Toys that Support Crawling

When your child is working on crawling (army crawl) and creeping (on hands and knees), toys that roll or glide across the floor may motivate your baby to give chase.

While nothing motivates a baby more than a possible snuggle in Mommy or Daddy's arms, rolling or push toys are also fun for the newly mobile baby.

Here are some non toxic selections:

Rolling Toys 

Plan Toys Roller

Grimm Blue and Green Baby Roller Wheel with bell and balls inside $40 at ape2zebra.com
 
Plan Toys Roller $11 at childtrek.com
When the brightly-colored roller moves, the wooden ball inside hits the panels and creates sound that stimulates both vision and hearing. Helps your baby make early learning, cause and effect associations (when this rolls, it makes sounds). Encourages babies to crawl after the roller, thus strengthening gross motor skills.

HABA Viva $18

Haba Viva $20 at childtreck.com HABA Viva is a brightly-colored, manipulative toy for babies. It is fun to press and collapse. Your child will also love the delightful little bell as it is rolled around. Safe for teething. Wooden parts threaded on elastic band. Made of beech wood and maple. Super fun and safe teething toy. Made in Germany. Child-safe and non-toxic.

Push Toys

Selecta Rollina Rolling Beetle $12 at blueberryforest

Non Toxic Balls

Peep A Boo at Amazon

Wonder world Peek-a-Boo Ball $20 at sears
Haba Animal Den Softball $18 at blueberryforest,
Miyim Sensory Ball $10 at childtrek.com,

Everlast sells a seven pound non toxic medicine ball.
Ape2Zebra sells a non toxic wooden ball.
non toxic/eco friendly golf balls $10 a dozen at ecogolfballs.comcorn ball, shopping info, health info

animal print tiger ball: shopping info, health info
giraffe print ball: shopping info, health info

football or soccer ball

Related Posts:

Teach Your Baby to Crawl
Crawling: More Important than Sitting or Standing

Crawling: More Important than Sitting or Standing!

When will my baby crawl?

The average age that an untreated baby with Down Syndrome starts creeping (crawling on hands and knees) is 17 months. Jett, who is treated, started army crawling (later referred to as "stomach crawling") at 10 months even though he had heart surgery at 6 months. He was creeping (on hands and knees/4-point crawling) by 13 months (and pulling himself to stand at 14 months). 
You can get your baby to crawl much, much younger than that if you work on his muscle tone and do as much tummy time as possible, as soon as possible. I didn't do tummy time intensely until Jett was 3 months old. When we brought Jett home at birth, he was crawling on us immediately. But, I didn't realize that he would lose this ability as he gained weight if I didn't provide ample opportunity for crawling. And I also didn't realize how important it is for proper brain development.


Why is crawling important?

It helps your baby organize the wiring to his brain for higher level, cortical functions. Cross pattern activities help develop good communication between the right and left sides of the brain, which helps to avoid future problems of long-term memory, stuttering, etc. It also helps him feel and understand where his body is in space, as well as promotes good bladder and bowel control. Coordinated physical movement is dependent upon developing good tactility and corresponding good cross pattern movement.

-- Kay Ness, Jett's Neurodevelopmentalist

Down Syndrome: The Importance of Crawling on the Stomach

by Robert J. Doman, Jr. and Ellen R. Doman, National Association for Child Development

Excerpt:

Why stomach crawl [army crawl]? ...What is to be gained by doing it, and why does your baby need this essential first form of locomotion? There are several reasons.

Your child’s eyes begin the work of learning to focus and converge together on near-point objects, a skill which is needed for everything from reading to depth perception. The tactile feedback given by the entire body moving against the friction of the floor teaches your child the location of the entire torso, arms and legs, and feet and hands.

