Promotion
As a parent, it’s crucial to understand your baby’s development. The childhood developmental milestones mark important stages, including motor skills, communication or language development, psycho-social skills, cognitive development, and emotional well-being.
In this post, you’ll learn the importance of understanding the baby’s development, so you’ll be guided in helping your little one successfully pass through different developmental stages.
You Can Engage With Your Baby Using Play
A part of children’s development is playing. Babies need time and attention from their parents in the form of play. By six weeks up to three months, most babies produce vowel sounds, coo, and gurgle, and these are the preliminary actions babies do to engage in play.
Look into your baby’s eyes and bring your face closer to give due attention to your baby. By the 6 month old development, babies can sit up alone and rock back and forth, which helps them develop motor skills required as they grow and start learning to move and play. Mothers notice their babies smiling and laughing as you they to them face to face, carry or swing them, make jokes, sing, or praise.
Babies have fun and enjoy seeing familiar faces and discovering different facial expressions, which is a form of communication, engagement, and playtime. To learn how babies start to learn the concept of play, watch this:
As your baby turns into a toddler, gross and fine motor skills are slowly developed. Between 18 months to two years old, toddlers run fairly well, squat to play, jump, throw a ball, and use ride-on toys.
Playtime is crucial in helping your child enjoy and get the most out of the experience to develop the essential skills needed in adult life. You can also finish your household chores while your child is busy playing and learning.
Here are some tips and tricks when playing with your little one:
- Get together different things to allow your child to explore and think about creative ways to use them in the form of play.
- Make everything you’re doing interesting and fun for your child.
- Dedicate certain times of the day to focus and play with your child.
- Give your baby opportunities to run, jump, and climb.
Understand Your Baby’s Cry to Better Respond to His Needs
New parents have a lot of fears about their baby’s health and well-being. It’s hard to guess what your baby needs and wants. But how can you understand your baby without using words? Well, there are many signs to help you understand and interpret your baby, like crying. Babies express their needs through crying, especially during the first four months of life.
Here are some tips to help you understand whether your baby is crying because of pain, hunger, or something else:
- Calling Cry: The baby continuously cries for five to six seconds, followed by pausing for 20 seconds, like waiting for the results. This cycle repeats until the baby cries continuously.
- Crying Because of Hunger: The baby starts crying with a calling cry, and the crying continues and becomes hysterical. Also, your baby might keep rotating his head and make smacking sounds with his mouth.
- Crying Because of Pain: The baby cries monotonously, loudly, and constantly. Also, there might be hysterical bursts as the pain increases. A sick baby has a monotonous, but quiet cry, because of insufficient strength and energy to make loud noises.
- Crying Due to Physiological Processes: The cry of the baby resembles squeaking or whining when urinating, defecating, or perspiring due to very hot weather.
- Sleepy Cry: When your baby wants to sleep, but distracted or cannot fall asleep for some reason, the cry is described as smooth whining and offended, followed by yawning. Also, your baby rubs his eyes and ears.
- Crying Due to Discomfort: Your baby may intermittently cry and feels irritated as evidenced by fidgeting, flailing, and arching. Better check your baby’s diaper or if your baby is feeling too hot or too cold in their clothes.
Know the Meaning of Your Baby’s Body Language
Parents should understand their baby’s development to know the meaning of body language, which speaks a lot about their well-being. In that way, you can protect and safeguard your kid’s safety. For instance, the arching of the back of babies under two months old could mean response to colic and pain, requiring a doctor’s checkup.
Babies older than two months old who keeps moving when eating indicates a bad mood or tiredness. When babies are around unknown people or before falling asleep, they rotate their heads to calm themselves. When a baby grabs his ears, it can be a sign of body self-exploration. But if it’s followed by crying, consult a pediatrician if it happens too often.
If your baby clenches their fist, this sign means that your baby is hungry. Also, a baby tries to ease colic and tummy pain by lifting their legs reflexively. If the baby jerks their arms, it indicates that your baby is frightened. A bright light, a loud sound, or sudden awakening provokes startle reflex, so you need to comfort your baby if you notice these signs.
Conclusion
By understanding the development of your baby, you can guide, engage, and help your baby grow healthy, active, and strong. You’ll be more knowledgeable in supporting the physical, emotional, mental, and social needs of your child. Also, you can help instill fun, optimism, and discipline to your baby better.