Crawling - Babies on the Move

There are few things more adorable than watching your baby start to venture out and explore on their own for the first time. Excitement surrounds babies the first time they roll over, and then it’s not long and those little ones are crawling.

It’s not that simple, however. Not all babies get to that stage at the same time, not all of them crawl the same way – and some don’t even crawl at all, instead finding other methods to get around. It can come off as cute when a baby crawls in a different or peculiar way, but that could be an indication of something else going on.

Common issues with crawling could be the child not looking where they’re going when crawling, attempting to crawl in an awkward position, or simply flat out refusing to crawl. Crawling is important to the development that sets up your child for success down the road, so anything impeding could potentially have an effect long term. By making sure your child is set up to succeed before they get to these milestones can really help with that development.

Crawling helps in a number of ways, but structurally and neurologically, and one of the biggest benefits with crawling is that it encourages and helps brain development. In those early stages, the brain is developing the coordination of movement, thought and speech. When your baby is doing activities like crawling, it’s stimulating that area of the brain, which causes growth. During the first few years of their lives, babies will grow more than at any other time. The impact is enormous, especially if there’s something impeding that progress.

A pediatric chiropractor can make sure the spinal column is adjusted properly, and find out if that’s a cause slowing down that critical development. When a baby is born, their spine is compressed from its time spent in the womb. Along with the difficulty of the birthing process, the spine can be shifted out of alignment. That puts stress on the nervous system’s communication to the brain.

In order to get proper development, the spine should form three distinct curves: a forward curve in the neck, another curve in the middle of the back, and finally another forward curve in the lower back. This curvature promotes strength and durability in the spine as your baby develops, meaning it’s vital that it holds that shape during this period of critical growth.

Proper crawling can help maintain this proper curvature. The common crawling technique of left hand moving forward with right knee, and vice versa, stimulates coordination along with that brain development. If your baby refuses to crawl, opting to scoot around or pushing off with only one hand, that might be an indication of something going on with the structure or curvature of the spine.

Chiropractic care is safe, non-invasive way to make sure that correct curvature is in place, and it may also identify any other issues going on with your baby’s spine. For more information on how pediatric chiropractic care can help your little one with crawling and other issues with development, contact Dr. Morgan Sheridan at Foundation Chiropractic today.