When Philip and I noticed that Remi can stand up basically all by himself we were ecstatic! We thought "my God, hes so advanced! Hes only 4months old and hes already half way to walking!" We were very very proud. We thought "Maybe he will just start walking and skip crawling". We thought it would be neat and something to brag about.
However my mom started my worries. She said things like "Idk if you should encourage him to stand/walk yet he NEEDS to crawl, its important"....Why is it important?...."Well, idk for sure, ive heard that though, and look at you Tia, she skippedd crawling, and look how she turned out."....Ouch, but true....I panicked and tried to Reference Dr. Spock and various online articles.
So far ive learned nothing conclusive. Both sides have been validated, its important and it not important, there are negatives and positives...
Some say that crawling is imperative to building hand strength and coordination, that if your child doesnt crawl they may be a poor writer or not have enough hand strength for things like monkey bars. Their tendons wont be stretched in their hands and could have higher risks like carpeltunnel or arthritus.
Others say all of that is bologna and it will make no difference wether your kid crawls or not.
I find the statistics amazing though. While Remington is doing all of this ahead of his time, the act of skipping steps like crawling is not uncommon at all. The reason is is SIDS. That is the reason many children are not crawling and go straight to standing/walking.
Parents are terrified these days to put their child on their belly. "Back to Sleep" is the slogan and the children get so used to being laid on their backs that they develop an aversion to tummy time.
Remington has done this. I of course put him to sleep on his back and ive tried hundreds of time to give him tummy time and he has ALWAYS hated it. No more than 30 seconds at a time does he tolerate it. So sense ive read this article ive been exhausting myself giving him tummy time whenever I can: put him down, pick him up, put him down, pick him up, over and over and over again every thirty seconds or so...I think we are just frustrating eachother. He is thinking "Ive said i dont like this, why do you keep doing it?" and im thinking "C'mon Baby Boy, its not that bad, one more time"...
I dont know if hes making any progress in the crawling area, but I know he sure does like to stand holding onto the table. His legs are much stronger than his arms.
This morning I laid him on his belly and went to the restroom, while I was doing my business I heard him start to scream. We were having a yelling match two rooms apart about why he should stay on his belly. I hurried up and went and saved him from the horrible floor. He won.
I dont know what to do. Should I keep pushing this? Make sure he crawls. Or assume all these docs are quacks and let him do whatever he wants to do? Let him stand, dont force tummy time.
