Infant Ages 3 – 12 months
Standing and Cruising
Another important milestone in your child’s development is standing.Standing usually happens around 9-10 months.The child will begin by grabbing hold of a chair or low table and pulling themselves up onto their legs.Eventually, once they have grown accustomed to standing while holding on for support, they may stand without holding on for a few moments.Next, she will begin to walk while holding on to a table or a hand for support, which is called cruising.
Sitting
An infant can support their head between 3-4 months of age. In the beginning, the head may bob forward when in a sitting position, but it will not bob backward. Continue supporting the head or having your hands near the head until you are positive that he is able to support his head fully without help. Once they are able to do this, they are ready to begin sitting.
An infant begins to sit with assistance around 4-5 months of age. During this beginning stage, make sure that they are well supported while they develop the balance and strength to sit. Through trial and error, as your child reaches for toys or loses strength, they may fall to the side or back. Make sure that you are close by to support them, and that they are not near any hard surfaces or at the edge of a couch. By 6-7 months, your child should be able to support themselves sitting up for short periods of time.
Teething
Your child may begin to teeth between 4-6 months; however, it is not abnormal to have your child start teething as late as 12 months. When teething begins, it can be painful, so using a wet washcloth or a teething ring that is soft can help soothe the pain. Even a clean finger can be a good teething implement! Make sure that you regularly clean these toys with baby-safe products, especially when they fall on the ground, to protect your child from germs.
The First Month
At birth, a baby is unable to support his own head. It is important for those that care for them to always support the head while holding them to make sure the head doesn’t fall backwards and injure the child’s spinal cord and neck. They also have no control over basic functions, and basic capacities are controlled by reflexes, such as rooting (sucking), and grasping. The child’s sight is poor; they can only see clearly 8-15 inches from their face. A newborn also sees mainly in black and white. Color perception comes later.
Newborns sleep between 16-20 hours a day, and the first few weeks will be somewhat random in pattern because the infant does not know the difference between night and day. However, if you create and stick to a consistent sleeping and feeding schedule that stimulates the child during the day and sooths the child during the night, a normal sleeping pattern will emerge.
For the first month, it is important to create a consistent feeding schedule that complements the sleeping schedule. Infants should be fed 6-8 times in a 24 hour time period. A new born is not able to eat solid foods until around four months of age. It is important to not feed solid foods to your child too early in their development because they will not have developed enough to eat from a spoon. For the first four months, an infant’s diet is made up of breast milk or baby formula. Be sure to consult your pediatrician for proper feeding amounts and types of formulas to use as your child develops.
Rolling Over
Rolling over happens around 4 months. The latest is 8 months. Contact your pediatrician if the child doesn”t roll over by then. Sometimes, it can happen as early as 1 or 2 months of age. Don”t be alarmed if they forget how to do it though. Babies are learning all the time, and they will sometimes forget how to do something when they”ve learnedsomething new. They”ll remember again.
Crawling
All children learn to crawl at a different time. The average is 8 months, but that means many learn later than others. There has been much research that shows girls hit the physical milestones later than boys, but girls hit language milestones earlier.