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In my experience, bigger babies doesn't necessarily mean they will have delayed gross motor skills. I have observed both bigger babies and smaller babies whose developmental gross motor skills are on the same page.

When it comes to developmental gross/fine motor skills, I think it is important to see if your child is showing growth in terms of weeks/months. If your child just started army crawling, it might take him a few more weeks before he starts crawling. He might be comfortable with army crawling because that is what he knows at the moment.

I would keep an eye on him the next following 2-3 weeks to see if you see new growth in terms of him wanting to take the initiative crawl and/or pull up. Also, there are ways for you to help him out, maybe put an interesting toy a few feet in front of him to get him to initiate crawling. You can also put a few pillows in his way while he is army crawling to help him begin to learn to craw over objects.

Last but not least, when it comes to developmental milestones, it varies quite a bit from from baby to another. I don't compare my child to another child but really observe to see if their are growths in him in any way.

If you are really concerned, talk to your pediatrician and see if s/he can give you the reassurance you need or make any recommendations for you based on the information you provide about your child.

Good luck!

Our pedi suggested that a lot of babies focus a lot on one thing or the other, either fine or gross motor skills (or verbal/social I suppose). E is in the 90+ percentiles for height and weight and he has hit the gross motor skills early, but at a year old hasn't waved or pointed or clapped (although he has a great pincer grip). He didn't really start babbling until the last month or so. So in his case, she thinks he just devoted a lot more of his energy to working on the really physical stuff and less on the finer stuff, but that everything will catch up eventually.

ETA: And just watch, he'll end up being one of those babies that skips crawling altogether and just starts walking one day!

I dnt think this is really true. C had always been big and still well within the normal range for gross motor milestones. Sitting at 5 months, rolling at 6, crawling at 8, pulling up and cruising at 9 and then walking at 14. Shes had a couple she hit a little later in the scale, but her much smaller friends have been in the same range.

@SeptMomma12: c has always been like that. She does nothing and shows no signs and then all of a sudden she's hit a milestone. Good luck!

My LO is big (90th percentile in height and weight at your LO's age) and she was slow for those milestones. I always blamed it on her being big. She didn't walk until she was 17 months old. But now at 2 she's a great walker I figure she'll hit the milestones eventually and in a year nobody will know the difference.

My LO is also big (23lbs at 9 months) and he is army crawling and experimenting with pulling up. Every child develops at a different pace, I wouldn't worry so much as he isn't really behind. I would mention it to the ped though just for ease of mind.

while i don't think there's a correlation between big babies and hitting gross motor milestones later, i know a lot of babies who were like your LO in terms of development and everything turned our fine--i think your plan is a good one, talk to your pediatrician about it at the 12-month appointment.

I don't know if it's helpful but I've heard similar things because LO is tiny (3%) and has reached those milestones relatively early. We were in a playgroup with same aged babies and LO was by far the smallest and the first one to reach most milestones (except sitting up unassisted - I think a little chub helps with that!). He was crawling all over the place before the bigger babies could even get on hands and knees. We are no longer in the group but I keep in touch with some of the moms still. LO is 11 months and walking whereas some of the other babies are still really mastering the crawling and pulling up.