Proprioception, knowing where your body is in space, is based on these early messages of tactile input on the floor and feeling every movement through the feedback of this contact. The child is learning that they have two legs, two arms, two feet and two hands because they can feel these parts moving against the floor. Crawling engages virtually all of the muscles of the body, from the arches of your feet to your abdominal and neck muscles, all of which are used in the process of moving your body forward across the floor. Arm, chest and back muscles are utilized in pulling the arms forward and then pulling the body forward. Quads, hips and hamstrings are worked during the leg movement. This is a workout!

Learning coordinated movement starts here with crawling on the floor. Whether the child picks up the cross pattern movement on their own or they learn it through parent assistance, this is the beginning of that very fundamental movement of a right arm and left leg, left arm and right leg-- the movement we use to walk and run, climb stairs and climb hills. When the child learns this by working on the belly crawl, they get all of that helpful tactile information through the limbs and through the torso, laying a strong foundation for more advanced forms of mobility.

They also develop a very critical physical piece through crawling-- muscle balance. The crawling movement is one of flexion and extension of the arms and legs, pushing and pulling using the flexor muscles, then the extensor muscles. One of the issues confronting many parents of children with Down Syndrome is that they are often advised that the child needs to begin developing trunk strength and tone through sitting because it is this lack of trunk strength and tone that creates the problem with crawling and walking. If sitting were the best thing for the development of the trunk, every adult would have strong backs and great abs. Sitting is not what develops the trunk; crawling and creeping is. The child should not sit independently until they can get themselves into that position independently, which is typically after they have learned to crawl on their tummy and creep on their hands and knees.

Another very significant aspect of crawling involves the integration of sensory input. Crawling provides the brain with what is quite possibly the best integrated sensory input that a child ever receives. This act of crawling sends simultaneous information to the brain from all of the tactile and proprioceptive receptors, the surface receptors, the deep receptors and the proprioceptive receptors in the joints. And not only is the brain receiving all of this input, it is receiving it through the simultaneous input from the movement of the right arm and left leg, and the left arm and right leg. This is very powerful sensory-integrating input....

Short cuts and quick fixes will lead to later repercussions. Don’t take the chance. Try to do it correctly the first time and avoid thousands of hours of time in the future in physical and occupational therapy trying to overcome the problems that are often created by skipping this critical developmental activity.

--

Creeping and Crawling Foundational to Child Brain Development


Excerpt:

In the beginning of the crawling stage the infant may move in no recognizable pattern or he may crawl in a frog-like pattern called homologous movement. He may also crawl using the arm and leg together on the same side of the body, which is called a homolateral pattern. The child soon abandons these movements in favor of the most sophisticated pattern, the cross-pattern. In a cross-pattern the left leg and right arm coordinate with the right leg and left arm. We walk and run in a cross-pattern. Nevertheless, a baby may use homologous and homolateral patterns before he develops the cross-pattern, both while he is learning to crawl and later again when he is learning to creep.

Stage II - Crawling

Children who are given abundant opportunity to learn to crawl in an infant track can enter stage II in the pons at 1 month of age, instead of 2 1/2 months, which is the norm. In stage I the newborn gained initial control of his limbs. In stage II he will master crawling. An infant enters stage II when he can crawl 2 or 3 feet non-stop in about 10 minutes. This makes him a beginning crawler.

...Your baby will learn to crawl like an expert in stage II if you continue to give him at abundant opportunity daily to master crawling in the track and on the floor. If you encourage him to crawl 15 times, each day, he will soon be crawling in a cross-pattern and will rapidly increase his capacity to 150 feet of crawling in a day. After so much crawling, the baby will then push himself up off the floor onto his hands and knees, which will mark his entry into stage III. This can happen sooner rather than later if you give your child abundant opportunity to crawl and plenty of encouragement to develop mobility.

Stage III – Creeping

After a baby has developed the cross-pattern and after much crawling, he will get up onto his hands and knees and begin to creep. Having mastered Stage II in the pons, he enters the midbrain area and Stage III of brain development. His infant days are just about over, so you can put away the track and save it for your next child. However, a baby will still be doing a lot of crawling in stage III, especially when he wants to get somewhere fast, but he will be working on learning to creep.

