Baby’s First-Year

Growth charts are tools your pediatrician can use to keep track of your child’s physical growth.  During each checkup, your doctor will measure your baby’s height, weight and head circumference.

The doctor can then compare the measurements for your baby with the national averages for infants of the same sex and age.  The result is that you doctor will be able to tell you what percentile your baby is in when compared to averages for babies around the nation.

For example, if you doctor says your baby is in the 84th percentile for weight, this means that 84 percent of all babies in the nation of the same sex and age weight less than your baby and 16 percent weigh more.

Typically, parents seem to worry quite a bit about these percentages.  That worrying is needless.  There are many factors that come into play when determining where your baby’s statistics will fall.

It is important to remember that no two babies are the same and that every child will grow at his own pace.  Body chemistry, heredity, diet ad many other factors come into play.  Unless your doctor is concerned about your baby’s height or weight, don’t you worry about it.

In addition to the doctors measuring, many parents like to track baby’s growth at home.  This isn’t necessary but it could be fun.

If you have a baby scale, tracking weight will be pretty simple.  If you don’t have a baby scale, you can still track baby’s weight on your own scale.  Weight yourself without the baby then pick her up and weight the two of you together.  Subtract your weight from your combined weight and you have the weight of the baby.  This, of course, will not be as accurate as the baby scale or the doctor’s scale but you are just doing this for fun anyway so you don’t need precision.

To measure your baby’s height, simply lay him on his changing table and measure from head to toes.  Watch the way the doctor or nurse does it.

Record these measurements in your baby’s diary.

If you decide to measure your baby’s head circumference, wrap the measuring tape around the center of the back of the head, over the ears and right above the eyebrows.

Don’t take your home measurements too seriously.  This is more for fun than anything else.  Your doctor will have a more accurate record of your baby’s development if it is ever needed.  If you notice a marked reduction in weight, it is important to consult your doctor right away.

From birth to one year your baby will go from crying to cooing to talking.  Those are amazing milestones for your baby to accomplish in such a short time.

This section will take a look at what is happening in the first year as your baby is developing his speech and language skills.  Please keep in mind that these stages of development are broad and no baby will fall exactly within the time-frame every time.

Don’t be discouraged if your baby does not meet a certain milestone at a certain time.  She is her own person and she will develop at her won rate.  Encourage her and nurture her.  She will catch up in her own time.

One month: Your baby will understand speech long before he can speak.  From birth he will look at your face and listen to your voice.  He will likely remember your voice from pre-birth.  Mum, dad, and other household members will all be recognized by voice.

She will start to make little noises that you will associate with different needs.  Baby’s learn from a very early age that certain sounds produce results.  He will continue to make these sounds as long as the desired result is the same, keep this in mind when you are dealing with day to day activities.  If you pick baby up every time he whimpers, he will expect this result with the slightest whimper.

A Side note about picking baby up all the time.  Many people will tell you that your baby will not develop properly if you carry him around all the time.  You will have to research this and make you own decision.  It is my opinion that babies are fun to hold and I held my babies every opportunity I had.  They developed just fine.  As a matter of fact, they excelled.

Your baby’s cry is his first form of communication.  Crying lays the foundation for speech as your baby learns to control the air that comes from the lungs and learns how to use his vocal cords.  Crying is your baby’s way of telling you that he is hungry, upset, cold or tired.  If you listen to your baby, you will soon learn which cry is for which need.  Your baby is communicating with you.

Two Months: Your baby is starting to pay more and more attention to his world.  He will be fascinated by the sound of your voice and will follow it around the room.  The different tones of your voice will keep him interested for short periods of time.  Your baby will respond with a variety of cooing sounds.  She is trying to carry on a conversation with you.

Talk to your baby as much as possible to encourage her cooing response.  Look into his eyes to show that you are listening.  This will establish signals of communication between the two of you.

Three Months: Your baby will turn his head towards you when he hears you talking.  He will start to laugh out loud and often scare himself until he learns that he is the one making that sound.

Continue to talk to your baby as much as possible. Read her stories and sing to her.  You can even read the daily newspaper or your favorite magazine to your baby.

Four Months: Your baby is learning more ways to communicate with you.  She will be smiling spontaneously at everything around her.  Her soft babbling will have an almost singsong sound to it often ranging into high pitched squeals as she learns to enjoy the sound of her own voice.

There will be lots of repetition to the sounds that your baby is making now.  Be sure to respond to these ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’.  This is chat time and your baby wants to tell you something very important.

Baby will also start to communicate with body language at this stage.  He may turn away if he is angry about something.  She may cover her eyes if she isn’t in the mood to talk.

