If I had to narrow the best way down to 5 steps, they would be my 5P Crawling System.
Many parents know that crawling is one of the major milestones infants must master. It's a key period when your baby becomes stronger, learn the surroundings, improve visual skills and improve physical abilities.
Crawling is a natural skill most babies automatically master. But many times it just doesn't happen ? for a number of really good reasons.
Like babies with poor head control often don't like lying on their stomachs. And good head control is one of the key skills a child must have to learn to crawl. So, if head control is mastered later than normal, following development may also be a bit slower than the norm.
That's when parents usually start to ask around for help to teach their baby to crawl.
It is mostly only professionals who know how to teach babies to crawl. But they still only use a few proven techniques. In essence most of these techniques encourage your child to be more tolerable to lying on her tummy.
But there is one technique that I found to work very well, is safe to try and can be done by all parents.
Over the years I've come to call it the 5P Baby Crawling System. It's a logical 5 Step System to get almost any baby crawling in no time.
Let's look at the 5P steps individually?
P - Put on the carpet. The very first thing any baby must master before there's any hope of learning to crawl? is being comfortable in the tummy lying position. You'll get great results doing this if you talk to and play with your baby when she's on the carpet.
P - 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 do get inflatable ones, but solid ones normally last much longer and can also be used to get teach your child to sit and walk.
P - Position on roller. Gently position the "sausage" under your baby's upper body? arms hanging over the front of the "sausage". The towel "sausage" 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.
P - Position the elbows. Now you've got to do something. 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.
P - 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.
The idea is to encourage your child to endure longer sessions on her tummy. Your baby 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.
It also only takes a few minutes daily to start seeing results. Obviously, if you can fit in more than one session per day, results come faster.
The bottom line is... getting your baby crawling is easy and important, but sadly unnecessarily neglected. But with this 5P Crawling System it's easy, affordable and definitely doable.
Any new parent is both excited and scared when they first bring their newborn home. Let's face it. After nine long months of waiting, or if you've waited for an adoption that took a long time to come, you've doubtless spent months getting ready. However, even though you're as ready as you can be, you might also be a bit nervous and even scared. No matter how prepared you are, you can always use a little extra help. So here are some important baby care tips to keep in mind.
Baby Care Tip #1: Bath water temperature
Of course, your newborn's skin is much more delicate than yours is, so bath temperature is one thing you have to be very careful as in order to avoid making the bath temperature too hot. When the baby first comes home, it can't be immersed in water for about the first month, so simply give sponge baths at first.
However, once the baby is about a month old and the umbilical stump has fallen off, you can give him or the first bath; of course, you should check with your pediatrician or nurse to make sure just when you can do this. Once you get the go-ahead, though, there are special bath inserts specially made for this purpose that you can put in your sink to lay baby in so that the baby is not fully immersed, but can still get wet enough to be bathed even before he or she can sit up.
In regard to water temperature, test the temperature by putting the inside of your wrist on the water's surface. Your skin here is very sensitive, similar to baby's, so you'll be able to test the temperature based on how the baby will actually feel it. The water itself should feel room temperature against your wrist.
Baby Care Tip #2: Swaddling your baby
Of course, newborn babies will be very sensitive to cold temperatures, since they've been in a nice warm uterus for the past nine months. Therefore, tiny babies should be dressed relatively warmly. In addition, it may make your new baby feel much more secure to be swaddled. Swaddling simply means that you wrap the baby snugly (but not too tightly) in a blanket so that he or she feels securely encased, similar to how he or she felt in the womb.
In addition, this can help the baby stop crying. Remember that crying is the only way for a very new baby to communicate. So if the baby is crying, it may not mean that he or she is hungry or has a dirty diaper that needs to be changed. It may simply mean that he or she does not feel secure. By properly swaddling the baby, you can help him or her feel much more secure.
Need more information?
If you need more information, no doubt you can ask your pediatrician or other health professional for more advice. However, simply asking other, more experienced parents what they have done in similar situations will give you valuable advice. The Internet is also great way to look for more information; there are also many self-help groups for new parents out there. If you're a new parent, don't worry. Pretty soon, you'll get the hang of it and be giving advice of your own to others.
Both Dalene Joubert & Peyton Hines are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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