Classic, Belly or Bear: What's Your Baby's Crawling Style?

Photo Source: Scott Sherrill-Mix/Flickr

Here's today's dose of shocking and scandalous baby news stories.

After coming in first place at a baby crawling contest, a judge declared that 10-month-old Berkley Bailey was disqualified from winning, all because she used an "unapproved" crawling technique!

Apparently, babies joined in the Crawl-A-Thon can only crawl using their hands and knees. This is to ensure a leveled playing field. Little Berkley was unfortunately judged to have scooted, and not crawled, her way to victory. The Crawl-A-Thon for 10-month-olds took place at the Pan-O-Prog Festival in the U.S. Read all the juicy details on SheKnows.com.

But aside from “Whose idea was it to have a crawling contest anyway?”, the real question here is: Is there really a wrong or right way for babies to crawl? Is one technique superior to others?

Answer: No. There are different baby crawling styles and all of them are excellent. “As long as a baby is making progress in his ability to use his body to get around, that’s what is important,” says ZeroToThree.org. 

Related: When Baby Starts to Crawl: the Dangers and Health Hazards

Dr. Karen Adolph, associate professor of psychology at New York University, observed 25 unique crawling styles. Here are some of the more common ones. You might even recognize your baby’s preferred technique from this list:

1. The Classic
Here’s the one everyone’s familiar with. A classic palm and knee crawl where the baby alternates using one hand along with a foot on the other side to move forward. Aside from demonstrating the Classic crawl, the video below is also a prime example of how a baby crawling race should be like, going by Pan-O-Prog Festival standards.

2. The Belly Crawl
Also called the “Commando”, this one’s characterized by a crawl with the tummy still more or else touching the floor. Some babies use this as a transition phase to the Classic crawl; other babies go on to walk from here. 

3. The Bear
This one’s arguably the fastest crawl in the list. In fact, this technique got a previous baby disqualified from a Crawl-A-Thon as well. Here, the baby walks on all fours, on his feet and palms with knees unbent, very similar to how a bear does it. The description for the video below reads, “[The baby’s] form is flawless!” and we agree.

4. The Rock ‘n’ Roller
When you’re too cool to crawl, you roll instead. Some might not consider rolling as technically crawling but who cares, rollers be rebels.

5. The Don’t Even Bother
Some babies skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking! So yes, this really isn't crawling at all.

Which crawling style does your baby use?

Sources:
July 23, 2015. "Cheating 10-month-old kicked out of baby crawling competition". sheknows.com
July 20, 2015. "Crawl-A-Thon Thrown Into Chaos After 10-Month-Old Berkley Disqualified". deadspin.com
Undated. "Steps Toward Crawling" zerotothree.org
Undated. "Types of Baby Crawls". parents.com