...In the midbrain area and Stage III of brain development the goal is for the baby to creep 400 yards in a day. (In Stage I, the medulla and cord stage of reflex response, the goal was for the infant to crawl 2 or 3 feet, nonstop, in ten minutes. The goal in Stage II in the pons was to reach 150 feet of crawling in a day.) How quickly your baby reaches mobility goals will entirely depend upon how much opportunity, how much love and encouragement you can provide.

The creeping baby definitely needs long pants and long-sleeved shirts. This goes for girls too. They shouldn't be wearing dresses; they get hung-up in the skirts. A creeping baby should wear socks, but not shoes. Thick rugs are best for learning to creep. Thick rugs are not as hard on elbows and knees. A kitchen floor is not where a beginning creeper does his best.

Your baby will still be crawling in stage III. He's not an expert creeper yet but, day by day, he will gradually do more creeping and less crawling until one day creeping will replace crawling entirely. You can then expect that his next accomplishment will be standing-up.

You help bring your baby to this point in Stage III of brain development by encouraging him or her to creep in many, many short creeping sessions. Doman says to get down on the floor 20 or 30 times a day with the baby and motivate him to creep. This seems like a lot, but the sessions are very brief at first. Then they gradually increase in length of time and decrease in number.

A baby remains in stage III until he is actually walking. One day after much creeping he will pull himself erect, and holding onto a piece of furniture he will stand. He will then pull himself up on every table and piece of furniture he can reach, and holding on to the edge he will walk its whole length. This is called cruising. His days in the midbrain are coming to an end. One day after much cruising, he will come to the end of the sofa and eye the chair and take his first independent steps, from the sofa to the chair. Now, the line is drawn. He has left stage III forever and has entered stage IV of brain development in the initial cortex. If you have given your child extraordinary opportunity to develop mobility from birth, walking can begin earlier as well.

Sources

http://nacd.org/newsletter/1009_down_syndrome_crawling.php
http://www.internationalparentingassociation.org/BrainDevelopment/mobility3.html

Related Posts

Teaching Your Baby to Crawl
Toys that Support Crawling
Milestones: Sitting
Milestones: Standing
Low Muscle Tone: What to Do
Promote Walking: Are Treadmills Good?
Tummy Time
Deep Pressure Tactile Therapy

Teaching Your Baby to Crawl

The average age that an "untreated" baby with Down syndrome crawls (on hands and knees, otherwise known as creeping or 4 point crawling) is 17 months old. This is twice the age of a typical baby. Of course, your baby has an extra advantage because he has you to cheer him on! 

How can you help him creep or army crawl sooner/better? 

First, you need to address the low muscle tone. Even if he doesn't appear to be "floppy," if he has a T21 diagnosis, chances are his muscles are weaker than a typical baby. (See Low Muscle Tone: What to Do) 

Next, you need to get him comfortable on his tummy. (See Tummy Time) Often if babies don't like tummy time, you try these tips and they get more comfortable with it. That's how Jett was. At the very first he didn't like it but quickly took to it. If your child still hates being on his tummy, I'd take him to an MNRI practitioner to address problems with reflex integration. Many times this can clear that issue up. If he still doesn't like tummy time after the MNRI practitioner doesn't see a reason why not, you can take him to an ABM practitioner to see if they can get him to a point where tummy time is easier. With my child with CP, he couldn't enjoy tummy time until both MNRI and ABM was utilized. It turned out that he didn't have proper range of motion in his neck and shoulders. Once that was addressed, he was totally fine with tummy time.

Five steps to crawling:

1) Put her on the carpet. The very first thing your baby must master before there's any hope of learning to crawl is being comfortable on her tummy. You'll get great results doing this if you talk to and play with your baby when she's on the carpet or a blanket. Jett was happy on his tummy if I put him on the sofa and I sat down on the floor next to him. That way, we were face to face and both comfortable. (This worked until he was able to roll over then, of course, we had to move to the floor!) See Tummy Time for more tips.

