Dear Forum Members-

Our triplets (GBB, born 35wk 3d) have been wonderful thus far
- they are not really that fussy overall and we've been very
lucky.  The only major issue that was apparent was that the
youngest boy was born with a club foot - and is now on a
corrective boots at night (had small surgery and the Ponsetti
method of setting it).  There are some minor issues - naps,
food intake, etc - which sounds common to most of the people
we have talked to.

Nevertheless, a recent conversation with my little sister had
raised some concern for us - apparently her occupational
therapist told her about a link between not crawling and
propensity to have learning disability, especially for
multiples.  Our babies (who are about 10 months old now from
the actual birth date(2/22/2011), not the expected due date)
are not crawling at all - as a matter of a fact, the boys are
trying to walk already.  So our question here is - should we
be worried?  Is there some truth to the link? 

Your comments and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Best,
Michael & Chelsea + 3 (Sophia, Nathan, and Justin)

I think it is the lack of mobility, and not skipping crawling,
that is the issue. I think it's fairly common for kids to skip
crawling altogether.

My daughter Julia will be 3 next month and gets around by
commando crawling and rolling. Her new PT mentioned a
research paper (a very long one, by whom I cannot remember)
that discusses how mobility helps with cognitive function. As
a child starts to crawl, they begin to see how their
environment changes in relation to their movement - like,
"I want to go to the kitchen", they start moving,
then whoops they pass the kitchen, and they turn around (this
is super simplistic). But it is part of how they decide where
to go, and then figure out exactly how to get there,
including any turns along the way. According to the PT,
children can get the same effect if they are scooting
themselves around in a wheelchair or, in our case, she's
having us carry Julia and making her point to where she wants
to go, and then kind of taking her in the wrong way if she's
not super specific.  So I think your boys are okay.

Amy

Julia, ^Caitlin^ & Gabrielle

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Visit us at http://onealaskanmom.wordpress.com

Hi,
One of trips are not crawling and in fact not very mobile at
all. They are now 9mos (we were also born 35w) and he just
learned to sit up by himself yesterday. He cannot get on his
fours. I was concerned as well but our PT said as long as
he's making progress he's ok. 
I will ask my pediatrician about this.

GBB triplets born @ 35 weeks 5 days on 03/24/2011
Triplet A 3 lbs 14oz
Triplet B 3 lbs 13oz
Triplet C 5 lbs 4oz