Five Months: Your baby is becoming better at communicating.  He may start to mimic sounds and gestures he sees and hears around him.  If an older brother or sister get a positive result with a certain sound or action, baby will try the same sound or action.

Baby is starting to watch your mouth when you talk.  She is trying to figure out how to say the words you say.

Six Months: Your baby is now using consonant-vowel combinations.  He has discovered his image in the mirror and is probably having conversations with his new friend.

Here are some tips to help your baby develop his or her skills easier.

• Speak clearly, slowly and accurately.
• Don’t use “baby talk”. Speak to baby like you would anyone else. Baby will not learn how to say the words correctly if you are saying them wrong when you are talking to her.
• Identify objects as you hand them to baby.
• Use short sentences.
• Use a lot of repetition. Nursery rhymes and baby songs are good for this.
• Read to your baby often.
• Tell you baby what you are doing. “I’m going to wash your face now”.

Seven Months: Your baby continues to learn his language skills.  He has learned to wave goodbye and may accompany his wave with a sound.  He can probably say mama or dada now.

Eight Months: Your baby is playing games like pat a cake and peek-a-boo.  Even though she can’t speak the words yet, she can babble and talk to herself.  Your baby understands the word “no” and knows what it means.

Nine Months: Continue to play lots of games with your baby, especially games that involve singing.  Your baby is starting to respond to small sentences such as “Take mommy’s hand.”

Ten Months: Your baby’s language skills continue to develop.  He is using his own gibberish language to interact with his family.

Eleven Months: Your baby can now say short, one syllable words such as no and bye.  She will continue to use her own gibberish language most of the time.  She will act like she expects you to know what she is saying.  Her babbling is deliberate.

Twelve Months: At the age of one year, your baby’s language skills are continuing to progress.  He will discover more and more about he world around him.

Continue to talk with your baby.  Read and sing with baby often.  Point out colors and shapes.  Tell him the names of his body parts.

Before you know it, your baby will be a non-stop talker.

Music is a wonderful way for you to calm and soothe your baby, especially during the first year.  Many parents will tell you they couldn’t get their baby to stop fussing all the time until they tried music.

There are certain distinct sounds that have been proven to calm even the most restless babies.  The sound of nature, white noise and music.  Even if your baby isn’t fussing or crying you may want to use music as often as you can to encourage the feeling of calm.  All it takes is a few minutes everyday and before you know it, your baby will be looking forward to hearing that certain song emanating from the CD player, mp3 player and so on.

There is nothing complicated or mysterious about introducing your baby to music.  You don’t have to search for the perfect song or a certain type of music.  Just play the music you like, you baby will like it too.

Besides that music that you listen to regularly, there are hundreds of tracks available today that are filled with baby songs and lullabies.  At the end of the day, you may want to play some quiet baby songs with a slow beat.  This will help baby settle in to sleep.

Playing music has other benefits besides soothing your restless baby.  These benefits include:

• Babies are introduced to musical sounds.
• Music enhances your baby’s behavior and cognitive skills.
• Relieves stress for the entire family.
• Will stimulate curiosity and an interest in music.

Take time to find a variety of music tracks for your baby to listen to.  You’ll soon notice which music your baby is most attracted to and can use that music when she is particularly fussy or crying.

When babies begin to participate and engage in the world around them it is indicative of them becoming more and more independent. From the moment a baby is born into this world she will begin the process of developing the motor skills that are necessary for her to take command of that which is around her and for her to relate with her environment.

Because of this, a baby who has mastered the motor skill of sitting up without help, for example, will have a completely different outlook on the environment than the baby who has not yet mastered this skill.

You will find as your baby begins to stack skill upon skill that his experience of the world, and in turn the complexity of newly learned skills will grow. As your baby’s motor skills grow and become more complex, so will your baby’s overall interaction.

Look out world, here I come!

Physical development can be broken up into three month intervals and divided into two categories: Gross motor skills and find motor skills.

Gross motor skills are the term used to describe your baby’s ability to control different parts of her own body.

Fine motor skills refer to your baby’s level of coordination of different body parts, such as picking up an object with her thumb and finger.

Infant muscle development starts at the head and works it’s way down. Your baby will first develop control over neck muscles. Soon after that he will learn to control torso and finally leg muscles.

Your baby will then roll over by herself, start sitting up on her own, and eventually crawl.

He will enjoy bouncing on your knee which is a great way to promote balance. By the time he is eight months old, he will probably learn how to pull himself into an upright position and walk around the room holding the furniture.