2) Put together a roller. Roll an ordinary bathroom towel into a "sausage". Of course, you can also buy any other type of roller. They're soft cylindrical shaped toys... preferably solid. You can get inflatable ones, but solid ones normally last much longer.

3) Position her elbows. Gently hold your baby by the elbows and draw them towards her body. It will almost seem as if your child wants to lie on her elbows. Continue to provide support. I did not do this with Jett; it may not be necessary.

4) Position on roller. Gently position the "sausage" under your baby's upper body… arms hanging over the front of the "sausage". The rolled up towel supports the upper body - NOT her stomach - with her elbows just touching the carpet. It should slightly raise her upper body thereby allowing her to discover the surroundings. Make sure her elbows touch the carpet - they must not be hanging in the air.

5) Perform in front. This is the most important step. Get down on the floor directly in front of your child and face her. Now, let your baby look at your face while you talk to, amuse and encourage her. Many parents also found a crawl mirror is a great help.

The idea is to encourage your baby to enjoy longer sessions on her tummy. She must focus on you and will then spontaneously develop a sense of using both elbows and legs for support. If it's done right, you'll soon see her supporting herself on both knees and straight arms... ready to crawl.

The power of this 5P System lies in raising your baby's upper body to look at her surroundings... all while lying down. Another thing we did to strengthen Jett's arm muscles is to have him grasp our fingers and let him hang (over a soft surface). Once your baby can grasp your fingers, you can give this a try.

The more your baby is on her tummy, the better and the sooner you'll see results.

How to encourage moving forward instead of flailing about or in circles

When your baby is able to hold his head up and seems to want to move forward, but can't, just press your thumbs on the bottom of his feet. When he feels the pressure there, he will learn that he can press against you and push himself forward! Jett loved this and was moving forward right away.

How to encourage crawling forward instead of backward

Jett could army crawl backwards quickly and easily and could do it when he felt the pressure of our thumbs on his feet, but to teach him to move forward on his own, my husband made a crawling track (looks like a slide with sides). If you put the track on an incline, and the baby on top, gravity will help him to move forward. After just a couple of sessions in the track, Jett quickly figured out that he can move forward on his own! I've heard some parents used their coffee table on an incline as well.

Crawling Track

How to build an infant crawling track from the Schmlloyd blog.

Jaidin's Journey, a DS-related blog with a great post on how they made their Crawling Track. 

See a built crawling track at 3 of 21 blog.

http://www.childandme.com/babys-physical-development-crawling-creeping-and-brachiating/

Note: Be sure to use nontoxic items in your crawling track. Vinyl is toxic (contains all sorts of troubling chemicals, such as lead, phthalates, and off-gasses carcinogenic fumes), foam is a neurotoxin and most glue is toxic as well.

These are the nontoxic items I tracked down and my husband used in Jett's track:

Nontoxic glue

http://www.titebondgreenchoice.com/greenchoice.aspx 

If you don't know which type of glue to use, you can email them to be sure. 

If, for some reason, Green Choice can't help you, you can also contact: customersevice@buygreen.com 

Green Retail and Wholesale, LLC
  14 Goodyear, Suite 135
  Irvine, CA 92618-3759
 TF: 888.9.BuyGreen or 888.928.9473 x812
 FX: 949.281.6241
  www.BuyGreen.com
 

Nontoxic foam

sources: 

http://www.macraesbluebook.com/search/product_company_list.cfm?prod_code=8745122

I skipped the foam & vinyl and just applied linoleum to the wooden track instead. (My husband did this, not me.) It was slippery enough that Jett went down it fine. I just made sure he had on soft pants to cover his legs. I left his feet uncovered so he could feel and grasp as needed. We live in Florida, so temperature wasn't a problem.

