Is it normal if your baby skips crawling?

What does the evidence show for skipping crawling?

• CDC's 9-month milestone checklist lists sitting without support and getting to a seated position independently as expected skills, and frames crawling only as something a caregiver might encourage by placing a toy slightly out of reach, prompting a baby to crawl, scoot, or roll toward it, not as a required checkpoint itself. 1
• By CDC's 12-month checklist, the movement milestones are pulling up to stand, walking while holding onto furniture, picking up small items between thumb and finger, and drinking from an open cup someone else holds, with crawling absent from the list entirely. 2
• Pediatric-development research states plainly that the classic hands-and-knees crawl is not a universal or essential developmental milestone, pointing to well-documented cross-cultural differences in how infants first get themselves around. 3
• That same research found little evidence that crawling experience itself changes later developmental outcomes, and infants who use alternative early movement, like scooting or side-sitting shuffles, commonly go on to develop typically. 3
• CDC removed crawling from its official developmental milestone checklists in 2022, a change a 2024 survey found most surveyed pediatric physical therapists still disagreed with (79%), even though the researchers noted that disagreement appeared to rest more on clinical experience and general movement-science reasoning than on peer-reviewed evidence specific to crawling. 3
• MedlinePlus describes crawling as something that 'may begin' in the 6-to-9-month window, language that frames it as one possible path rather than a guaranteed stage, and separately notes some babies scoot as early as 6 months instead of using a hands-and-knees pattern. 4

Ways babies commonly get around before walking

When should I call my provider about skipping crawling?

Not sitting without support by around 9 months, not bearing weight on the legs when held upright, or moving one side of the body noticeably more than the other are reasons to raise gross motor development directly promptly rather than waiting for the next routine visit. Losing a movement skill your baby previously had is a more pointed concern than simply not having reached a new one yet. Because walking, unlike crawling, counts as a required milestone in CDC's own checklists, a baby who also is not walking by the age your pediatrician expects deserves a direct conversation about a developmental evaluation. When in doubt, call your obstetric team the same day. Early input almost always beats waiting, and the on-call line exists exactly for this.