Taking care of multiples that stay where you put them is one thing, once they become mobile it is a whole new story. All sorts of new dangers appear as soon as twins start crawling, or scooching or rolling or using any other method of actually moving around from place to place. It is very important that you take extra care to give them safe places to move about.

Usually an infant will start becoming more mobile sometime between six months and ten months, though it is common for twins to start a bit later due to the fact that many are born prematurely and have some developmental delays. Babies start the process of becoming mobile by learning to sit up, then they move on to other feats, such as tipping forward onto all fours and rocking back and forth. Other babies use other methods to get moving, including pulling themselves with their arms in a commando crawl or scooching forward on their bottoms. These are all perfectly normal. In fact some babies never do crawl in a traditional sense and just move on to walking when the time comes.

The important thing to remember is that every baby has his or her own schedule for learning new skills, so don’t worry if yours, or one of yours, seems to be taking longer than you think they should to reach this stage. They might be concentrating on another skill. Check with your doctor if you are worried, rather than just relying on observations about other people’s kids.

When your twins are trying to learn how to crawl or become more mobile, they might change their routines or be a bit more cranky. This could be due to their concentration and determination to master this new skill, and their frustration when it doesn’t happen as quickly or as easily as they would like.

Once your twins start to be a bit more mobile it is very important to keep a very close watch on them because they will be able to get into more trouble than you ever imagined. They will also be a lot harder to take care of since they will probably delight in taking off in opposite directions.

The easiest way to deal with newly mobile twins is to make sure that you have plenty of safe places where you can let them practice their skills without having to worry too much about them. You can set up playpens or gates to contain them in areas where they won’t be in any danger. This will allow you to take a few moments to do necessary tasks such as cook dinner.

Whenever your twins are out of these safer areas you need to be sure to keep a very close eye on them. Sometimes it helps to get down to their level and crawl around to see what dangers might be lurking within their range. Don’t ever forget that babies of this age can move very quickly and go very far in a relatively short time, so you can’t turn your back on them if they aren’t contained in a safe area.

Content guidance provided by Amy Hall, M.O.M (Mom of Multiples)