United Brachial Plexus Network

I was wondering if you guys could share whether or not your children crawled? If so-at what age? Also, did they compensate in some way and do it differently than the norm?
Also, I've read in some books that babies should be able to push up on their arms when laying on their tummies by 4-5 months. My son is 5 months and still isn't doing that. He has a pretty mild injury that we can tell so far b/c he has lots of movement. I wasn't sure if this was just developmental and it will come or if he can't do it. He hasn't even tried though. It's not as though he trying and unable to do it. Any comments or advice from experienced moms on this one? Thanks guys!
Shari

Hi-
My son Carson never crawled but he scooted around on his behind anywhere that he needed to get by using his legs. It was pretty cute. Carson still HATES weight bearing activities and he is almost 3 years old.
Ask your PT or OT about the stages. I don't remember the normal age for crawling, 5 months seems young to me.
Good Luck,
Jamie

I don't expect him to crawl now...5 months is young. I was just wondering what the experiences were.

Brooke started crawling around 7 months. She has a severe global injury. She wanted to crawl so badly that she just did it one day. I wouldn't worry to much, just encourage your child to weight bear. Do lots of tummy time. We also did nightly TES at that time, which seemed to help quite a bit.

Don't worry, if the injury is mild I'm sure weight bearing and crawling are in your near future!

Lauren

My son has a fairly mild injury and crawled within the normal time frame. His arm was still very weak at that age, but he started with the army crawl (on his belly) and then crawled fairly normally. He dislikes bearing weight on his injured arm/shoulder so he tries to shift his weight to the other arm as much as possible. I've also noticed that sometimes he will make a fist with his injured hand rather than placing it palm down on the floor. His wrist extension is weak, so that makes sense. He is 20 months now and walking, running, climbing, etc., but our OT still has us encourage him to crawl to strengthen the shoulder.

My son crawled probably 4 point at about 9 months...he could not push himself up or over when he was smaller so he would just pull up with his abdominal muscles...he is the only baby I knew with six pack abs...He used to combat crawl because he could scoot around easier...he began this at about 8 months...His OT wanted him to 4 point crawl so she suggested we put a beach towel under his belly and suspend him with just his knees and hands touching the floor and move along with him forcing him to work his arms and legs to crawl...we did that for maybe 10 minutes and the rest was history...we had to work with him to extend his BPI hand onto the floor as he would want to flex into a fist and crawl using his knuckles...we would just open up his hand when we saw this and remind him to open his hand...after a short while we were able to just command him to open his hand and he would automatically...He walked at 10 months...And he has been 100% boy.

Joshua did the army crawl until about 10 months, then started hands and knees but on his injured side he crawled with hand in a fist. After his shoulder surgery, he immediately started walking, so crawling went on the backburner. After I started taking him to the play area at the mall, where they have a hollowed-out log that the kids crawl through, he started crawling very "normally".

He is 28 months now, and he is still working on getting enough triceps strength and shoulder coordination to push up from his stomach without using his back/stomach/legs to cheat...

Kate

I second what Logan's mom said. Our son did the combative crawl then regular. rolling was a must here. some nonbpi kids were later developed than mine(according to the"books") so I would not even read those age books. in my opinion they cannot predict development when we ALL develope differently.

Juliana did the "butt scoot". And boy was she fast!! She has a severe injury, and didn't "learn" to crawl until she was about 3 years old. She walked at about 13 months. I don't remember when she started to "scoot"!

good luck,
claudia

Vallen also did the "butt scoot" She is almost 8 now, and what I hear from her therapist the most is...if she only would have crawled...The but scoot threw her hips out of alignment, elongated her abdomen on the right side, and her scapula is 1/4 of the size as her non bpi arm (we saw it on a catscan) Her therapist feels so much of what she is still dealing with is because she never crawled. And it was hard to hear that if affected her entire body, not just her arm. I agree with another poster who said do as much belly time as possible. For Vallen her injury was just to severe, and all the belly time in the world didn't matter. However, if you can help him crawl, and weightbear as much as possible, I think it will help greatly in his future development. Also, if he doesn't have one already, have you looked into the TENS unit? Good Luck on your journey.
Raina