Army crawling is when a baby pulls themselves across the floor using their forearms while their belly stays flat on the ground. It’s typically the first form of true crawling, appearing around 7 to 8 months of age, and it serves as a stepping stone toward the classic hands-and-knees crawl that usually follows a month or two later.
How Army Crawling Looks
During an army crawl, a baby lies on their stomach and uses their elbows and forearms to drag their body forward. The legs may push off the ground or simply trail behind. Some babies develop a surprisingly efficient version of this, scooting across the floor at impressive speed. Others look more like they’re swimming on land, with arms and legs working in a less coordinated pattern.
The key difference from standard crawling is that the belly never lifts off the floor. In a hands-and-knees crawl, the baby supports their weight on all four limbs with their trunk raised. Army crawling skips that weight-bearing step entirely, which is why it shows up first: it requires less core strength and hip stability.
What Has to Happen Before a Baby Can Army Crawl
Army crawling doesn’t appear out of nowhere. Babies spend months building the strength and coordination it requires, even though it looks simple from the outside.
Between birth and 3 months, babies learn to lift their head 90 degrees off the floor and rest on their forearms during tummy time. By 3 to 6 months, they can push up onto extended arms, pivot in circles on their belly, and shift weight to one hand to reach for a toy. These are all rehearsals for forward movement. Independent sitting, which typically develops around 6 to 8 months, also signals that the core muscles are strong enough to support the trunk during crawling.
A reflex called the symmetrical tonic neck reflex plays a specific role here. It appears during the first year and helps babies learn to move their upper and lower body independently. When a baby’s neck and arms straighten, the legs bend, and vice versa. This alternating pattern is essentially the neurological blueprint for crawling. The reflex typically fades by 9 to 10 months, around the time most babies transition to hands-and-knees crawling.
Why the Transition to Hands-and-Knees Matters
Army crawling gets a baby moving, but it doesn’t offer the same developmental benefits as crawling on all fours. When babies crawl on hands and knees, they alternate opposite arms and legs in a cross-body pattern. This builds connections between the left and right sides of the brain, strengthens bilateral coordination, and develops the core and hip stability that supports walking later on.
Most babies move from army crawling to hands-and-knees crawling between 9 and 10 months. You’ll often see intermediate steps: rocking back and forth on all fours, pushing into a “downward dog” position, or planking with their belly just off the ground. These are all signs that the transition is underway.
If your baby has become an expert army crawler but isn’t attempting any of these positions, it can signal a physical limitation. Prolonged army crawling often stems from tightness in the trunk or hips, a weak core, or insufficient upper body strength. That doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong, but it’s worth paying attention to if army crawling remains the only movement pattern past 10 months.
Asymmetrical Patterns to Watch For
Not all army crawling looks the same on both sides, and some asymmetry is normal in the early days. A baby might favor one arm or drag one leg more than the other as they figure out coordination. But if you notice a consistent pattern where your baby always props up on one arm, tucks the other, or drags the same leg behind, it could point to underlying tightness or weakness.
Common causes of lopsided crawling include neck tightness (torticollis), hip tightness or weakness, and head shape differences from a flat spot. Some signs that the pattern deserves a closer look from a pediatric physical therapist:
- Your baby always uses the same leg as a “kickstand”
- They avoid putting weight through one knee or arm
- They had a strong head turn preference or side preference earlier in infancy
- The asymmetry persists for more than a couple of weeks
- They’re delayed in other milestones, like not sitting independently by about 8 months
How to Encourage the Next Stage
You can support your baby’s progression from army crawling to hands-and-knees crawling with a few targeted play strategies. Place toys on either side of your baby while they’re sitting so they have to twist and shift weight from side to side. This rotational movement builds the trunk control needed to get into a crawling position.
Having your baby kneel at a low surface, like a small box or coffee table, with a toy on top encourages them to bear weight through their hips and thighs. You can also place your leg or a pillow in their path while they’re on the floor. Crawling over a small obstacle naturally encourages lifting the belly and getting onto all fours.
The surface under your baby matters too. Research comparing different flooring types found that hardwood floors can hinder smooth crawling. Babies on hardwood had a slower crawling rate and spent longer with their hands in contact with the floor, likely because the low friction made it harder to push off effectively. Carpet, foam mats, and textured surfaces gave babies better traction and a more fluid crawling pattern. If your home has hard floors, a play mat or area rug in your baby’s main crawling zone can make a meaningful difference.