If your baby is army crawling, but not on hands and knees:

First, army crawling is good for your baby. It helps them get a sense of space. So, don't fret too much. But, what worked great for Jett to encourage creeping (on hands and knees) over army crawling is climbing stairs. I put away all his toys in the nearby area. Then I set up the sofa cushions like stairs (we don't have stairs). Then I put his favorite books, toys, and even his therapy supplies that he's not allowed to play with on top. He happily and excitedly goes up the stairs and expects a book to be read, to play with a very interesting toy for a little bit, or a short therapy session. After a story or about 5 minutes of play time/therapy session, I bounce him back down the stairs to the bottom. He laughs and laughs. I gave him a lot of praise the first two times he climbed the stairs, but it's completely unnecessary after that. His reward is at the top of the stairs.

You can also roll up a small sheet or towel and loop it under his stomach and lift him up as he's trying to army crawl.

And you can set up a mini obstacle course. Cover 2 x 4s with a blanket or towel and set them down on the floor with spaces in the middle so your child will have to lift himself up to crawl over them. It's usually too uncomfortable for them to drag their body over in an army crawl.

Also, creeping is more comfortable on the carpet. Army crawling is more comfortable on harder floors or floors with scratchy covering. On hard surfaces, I put sweat pants on Jett so It's more comfy to crawl upon.

Once I started doing these things with Jett, especially the stairs, he started creeping more and immediately started to pull himself up into standing position. (But crawling is more important for brain development, so I encouraged crawling over furniture cruising!)

Teaching Baby To Crawl After He Can Sit

If your baby already puts himself into a sitting position (you sitting him up doesn't count), then you can try this "stretching" method. Once he is sitting, simply place a colorful toy or plaything on the floor, slightly in front and to either his left or right.

If you place the toy outside your baby's reach, he will have to stretch and support his upper body with the other hand.

Keep on repeating this activity, placing the object farther and farther away and in a little while your baby will be stretching, lunging then crawling to reach it.

Have a particularly stubborn baby? (Just kidding!) Once you understand the importance of crawling rather than sitting, you may need to resort to tying a (non plastic) bag of uncomfortable-to-sit-on-items to your child's bottom. Or stuff his pants/diaper cover with such items. He won't want to sit on them, so he'll decide to crawl instead. You gotta do what you gotta do!

Another idea to help encourage your baby to crawl forward instead of sitting is to use the crawling track on an incline with a super exciting toy (or Daddy) at the end. In just a couple of days in the track, Jett was able to crawl forward (but he did crawl before sitting).

My Baby Crawls Funny

Okay, so you got him crawling/creeping! Congratulations! Now what? If your baby drags a leg; uses two hands, one knee and a foot, etc.--anything that is not a typical crawl pattern, you need to get it fixed as soon as you can. Jett dragged his left leg until we got it corrected. If your child continues to "crawl funny" then it can mess up the development of the ball and socket in the hip by rubbing it the wrong way or pulling it out, etc. Correct creeping is how the hips are properly formed. (Your therapists may say it is fine and s/he will outgrow it. I'm telling you, they are incorrect.) To fix this, take your child to a baby-friendly chiropractor, Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, or craniosacral therapist for accupressure/mild adjustments/craniosacral work. (Say NO to x-rays. If they suggest this, find someone else!) This is a problem and it can and should be fixed. I know plenty of parents who didn't know this and now are dealing with surgery, casts, braces, etc. After several adjustments, Jett crawled perfectly and has ever since!

Bear Crawling

Bear crawling, or crawling on hands and feet rather than knees, does build strength, but does nothing to help organize the brain. Encourage your child to crawl on hands and knees. Perhaps s/he doesn't like the floor surface? You may want to consider putting on pants or long socks to protect the knees. Jett only did this when I didn't have long pants on him.

Sources

http://www.babydevelopmentnews.com/teachingbabytocrawl.html

Kay Ness, Neurodevelomentalist, SENC

Q. Fish's book Down Syndrome: What You CAN Do

Related Posts

Tummy Time

Toys that Support Crawling

Crawling: More Important than Sitting or Standing

Milestones: Sitting

Milestones: Standing

Low Muscle Tone: What to Do

Deep Pressure Tactile Therapy