Crawling May Be Unnecessary for Normal Child Development

[one...two...tree 2,762]

In some tribes, babies skip the crawl

By Kate Wong

Babies must crawl before they walk, parents and pediatricians agree. Crawling has also been held up as a prerequisite to the normal progression of other aspects of neuromuscular and neurological development, such as hand-eye coordination and social maturation. But new research may knock the legs out from under this conventional wisdom.

According to anthropologist David Tracer of the University of Colorado at Boulder, babies of the Au hunter-gatherers of Pa­pua New Guinea do not go through a crawling stage. Instead their parents and other caregivers carry them until they can walk. Yet Au children do not appear to suffer any ill effects from skipping this phase. In a presentation given to the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Chicago this past April, Tracer argued that, in fact, not crawling may be entirely normal and possibly even adaptive.

In his observations of 113 Au mother-child pairs, Tracer found that babies up to 12 months old were carried upright in a sling 86 percent of the time. On the rare occasions when the mothers put their infants on the ground, they propped them up in a sitting position, rather than placing them down on their stomachs. As a result of spending all of that time upright, Au kids never learn to crawl. (They do, however, go through a scoot phase in which they sit upright and propel themselves along on their bottoms. Tracer says the Au believe that this scooting, rather than crawling, is the universal human prewalking phase.)

The Au are not alone in discouraging their children from crawling. Tracer notes that babies in a number of other traditional societies—including ones in Paraguay, Mali and Indonesia—are raised this way. Furthermore, he observes, neither do our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, put their youngsters on the ground very often. Thus, it may well be that our early hominid ancestors toted their babies around, too, rather than letting them crawl.

Citing a study of Bangladeshi children showing that crawling significantly increases the risk of contracting diarrhea, Tracer proposes that carrying infants limits their exposure to ground pathogens. It also protects them from predators. He therefore contends that the crawling stage is a recent invention—one that emerged only within the past century or two, after humans began living in elevated houses with flooring, which would have been much more hygienic than dirt.

Wenda Trevathan, an anthropologist at New Mexico State University, agrees that babies were probably rarely placed on the ground in the past, adding glowing embers as another potential hazard. Tracer's work "highlights how narrowly we view normal infant development," she remarks, "and calls into question the tendency to judge all human infants on the basis of Western infants."

Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Hitching a Ride."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=crawling-may-be-unnecessary

[Marilyn. 340]

the kid I babysit doesn't crawl.. he scoots around on his butt... only problem is that he is kind of messing up his leg.. it is full of scratches etc.. he kind of puts one leg underneath him and the other he uses to scoot around

kind of like this

when he was younger we would put him on his tummy to try and encourage crawling but he didn't like being on his stomach..

Edited June 30, 2009 by Marilyn.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

the kid I babysit doesn't crawl.. he scoots around on his butt... only problem is that he is kind of messing up his leg.. it is full of scratches etc.. he kind of puts one leg underneath him and the other he uses to scoot around

when he was younger we would put him on his tummy to try and encourage crawling but he didn't like being on his stomach..

How old is he?

[Marilyn. 340]

he turned 1 in April

[one...two...tree 2,762]

he turned 1 in April

Oh...he'll be walking soon.

[Sprailenes 47]

I just started crawling last week.

[Marilyn. 340]

yeah he will... and then we will really be in trouble..lol

he is a curious George and once he realizes how much more freedom he can have if he walks, oh boy watch out ..lol

[one...two...tree 2,762]

yeah he will... and then we will really be in trouble..lol

he is a curious George and once he realizes how much more freedom he can have if he walks, oh boy watch out ..lol

hehehe...yep.

[Staashi 371]

If you don't learn how to crawl as a baby, how will you know what to do someday when you're so drunk that you need to crawl to a toilet to hurl??

[one...two...tree 2,762]

If you don't learn how to crawl as a baby, how will you know what to do someday when you're so drunk that you need to crawl to a toilet to hurl??

Those are the drunks that fall on their face.

[rebeccajo 14]

My son hardly crawled at all. Once he decided he wanted to get around, he would roll across the floor. Did that for a couple of months, I think. Then one day he decided to sit up and pull himself off the ground while holding onto the coffee table (I believe they call this 'cruising'). He cruised for a couple of months, then decided at 14 months he was good to take off and walk.

[Oosie 1]

One of my nephews never learned to crawl but scooted until he could walk. He had a severe cardiac abnormality and when he finally had corrective surgery just before his second birthday I noticed that the other babies in the ward were all scooters like him. When I asked the nurse she said this was normal for cardiac babies. The staff there thought the babies found scooting more comfortable as it put less strain on their lungs which were compromised because of the severity of their heart problems. I've never saw anything in the medical research to back up this view but it does make sense.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

One of my nephews never learned to crawl but scooted until he could walk. He had a severe cardiac abnormality and when he finally had corrective surgery just before his second birthday I noticed that the other babies in the ward were all scooters like him. When I asked the nurse she said this was normal for cardiac babies. The staff there thought the babies found scooting more comfortable as it put less strain on their lungs which were compromised because of the severity of their heart problems. I've never saw anything in the medical research to back up this view but it does make sense.

interesting

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Is masturbating needed for normal teen development? Of course I started before that. I remember the first time I ejaculated, it scared the hell out of me. I thought I broke something!

[scandal 951]

Is masturbating needed for normal teen development? Of course I started before that. I remember the first time I ejaculated, it scared the hell out of me. I thought I broke something!

You did!