The Crawling Stage: Timeline, Stages and When Babies Army Crawl

The crawling timeline

Crawling on hands and knees has a wide normal range. Pathways.org says most babies start crawling with alternate arm and leg movements at 6 to 9 months. The AAP's guide to movement from 8 to 12 months puts the usual age for mastering crawling at 7 to 10 months. A World Health Organization motor development study tracked 816 babies in five countries. The median age for hands-and-knees crawling was 8.3 months, and the middle half got there between 7.4 and 9.3 months. The window of normal variation ran from 5.2 to 13.5 months.

Some babies skip hands-and-knees crawling altogether: the WHO researchers never saw 35 of their 816 babies (4.3%) do it. "A few children never crawl," the AAP says, and they get from place to place by bottom scooting or tummy slithering instead. That's no cause for worry, the AAP adds, provided both sides of your baby's body work together and each arm and leg gets equal use.

When do babies army crawl?

Army crawling doesn't have an official age: none of the AAP, CDC, WHO or Pathways.org sources we checked gives one. In Pathways.org's step-by-step crawling progression, it falls between rocking on hands and knees, around 6 to 8 months, and coordinated crawling on all fours, by 9 months.

The ages that sources do give are for hands-and-knees crawling. For that, the WHO study cited above found a median of 8.3 months and a window of normal variation from 5.2 to 13.5 months. Here's more on how long after army crawling babies start crawling.

What army crawling looks like

Your baby's tummy stays low to the floor, and their forearms do the pulling. You may also hear it called belly crawling or commando crawling, and it shows up on the AAP's list of six crawling styles as the "belly or commando crawl."

Not every baby army crawls

In a 2024 paper, John Franchak of UC Riverside and Karen Adolph of NYU, who study how babies learn to move, write that army crawling is something only some babies do. Others come up with their own forms of belly crawling or inchworm along, and many never crawl belly-down at all.

The order varies, too. For some babies, cruising or walking comes first and crawling shows up later, as a 2022 paper for physical therapists on the CDC's updated milestone checklists points out.

The stages of crawling

Crawling looks different from baby to baby. Not every baby goes through every stage below, and the order can vary. Our post on what counts as crawling walks through all the crawling styles the AAP recognizes.

• The army crawl (commando or belly crawl): Belly on the floor, pulling forward with the forearms. It has no official age, and not every baby does it (more on that above).
• The rocking stage: Up on all fours and rocking back and forth, as if charging up. The AAP says babies may rock like this for a while.
• The reverse crawl: Reverse comes before forward for some babies, and Pathways.org says that's common. Here's what's behind backward crawling.
• The one-leg crawl (also called tripod or hitch crawling): One knee stays on the floor while the other leg does its own thing. Here's when baby crawling on one leg is worth a check.
• Classic hands-and-knees: Opposite arm and leg move together: right hand with left knee, then left hand with right knee. Pathways.org calls this "the pattern Baby should work toward."
• The bear crawl: Bottom in the air, arms and legs straight, palms and feet on the floor. The AAP includes it in its list of crawling styles. Here's why some babies bear crawl.

Signs your baby is gearing up to crawl

Watch for these, all drawn from Pathways.org's guide to crawling:

• Straight-arm pushups during tummy time, with the chest lifted off the floor
• Lifting their hips into an upside-down V, on hands and toes
• Rolling or shifting over to get to something they want
• Getting from sitting onto all fours, and back to sitting
• Rocking on hands and knees
• Reaching for a toy with one hand while balancing on all fours

How to protect crawling knees, elbows, and skin

"Bruises are hard to avoid completely," says Nemours KidsHealth. Here's what you might see on a crawler's knees and elbows:

• Floor burns and scrapes: The AAP's symptom checker describes scrapes and floor burns as surface wounds that don't go all the way through the skin. It also says "scrapes are common on the knees, elbows and palms." Here's what to do when your baby's knees are red from crawling.
• Small bruises: KidsHealth says bruises usually fade in about 2 weeks, and to call your doctor if your baby bruises a lot or gets bruises you can't explain. Here's what helps with bruised knees from crawling, and what to know about crawling with hemophilia.

Here are your options, and our guide on how to protect baby knees on hardwood floors goes into more detail:

• Padded crawling clothes. The padding is built into the clothes, so there's no separate piece to keep in place. It's the one thing we make.
• Play mats. A soft mat gives your baby a cushioned home base for floor time.
• Long sleeves and full-length legs. They put a layer of fabric between skin and floor, without any padding.
• Separate knee pads. They cover the knees only. Our post asking whether babies need knee pads goes deeper.

