Tips to Encourage Development in the Winter

Your little ones are getting to know their bodies and their capabilities via touch and experimentation. This is how they get to know their bodies and learn how to use them. When they reach the crawling stage, spending time on the floor, the rug, the ground, or any other surface is unavoidable, even during the cold winter months. Here are some tips to help encourage rolling over and crawling during the winter:

Heat your home
When your home is warm and pleasant, there is no need to wrap your infant in tons of layers of clothing. You can choose just one room to warm up, spread a mattress on the floor and place your infant on it, while they’re wearing a thin layer of clothing.

Our tip: Do this just ahead of bathrime, because you’ll need to undress your infant and warm the room anyways,

Leave feet and knees exposed
Exposed feet and knees enable a better grip of the ground. If your infant feels their feet touch the floor, they’ll be able to push against it with greater ease. Conversely, when an infant tries to push forward while wearing sock, they are likely to slip.

Our tip: Put leg warmers on your infant, so that their legs can be covered, from their knees to their ankles.

Take advantage of pleasant weather and venture outside
On days when the weather is pleasant, when there’s no rain falling and the sun is peeking out from behind the clouds, let your infant try crawling on surfaces other than the floor, such as grass and sand. For the sake of their motor development, it is extremely important to expose them to various textures, including while they’re crawling.

Our tip: When you’re outside, it’s important that your infant is well dressed, but when crawling on the grass or sand, take off their socks for a few minutes, so that they can feel the textures with their feet.

Take your infant to a baby swim class
When it’s cold outside, you can take your infant for a dip in warm, pleasant water. At the heated pool, you can take off your infant’s clothes and let them work on their muscles. You’ll also gain some quality bonding time.

Our tip: Bring along another responsible adult, who can take pictures and document all the magical moments.

Take your infant to a gymboree or developmental class
Gymborees are heated and padded with mattresses. As such, they can be just the place you’re looking to take you infant. In a warm and pleasant environment, without fear of your infant crawling on the cold floor, you can let them freely develop and discover the wonders of crawling.

Our tip: During the winter, colds and other illnesses abound. Take care to sanitize your infant’s crawling area, watch that their mouth does not touch the mattress and try and keep a distance from sneezing and runny nosed kids.

An environment that is comfortable for development and crawling is important, but every infant will develop at their own rate and rhythm. When it comes to infant development, it is recommended that you avoid comparisons to other infants. If you feel your child is not developing properly, consult a medical professional.