🎁 FREE 0–12 Month Baby Milestone Checklist: preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1795021/17644598030395… Is your 12-month-old baby still not crawling, even though they seem to have strong arms and strong legs? If your baby gets onto hands and knees but quickly collapses back down onto their tummy, weak core or trunk muscles may be the missing piece. In this BabyMasterPT crawling episode, pediatric physical therapist Cherrick Gordon, MSPT explains why crawling requires more than arm and leg strength. Your baby also needs enough core trunk strength and stability to connect the upper and lower body and stay supported on hands and knees. In this video, you’ll see practical baby crawling exercises I use to strengthen the core, including: • Baby sit-ups and twisting sit-ups on a large exercise ball • Reaching across midline while sitting • Side-sitting play for trunk stability • Standing hip swirls • Short kneeling to tall kneeling play • Hands-and-knees core activation • Supported crawling-position practice I’ll also show you what weak trunk control can look like during play, including excessive wobbling, difficulty keeping the knees underneath the hips, and trouble maintaining the hands-and-knees position. Think of your baby on hands and knees like a little bench: the arms and legs may be strong, but if the middle is unstable, the whole structure can collapse. These exercises are designed to help your baby build the trunk control needed to stay up on hands and knees and prepare for crawling. And once your baby has enough arm, leg, and core strength, there’s another important skill they need to actually move forward: weight shifting. In the next episode of the BabyMasterPT Crawling Series, I’ll show you how to help your baby shift their body weight from side to side so they can begin developing the alternating movement pattern used for crawling. Subscribe to BabyMasterPT for practical pediatric physical therapy tips to help your baby progress through tummy time, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing, and walking. #BabyNotCrawling #BabyCrawling #BabyCrawlingExercises #WeakCore #BabyCoreStrength #HelpBabyCrawl #CrawlingDelay #BabyMilestones #PediatricPhysicalTherapy #BabyMasterPT 0:00 Importance of core strength 1:26 Ball sit-up exercises 2:32 Reaching across midline 3:31 Side sitting stability 4:40 Standing hip swirls 5:59 Tall kneeling exercises 7:26 Hands and knees activation