What Should My 8 Month Old Baby Be Doing
Your 8-month-old baby is decorated, busy, busy — busy exploring, learning, moving around and engaged in more sophisticated interactions and play.
That means you'll be enough busy keeping up with your petty one too. Milestones like crawling are on the horizon if he isn't scooting around on all fours already, and he's probably baby-talking up a storm. Plus playtime is more fun all the time.
Hither's what's coming upwardly for your eight-month-old.
Your 8-month-erstwhile infant'south development
At a Glance
Sleeping basics
At this historic period, babies typically sleep about 11 hours at night (many straight through) and take ii daily naps that add up to 3 to 4 hours.
Feeding basics
Your baby should get 24 to thirty ounces of chest milk or formula a day and 4 to 9 tablespoons of cereal, fruit and vegetables daily, too equally 1 to six tablespoons of poly peptide foods.
Did you know?
Even at 8 months, babies volition await away from something that'south besides like shooting fish in a barrel — or also difficult — for them to understand.
Your baby's ability to communicate is expanding daily, and you'll notice him attempting to apply sounds, gestures and facial expressions — not to mention those ambrosial laughs and squeals — to get your attending and let you know what he wants.
As he strings together more vowel and consonant sounds, you'll start to hear "existent" words — including the earth-shaking "Mama" and "Dada."
Y'all are certainly the most important people in his life right at present, which makes information technology unsurprising that your piffling ane has probable developed a fear of strangers.
Why has your social butterfly suddenly become hating with strangers? This social snubbery isn't snobbery — it'southward a sign of maturity, and it'southward perfectly normal at this phase of development.
This sudden shyness and newfound clinginess volition pass. Then give your piffling one the space to socialize at his own pace, and on his own terms.
Speaking of clinginess, yous may too detect your cutie has become more fastened to a comfort object, similar a coating or stuffed animal. This, as well, is perfectly developmentally appropriate.
With contained mobility comes the realization that he can dissever (or be separated) from you at whatsoever time, and that epiphany is partly heady and partly unsettling.
A comfort object acts to fill in as a Mommy or Daddy substitute, allowing your infant to bring that comfort forth wherever he goes. For at present, permit your baby take the security he craves.
Your 8-month-old infant's growth
Your 8-month-former babe girl will hitting the scales somewhere betwixt thirteen and 23 pounds, while your infant boy volition be weighing in at 14 to 25 pounds. On the length charts, await for your baby to fall somewhere between 25 and 30 inches.
To keep up with that growth, baby will be interested in expanding his food repertoire and trading in that spoon for finger foods and self-feeding.
Sure, the transition from spoon to fingers will be messy and frustrating on both sides of the high chair. But as your baby perfects the pincer grasp every bit he nears his first birthday, his ability to concord smaller objects, like peas and modest pasta shapes, volition ameliorate — considerably expanding the carte and the amount of self-feeding that tin practically be washed.
For now, stick to finger foods that tin be gummed before swallowing or that will dissolve easily in the mouth: whole grain breadstuff or waffles, rice cakes, oat circle cereals, cubes of cheese or tofu, avocado, banana, pear, melon or mango slices, modest chunks of cooked carrot, sweet tater, or cauliflower florets, baked or poached fish, meatballs, chicken, pasta, smashed beans, or scrambled or hard-cooked eggs.
Avoid uncooked raisins, whole peas (unless they are smashed), hot dogs, basics or popcorn, grapes, hard or gooey candy, chunks of peanut butter, raw, firm vegetables or fruit, and large chunks of cheese, meat and poultry.
Your 8-month-quondam baby's health
Babe won't have a well-visit for another month, only you probably have plenty of questions near how your baby'due south growing and developing.
Poison-proof your dwelling
Allergy medicine for infant?
Leaving babe in the car
Breadbasket trouble?
Acupuncture for babies
Postpartum & new babe tips
Stimulate your 8-calendar month-one-time'due south senses
Stimulate your 8-month-old by describing how things work, how they are used and how they are different.
For example, "When I plow on the faucet, h2o comes out," "The car will help u.s.a. get places faster than walking with you in the stroller," "The doggy says 'woof' and the kitty true cat says 'meow'".