Typically, a baby will start to walk between the ages of nine months and fifteen months. If you baby isn’t walking yet but is crawling, sitting up and standing with no problems, he is developing just fine, don’t worry. Perfectly normal babies will sometimes walk as late as nineteen months. If you think there is a problem, ask your doctor.

Walkers are another one of those things that you will have to decide to use or not to use. Many people will tell you they are wrong to offer to your baby. Other people will swear it is the only way to go. Do your research and decide what works for you. As I look around me, I don’t see any grade school students still using their walkers so I can’t see any harm in using them.

To shoe or not to shoe. Babies learn to walk easier without shoes on their feet. If you floors are cold, it’s a good idea to put shoes on baby. Otherwise, let him run around barefoot.

Motor skills are not exactly the same as eye and hand coordination but they are pretty close. The development of eye-hand coordination often parallels and/or compliments the development of gross and fine motor skills. There are some activities your baby can do to increase her coordination and develop her motor skills.

Here are a few examples:

• Puzzles. Get your baby started on jigsaw puzzles. There are baby-style puzzles which only have 4 or 5 pieces. As baby accomplishes these easy puzzles, get progressively harder puzzles. Don’t move too fast, you don’t want to frustrate the new learning mind.
• Duplo Blocks. These are baby sized Lego type blocks.
• Plastic building blocks.
• Peg and hole toys. These teach baby to recognize different shapes.
• Plastic donut toy. Teaches eye-hand coordination.

Encourage baby to play and develop his skills. Don’t stress correctness right away. Stress fun. Baby will learn to do it right is it is fun to try. Avoid doing it for baby. It is hard to resist the temptation to just do it. Baby can’t learn by watching, he has to figure it out for himself. You watch and encourage.

A note about night feedings:  By the time your baby is six months old you will want to think about giving up those night feedings if you haven’t already done so.  You should start by offering less and less breast milk or formula during night feedings.  Eventually she will stop  waking as her body adjusts to not eating during the night.  If you are bottle feeding, you can gradually substitute water in your baby’s bottle in place of formula.

Four to Six Months:  Introduction to solid foods.  You should try to wait until your baby is at least four months old before introducing any solid foods.  When you do decide to offer solids, start with a tiny bit of baby cereal thinned with formula or breast milk.  Don’t offer too much at first.  Let baby’s digestive system figure out what to do with this new substance.

You can start to introduce baby to fruit juice diluted with bottled water.  Apple juice or white grape juice are good first juices.  Orange juice should wait until after 7 or 8 months.

Six to seven months:  Adding fruits and vegetables.  Once your baby has been introduced to cereal you will want to add mashed/strained fruits and vegetables.  Start with small amounts (one teaspoon).  increasing gradually as your baby get used to the new food.  You should only introduce one new food every 3 to 4 days.  This is so you will be able to see if your baby is having an allergic reaction to any of the foods you are offering.  If you start with 10 different foods and baby is allergic to one, which one is it?

Seven to eight months:  Adding protein.  Protein foods include strained meats, cottage cheese, egg yolk, yogurt and dried beans.  Follow the same guideline as six to seven months. One new food at a time and small amounts to begin with.

Eight to twelve month:  Adding other foods.  By now baby is probably eating what ever the rest of the family is eating.  Make sure all foods are in tiny pieces for baby to prevent choking.

A note about the bottle:  If you are bottle feeding baby, please never put anything other than formula, milk and water in the bottle.  Juices are for a cup.  Once baby is past 4 months, if you are offering a bedtime bottle, it should only have water.  You don’t want to damage those new teeth with fruit juice laying in the corner of baby’s mouth while she sleeps.

Here are a few solid food tips:

• Baby does not need sugar or salt added to his solid foods.
• Baby does not need dessert or pop.
• Introducing cow’s milk too soon can cause milk allergies.  Ask you doctor about this.
• Do not give baby nuts, seeds, popcorn, raw carrots or other hard foods.  Never give baby a whole sausage or hotdog.
• After you have determined which foods baby likes, make sure you offer a wide variety each day.
• As soon as she want to try, let her feed herself.  I know this is messy but your baby needs to develop her motor skills and what better way than with a hungry baby?

Finally, be patient with baby while he is learning his new eating skills.  You don’t want to make mealtime a stressful time.  Let baby enjoy the food and time spent with the family.

One of the more complex questions that you will ask yourself during your baby’s first year is:  What do I feed her?  When do I feed him?

Your baby starts out with a simple requirement of either breast milk or formula.  What happens after the milk?

