Unhappy mother claims her baby was unfairly disqualified from crawling race

Everyone agrees 10-month-old Berkley Bailey was first to cross the line in her heat at the Pan-O-Prog baby Crawl-A-Thon in Lakeville, Minnesota, last Tuesday. But because Berkley scoots and does not crawl in a conventional manner, she was disqualified from the race and not allowed to win a trophy. Rules verbally announced before the Crawl-A-Thon’s first heat indicated babies had to crawl on their hands and knees across the finish line. The rules were established to make the competition fair and give everyone a level playing field, said Pan-O-Prog President Diana Neameyer.

Berkley’s mother, Samantha Moore, said the rule is unfair to babies who have a unique way of getting around. She said she did not think the rules would disqualify Berkley, her first child who has always crawled by pulling herself forward with her left side, dragging her right leg behind her and her right arm in the air. “That’s the only way we’ve ever seen our baby crawl,” she said. “That’s all she’s ever done. The doctor told us it was a crawl.” Neameyer said the issue first arose at the race last year when a baby crawled like a bear, on his hands and feet. He finished the race first, but was also disqualified, because Neameyer said, “When you do it that way, you are a speedster.”
This year, they allowed eligibility for a baby who “army crawled” by pulling himself forward with his arms because his knees were on the floor and he was using his legs. “His belly was just dragging, that’s how I looked at it,” Neameyer said. A suggestion to hold a special race for scooters was rejected, because Neameyer said organizers do not think they will have many who only scoot. “We thought it was just a fluke that this kid wasn’t crawling,” Neameyer said. Moore said Berkley is the first child to her and husband Nick Bailey, both lifelong Lakeville residents. “It’s not necessarily like, oh my God, we needed her to win,” Moore said. “It’s just a baby crawl. It was more like she did really good and we didn’t really expect her to go that fast, but she did and then we’re disqualified.”
She said many family members took time off work to watch the competition, then were disappointed that Berkley was disqualified. “It just kind of stunk because everyone was so excited about it,” Moore said. “I didn’t think it was fair to disqualify a baby for crawling differently.” Neameyer said they will consider printing rules in the newspaper next year, but organizers never thought they needed rules before since its title indicates it is a “Crawl-A-Thon.” Neameyer said it was unfortunate that it happened, but said it was a surprise to them that some babies scoot instead of crawl. “We just try to keep it fair for everybody,” she said, “We’ve been doing this for years and have not had a problem, All of the sudden, we have people having problems with Baby Crawl-A-Thon. If it gets to be a real issue, we’ll just cancel it. It’s not worth our hassle and stress to try to appease everyone.”