Spend time talking, singing songs and reading books to boost his language skills; play games that help explicate concepts like crusade and effect (make full a loving cup of water in the bath and allow baby turn it over) and object permanence (play peek-a-boo).
Point out sounds (the fire truck) and smells (the flower) and give your kid a chance to experiment and explore — even if it means smearing yogurt in his hair or pulling up tufts of grass in the g.
The "oopsie" game
The scene: Your dinner table. Your viii-month-old is in his high chair with an enticing array of foods before him. Your baby has his bib and his spoon. So, is he eating? No!
Instead, your baby is merrily tossing his spoon overboard — over and over and over again — and giggling with glee every time you choice it up and render it to him.
Is your baby just enjoying watching yous stoop down to the floor? Is he trying to bulldoze you lot crazy on purpose? Nope. Your baby'south brain is just decorated working on two big concepts: cause and effect ("When I throw this, Mom picks information technology upwards! Cool!") and object permanence ("I can't see this while information technology's under my chair, but wow! There it is once again!").
Equally annoying — and hard on your back — every bit information technology may be, this drop-it-again-and-again routine is a sign of the crucial cerebral development of retentivity and abstract-thinking skills.
Finger nutrient safe
Finger foods are especially welcome at present, since babies this age like to feed themselves — or attempt to. It'south not pretty, and information technology'due south not nifty, but it's gotta happen.
Only make sure you're always supervising when y'all graduate to finger foods.
And think, fifty-fifty babies who have teeth aren't fix for steak nevertheless: Those first teeth aren't for chewing, just for bitter. Make sure everything you give your babe can be easily gummed, for prophylactic's sake.
More than reasons to exercise
Practice boosts energy along with immunity. Shoot for at least twenty minutes of sustained action 3 times a week, although 30 minutes, four or more times per calendar week, is meliorate in the long run for stronger bones.
How? At present that your babe is older than 6 months, strap him in a jogging stroller and get for a run. Or use a front pack or haversack if he can sit unsupported and take a brisk walk (no jogging with your baby in a pack).
If you're within, try an exercise video or mini-trampoline. Or simply put on some music and boogie — your baby will find watching y'all incessantly entertaining!
Best fruits for baby
Turn your baby into a fruit fiend past giving him squished blueberries or small pieces of soft fruits like bananas or very ripe, peeled and skinned pear.
To make it easier to pick upwards slippery assistant pieces, try dusting them in crushed Cheerios first.
Ripe mangoes, peaches, apricots, kiwis, honeydew and cantaloupe are besides likely to appeal to your infant'due south sweet tooth (or gums), simply brand sure to take off any pare beginning.
Non all fruit is baby-friendly, though. Avert pieces of apple tree, even without the skin, for now. Ditto whatever other harder-textured or unripe fruit that could get stuck in the windpipe.
Why babies love soft blocks
In that location'southward a reason why blocks have been around forever — they can do so many things. Earlier your little i learns to stack them, they'll exist skillful for grabbing, holding and mouthing, and then get simple cubes that are made of cloth merely can still be easily stacked.
The best ones accept colorful pictures and make a soft, jingly sound when squeezed or shaken. Early on, before he's sitting upward, you tin can show him the pictures on the blocks and talk virtually them and let him listen to the blocks as you squeeze or shake them.
Later, heave his gross-motor skills by stacking the blocks and letting him knock them down with his arms or legs. Or show him how to toss the blocks at a safe target — the sofa, say, or the carpet.
Your 8-calendar month-old's mobility
Your baby's large-motor skills volition be tested as he learns to sit up comfortably and steadily and work on pushing himself upwardly into a seated position from his tummy.
Some babies begin to creep or crawl this calendar month, or even discover that they can move around quite well past scooting on their bottoms.
If your baby was an early on crawler, he may now move on to standing (pulling himself upwardly the sofa — or your legs — to get upright).
Encourage this new view of the globe, and maybe fifty-fifty those first wobbly steps, by arranging the furniture (like chairs and low-lying tables) in a row so he can inch his way across with steady back up — a motor skill chosen cruising.
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Source: https://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/month-by-month/month-8.aspx
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