When our baby reaches the crawling stage, a slight sense of panic hits. If your baby already kept you on your toes just wriggling around like a little worm or rolling over, imagine now when they’ll have access to everything and want to explore every corner of the house. But your baby crawling is one of the wonderful phases of discovery for your little one. Most babies start to crawl from 6 months or even after 7 months, as they feel more stability in their legs and knees. Some even skip this stage and instead of seeing your baby crawling, they may start walking quickly.

When Does the Baby Start Crawling?

The baby only starts to crawl when they can easily sit by themselves without support. At this stage, the baby begins to have better control and support of the head, neck, arms, and back muscles, which will be important for being able to support their body weight on their legs. Unlike us adults, babies don’t have full body balance yet, so they need strong muscles to be able to perform the crawling movement. They may spend weeks training, moving around on their tummies, strengthening the muscles they’ll use to crawl. But once they can support their bodies, they may quickly start crawling and become very agile in just a day or two. From the moment you see your baby crawling, it’s time to pay extra attention to new precautions, household dangers, and risks to the baby.

Home Safety Tips

When your baby starts to explore the house and discovers they can move easily wherever they want to go, it’s time to take some safety measures at home. Simple furniture and objects can pose serious risks to your baby’s life, so you need to be alert:

  • Furniture: Furniture has “corners,” sometimes pointy ones that can seriously hurt a baby. At this stage, babies cling onto and pull themselves up on all the furniture — so be alert.
  • Windows: Windows that once seemed so high and inaccessible now become an easy target. Never underestimate a baby’s ability to climb furniture to reach them. Ideally, put safety screens on windows and keep furniture like coffee tables out of reach from windows.
  • Electrical Outlets: Outlets are a major risk for babies and children and tend to be very attractive to them, especially since they’re at eye level and easy to access. Outlet covers exist to prevent these accidents!
  • Stairs: Stairs are a big danger for babies during the crawling stage. Protect stairs with baby gates and avoid letting your baby climb up or down, even under your supervision. Many accidents happen on stairs!

Never forget that a baby needs support and encouragement. The best way to stimulate your baby is to place toys that attract them in a safe space for exploration — always under adult supervision. The more space and freedom they have to practice and crawl, the stronger their leg muscles will become, and the more agile and secure they’ll be.

Baby Development

Now, when we talk about a baby’s development, we have to think about several important stages, and each baby will progress at their own pace and time: psychological, motor, and cognitive. The developmental process, visually speaking, is slow and requires a lot of patience with every step your baby takes before moving on to the next stage.

Psychological Development of the Baby

A baby’s psychological development happens every day, step by step, through sensations, emotions, and of course, by imitating gestures they are constantly observing. Every baby develops at their own pace, and that’s why they shouldn’t be compared with others.

Motor Development of the Baby

A baby’s motor development is linked to every new movement their body makes, including the ability to hold objects, reach what they want, and move limbs in a coordinated way — starting with neck and trunk control, which is necessary for crawling at first.

Cognitive Development of the Baby

A baby’s cognitive development begins right after birth and improves every day. As the baby grows, their brain receives new information, allowing them to show new reactions, learn new skills, and develop new reflexes and abilities. They learn new activities from one day to the next, and can make new discoveries within hours. As the months go by and as long as their development goes as expected, babies start imitating sounds they hear, follow objects with their eyes, and even try to reach them with their hands. They learn to tell light from dark and are highly sensitive to recognizing voices. Over the months, they discover what their fingers do and begin to make gestures, as well as facial expressions and those famous little faces. Your baby’s development will happen in their own time and every baby responds in their own way. Obviously, encouragement from parents and close ones helps a lot in awakening new skills, as well as strengthening new developmental milestones. Babies need a lot of family support to master new skills and discover their own abilities in a world full of discoveries. It’s a world that’s just beginning, full of emotions and many smiles. See Also: Are Baby Walkers Harmful? Photo: pxhere