How to encourage crawling (without pushing)

• Tummy time, every day. Pathways.org recommends it daily from birth, working up to as much as an hour a day in total by the time your baby first tries to crawl. It strengthens the core and shoulders your baby will use to lift off the floor, and our tummy time to crawling guide has more ideas.
• Floor time over container time. Time in a walker, jumper or seat is time off the floor, and Pathways.org says babies need floor time to build crawling skills. On walkers, the AAP doesn't hedge: it "strongly urges parents not to use baby walkers."
• Put toys a little out of reach. Close enough to motivate, not frustrate. The CDC, Pathways.org and the AAP all give this tip.
• Get on the floor with them. Crawl next to your baby so they can watch how it's done, as Pathways.org suggests.
• Let them be barefoot. For crawling practice, Pathways.org suggests bare knees and feet so your baby doesn't slide, and carpet or even grass, because slick wood and tile can make it hard to get a grip.

When to talk to your pediatrician

Every baby moves at their own pace, but these are worth raising with your pediatrician:

• They still can't sit up without support at 9 months. That's one the AAP says to tell your pediatrician about, and it's on the CDC's 9-month checklist too.
• They use one side of their body much more than the other when they move, or don't seem interested in reaching for things, rolling or moving around to explore. Both are on Pathways.org's list of reasons to call your baby's healthcare provider.
• They aren't pulling up to stand by 12 months. It's on the CDC's 1-year checklist, and the CDC says to talk with your child's doctor if a milestone is missed.
• They stop doing something they could do before. Losing skills is one of the CDC's reasons to act early.
• Your gut says something is off about how they move. The AAP's advice is to talk it over with your pediatrician.

The experts don't agree on a crawling deadline. Pathways.org suggests calling your baby's healthcare provider if there's no crawling yet at 9 months, or if, at 12 months, hands-and-knees crawling still isn't how they usually get around. The CDC took crawling off its milestone checklists in 2022. A paper for physical therapists on that update says the reasons included a shortage of data on typical crawling and a lack of evidence that all typically developing babies crawl.

You can also go straight to early intervention. If your baby is younger than 3, the CDC says you can call your local early intervention system and ask for a free evaluation. You don't need a doctor's referral or a diagnosis first.

Common questions

When do babies usually start crawling?

Pathways.org puts the usual start of hands-and-knees crawling at 6 to 9 months, while the AAP calls crawling a skill babies usually master between 7 and 10 months. The normal range is wider than either: a WHO study of 816 babies put it at 5.2 to 13.5 months. In that study, 4.3% of the babies were never observed crawling on hands and knees.

When do babies start army crawling?

No source we checked gives an age for it. Pathways.org lists army crawling as a step that comes after babies rock on hands and knees (around 6 to 8 months) and before they crawl on all fours (by 9 months). Researchers who study infant movement add that many babies never crawl on their bellies at all.

When can babies bear weight on their knees?

Around 6 to 8 months, according to Pathways.org, which says that's when babies push up onto their hands and knees and begin rocking back and forth. By 9 months, it says, babies coordinate opposite arms and legs and start moving forward on all fours. That's the classic crawl, which the AAP describes as bearing weight on hands and knees and moving one arm and the opposite knee forward at the same time.

How do I protect my baby's knees when crawling on hardwood?

Put something soft between your baby's knees and the floor. Full-length legs add a layer of fabric, a soft play mat gives a cushioned home base, and padded crawling clothes have the padding built in, so there's nothing separate to come off. If bruises show up anyway, KidsHealth says they usually fade in about 2 weeks.

Is it normal for a baby to crawl backwards first?

Yes. Pathways.org says crawling backward is common and often happens first, since arm strength develops before the leg muscles and coordination for moving forward. The AAP points to the same imbalance: with stronger arms than legs, a baby may push themselves backward.

What if my baby isn't crawling at 10 months?

Mention it to your pediatrician, but a baby who isn't crawling at 10 months can still be in the normal range. Pathways.org's line for reaching out is 9 months without crawling. Yet in the WHO study, about 1 in 10 hands-and-knees crawlers started after 10.5 months, and the AAP says a few children never crawl. If your baby also isn't sitting without support, strongly favors one side or has lost a skill, call the pediatrician: Pathways.org, the CDC and the AAP each flag one of those.