looked at me as if I was mad...lol!
Hugs
Sandra xx
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