When do babies start crawling?

And how can you ensure safety during crawling age?

Non-slip:

Learning to crawl on slippery floors is a real challenge for babies. Especially during the first attempts, when muscle control and coordination of the arms and legs are not yet well developed, knees slip quickly on parquet and tiled floors. To avoid frustration, you can let your baby make first attempts on a carpet or a large blanket. There are also special 'ABS'-tights, which have an anti-slip coating on the feet and knees.

Secure the environment:

From the first wobbly on-all-fours position to crawling often only a few days pass and before parents realise it, their baby is lightning-fast on the move and explores everything that is visible and within reach. Fragile, wobbly or sharp-edged objects should now disappear from the floor, for example floor vases or electrical appliances. You should also safely store dog and cat feeding bowls. It is vital to secure sockets and power strips – your child should learn from the start not to touch sockets (even with childproofing).

Stair gate:

By the latest when your baby begins to crawl, a stair gate is mandatory. But the stairs shouldn't be completely off-limits: let your baby climb up and down a few steps in your presence. On the one hand this trains muscles and coordination. On the other hand it gains confidence on the stairs and learns, for example, not to go down steps forwards, but backwards.

Be careful with cabinets and doors:

Opening and closing doors fascinates many babies and so most in the crawling age try to open all available doors and flaps. To avoid accidents, you can use door stoppers for room doors and fit cupboard doors with safety locks. In any case you should make sure that cleaning products and sharp-edged objects in cupboards are stored out of your baby's reach.

How can I support my child in learning to crawl?

My baby isn't crawling yet:

In the playgroup the first babies are already merrily crawling around, while your own child lies quite content on its play mat and at most rolls onto its tummy – in such situations many parents get slightly uneasy: shouldn't my child also slowly start to crawl? Crawling cannot be forced:

Of course parents compare their child's developmental progress with that of their peers; after all, one is eagerly awaiting each next developmental step. The fact is, however, that learning to crawl, like almost all other milestones of child development, cannot be accelerated. So the question of how long learning to crawl takes cannot be answered in general. Babies learn to crawl when the physical prerequisites are in place and when they are ready.

Without crawling at all:

Some babies skip crawling entirely. They move forward, for example, by scooting or 'rolling' and then go straight on to walking. Do not try to force them to crawl, but let your child develop according to their abilities.

Encourage crawling:

Even though learning to crawl cannot be accelerated, parents can support their child by, for example, placing them on their tummy frequently. A toy placed out of reach provides additional motivation, as does generous praise from the parents.

More help and tips on how to best promote your baby's crawling can be found here