My baby is 6 1/2 months old and she is not crawling yet? This is my first baby so i am not sure when she should start. what should i do to encourage her to start crawling or should i just let her start on her own? when should i start her on table food and will she still want baby food after i do?
When they say "every baby is different" they mean it!! My little girl started crawling at 7 months, but my niece didn't crawl until 9 months. Just make sure she is having her tummy time.
Table food usually is introduced when they have a few teeth. Cheerios or the dissovable puffs are good to start with!
Ask your pedi if you are not certain about foods!
All babies crawl at different times. Crawling at 6 months would be considered early. Some babies crawl as late as 10 months and later, some skip it all together. Some indicators that she is getting ready to crawl: she can roll over both ways, sit without support, go from sitting to a crawling position, and rock on all fours. But even this can last for a month or more. My baby rocked on all fours and scooted backwards for 6 weeks before she just took off across the floor one day. I would not encourage crawling; crawling early is not an indicator of intelligence, and it's a whole new ball game when they get mobile. It's really a pain...they no longer want to be confined, like in an exersaucer or johnny jumper. And you have to make sure everything is perfectly baby proofed...we had to mount our tv.
I started letting my baby try something other than babyfood around 6 months. I started with Puffs. At first she spit them out because she didn't know what to do with them. So I waited another week or two and tried again. Look for the pincer grap; if she can grasp a puff between her finger and thumb she is ready according to my pedi; I started mine a little earlier and she was fine. She got the pincer thing down sometime during month 7 about the time her first tooth came in. My daughter is 8 months today with 2 teeth and eats, puffs, avocados, potatoes, tomatoes, soft cheese in small amounts, zweiback toast (messy), regular toast, biter biscuits(supermessy!), mandarin oranges, yogurt, steamed carrots mashed up, peaches, lil crunchies from Gerber. She still eats her baby food mixed up thick with cereal but she likes the table food better. We are going to try some pastas in the next week or 2. I've also read, that when they can get up on all fours and hold their tummy up off the floor is a good time to start introducing more solids.
Everybody does this differently so you will just have to find what works for you and your baby.
On the food, I would talk to your pedi, but I started mine on cereal at 6 months, and the Gerber 1st foods at 9 months. I wouldn't worry about the crawling thing yet. My son was 1 year and 2 days old when he finally crawled and he's 13 months now and not walking. He will walk when you hold his hands, but to pull himself to standing and go off on his own, nope, not yet. Trust me when I say this, enjoy that she's not crawling, everything is safe and she will be where you place her when you get back. All babies are different.
J.
PS My son didn't sit up on his own until he was 8 months old, so if you think that she's behind or not with the "avereages", think of how far behind my son was and he was not premature!
On crawling don't worry she should be rolling over right now and thats about it. On solids talk to your doctor, I waited until my daughter was 9 months to introduce cheerios, on actually giving them table food for meals I waited until 11 months to 12 months just to be safe, remeber no eggs until 1 years and no honey until I would say at least 2 just to be on the safe side. When you do start giving her cheerios and little gerber snacks do not buy the biter biscuits or zwieback toast, my daughter would choke I mean like having to almost call 911 because heimlick would not work! and they are very messy! But the fruit puffs are great. But no matter what never ever leave the room while she is eating!!!! Kids can choke anything even nice and safe cheerios!! Trust me I know!! Good luck!
No worries. Both of mine started crawling around 8 1/2 months. Just make sure she gets lots of tummy time so she can strengthen her core muscles.
As for food, she may not be ready for a few months yet either. When she gets a few teeth, try her out on small dissolvable foods like cheerios. When she does okay with that move on to soft table foods like bananas, etc.
There is lots of great info. out there on the web for recommendations on feeding. The most important thing is that you follow your instincts because you know your daughter better than anyone else in the world. Good luck.
