When Will My Baby Sit Up, Crawl and Walk? (video)

Olga Rose, MD, a pediatrician at Scripps Clinic Rancho Bernardo, addresses questions that new parents often ask: When will my baby sit up? Crawl? Walk? What can I do to help? Dr. Rose offers friendly tips to promote healthy motor development.

First, you have to be able to learn to control your core before you’re able to move more stilled parts of your body. When you’re looking at a one-month old, they might start to raise their heads. By two months, they’re able to get their head pretty good off of an exam table. By four months, they’re really starting to lift their shoulders up and their chest up. By six months, they’re, on average, starting to sit. It’s usually kind of in a tripod way, with their arms right in front of them. They’re still very unstable. Between six and nine months, that’s really when children are starting to sit independently.

In terms of crawling, usually, the average age is between six and 10 months of age. It’s really interesting to watch how different kids approach crawling. Some will crawl, just kind of how you would imagine it. Others kind of look like crabs, with one leg bent and the other extended out in front of them. They scoot themselves forward this way. Others will commando crawl. Others will actually roll to get to where they need to go. A good portion of kids actually skip crawling altogether.

Usually by about nine months of age, kids are starting to stand up on furniture. They’re using their body to get up on furniture. They’ll start to cruise along the side of the furniture. Between 12 and 18 months is usually when they take their first steps.

There are some things that a parent can do to help promote motor development. That would be giving kids lots of time on their tummies, having them reach for objects that they find to be interesting and just making sure that they have a safe place in which to explore. This would be a good time to go through your house and make sure that it’s child proof so you can either walk through or crawl through. It’s important to see if any potential hazards are in the way.