This section will help you learn what types of foods to introduce into your baby’s diet at a certain stage of development.  This information should only be considered a guideline.  Your doctor and baby may have different ideas.

It is important to realize that not all babies will be ready for solids at the same time.  So how do you know when you baby is ready?  There are a few simple guidelines that you can follow to help you decide when you baby is ready for solids.  When in doubt, always check with your doctor.

Your baby is probably ready for solids when:

• His birth weight has doubled
• She tries to grab the food you are eating
• He watches you eat with great interest
• She consumes 32 oz or more each day of formula or breast milk
• He is always putting things in his mouth
• She can sit easily in the highchair
• He can demonstrate to you that he is full or hungry
• She always seems to be hungry

If you baby fits the criteria above, he is probably ready for solids. Introducing solids too soon can cause food allergies.  Don’t be in a big hurry to push solids on your baby.  If she is content with the liquid diet, leave things as they are.  Only consider solids when baby seems to need more food than just the bottle or breast.

Also consider:  Baby needs to be able to chew and swallow easily before solids will be safe to consume.  This should never be done in a prone position.  If baby can’t sit up, he can’t have solid foods!

The first six months is usually all formula or breast milk.  If you are breastfeeding you will be using cues from your baby as to when she is full or hungry.

If you are using formula, this is a little trickier.  How much formula do you make?  How much will baby need at each feeding?  The following chart may help you with this.  Ultimately, your baby will have the final word and that word will be very loud if he doesn’t get enough formula.

During the first few days at home your family will be adjusting to the additional member of your family. If you have other children at home you may be dealing with feelings of jealousy as the newborn baby takes center stage. Make sure that you include your other children in the day-to-day activities that are part of the new baby’s routine.

Let older children help with diaper changing, feeding and just sitting and holding the new baby.

Younger children can fetch diapers, lotion, wipes, etc. They can also help hold the bottle.

You can probably think of other thing your older children can help with. The important thing to remember is you want to keep the whole family involved. Not only will this help eliminate jealousy, it will eliminate some of the work you have ahead of you.

The first few days home from the hospital are just as important to you as they are to your newborn baby. As new parents you will have gone through an exciting birth that will have left you breathless and exhilarated. As s new mother you will be emotionally and physically exhausted. As a new father you will be overwhelmed by your new responsibilities. The first days at home are a time to take a deep breath, sit back and relax, and take some time just for you.

During your first days at home it may be wise to limit the amount of visitors that you welcome into your home. Other than your immediate family and good friends you might want to ask other friends to wait a week or two before they descend on your with gifts and wanting to hold the newborn baby. You need time to recuperate and settle into the routine that a sleeping, feeding, and often crying baby brings into your life.

As a new mother you will need to pay particular attention to the way that you are feeling so those “baby blues” don’t creep up and surprise you unexpectedly. It is normal to feel a bit out of sorts and sad for the first couple of weeks after giving birth.

Your body is going through some major physical changes after the birth of your baby. Your hormones will be changing and you likely will be feeling a lack of sleep. All of this can affect the way that you feel. You should be patient with yourself, understand that all these feelings are normal and that in a couple weeks things will feel better for you.

If you find you are feeling more depressed and find it difficult to care for yourself and your family, you should consult your doctor so that he or she can determine if you are suffering from a condition called postpartum depression.

A sleep routine can be a soothing and comforting part of your baby’s night time ritual. It is a way for you and your family to incorporate sleep into the daily routine without it becoming a battle of mind over baby. As your baby grows, he or she will understand that bedtime comes after bath time, for instance. This may help baby start to settle down and sleep better if the routine is established early on.

There are many ways that you can establish a bedtime routine. Here are some tips and ideas you might want to consider:

1. Start with a bath, some cuddle time, a song or story, a feeding then bed.
2. Sing a special lullaby just before putting baby to bed.
3. Try to do things in the same order with the same people involved at the same time. Your baby will recognize the pattern and associate it with bedtime.
4. Turns lights low and make the house quiet.

Which ever routine you decide on, make it consistent and final. Make baby understand that this is a means to an end. Once you put baby to bed, let him fuss a little if necessary. After a couple days, he will realize there is no point in fighting it and he will fall asleep right away.

Keep in mind, your baby will remember the routine and expect the same thing to happen each time. If you pick baby back up after putting him down because he is fussing a little, this will become the routine he will expect.

New babies most often are not able to sleep through the night until they have at least doubled their weight. This usually happens when your baby is four or five months old. Following is a chart that will help you understand how much sleep your new baby will need. Keep in mind that each baby is different. This is only a guide and nothing with babies is set in stone.