How Your Baby is Growing?
This month brings your baby closer to his first birthday with three fourths of the journey done. If you look at your 9 month old baby you will be surprised how different he or she looks from the little bundle you brought home from the hospital 9 months back. Sitting and crawling that were new to you and your baby last month are no more so difficult. Your baby 9 months old will do them with ease and even get faster at the crawling or crawl with a toy or two in his hand. Many babies begin to pull themselves up holding furniture. As their leg muscles get stronger, they begin to stand for a longer time. The catch here is that they still haven’t figured out how to sit down. Sitting down takes more effort, coordination and skill than standing. So you will be having cute moments where your brave little explorer is standing holding a chair or furniture but does not know what to do next and of course cries out for you to help him. You may be wondering what to expect from my 9 month old baby. By now your baby 9 months old can recognize the basket where his toys are kept and easily make his way to reach them. You can entertain both yourself and him by making silly faces and watching him imitate you with glee. By nine months your little one has also turned into a social butterfly and loves to smile at people and be around them. He enjoys company and shows it too. Newer emotions are also coming up with each passing day and you may see glimpses of anger, unhappy and pleasure in between those cute smiles.
Baby 9 Months Old – Growth and Development
- Feeding: Food for 9 month old baby is now a daily task. It can be a time consuming process so try and make vegetable purees and freeze them in small batches so that you can use one part at a time. Add fruit purees to yogurt and give them to your baby as a treat. Do not use salt and sugar yet as the baby does not know these tastes and they can overload his small kidneys.
- Sleep: Mostly 9 month old sleep is sound and for reasonably longer hours. So not expect 8 hours sleep now as your baby will still wake up for night feeds. Follow a bedtime routine that is at the same time everyday. Babies like predictable events. Make bedtime story a habit that your little one looks forward to even after he grows up.
- Vision: Your baby’s vision is improving each day and by now he is able to differentiate between colors very well. He loves to focus on a moving object and see it go up and down. Swings at the park are something babies enjoy watching and going on at this age.
How is Your Life Changing?
Now that your baby has settled into a routine and you are beginning to get more time for yourself than you did in the initial months, it’s the right time to take charge of your life and get down to business. You may choose to start working from home, take up a part time job or just begin serious exercising to loose all that pregnancy weight.
Diet: If you are breast feeding then you need to remember that good hydration is very vital to you. If your urine is clear then it indicates that you having enough water. When you pick up fluids, choose very carefully a healthy drink over a sugary one. Limit your caffeine intake and do not take large amounts of tea or coffee as they can pass in breast milk and may make your baby 9 months old irritable or cranky. The permissible limit of caffeine for a breast feeding mother is only 300 milligrams in a day. When you snack make sure you choose healthy options and avoid the cheesy and ready to eat foods. Also include an exercise at least 5 times a week as part of your daily routine. You should have a lot of soups, vegetables, yogurt and fruits.
Another thing that you spend a lot of time thinking and talking is about good parenting. It is important to remember that there are no fixed rules here and each mother will do the best she can for her baby. So think twice before you criticize any ones approach or method of handling their kids. Having a friend in the similar situation as yours can be of great help as you can discuss the small concerns and happenings and benefit from the information that you both share.
Weaning a 9 month old baby off breast feeding is something that happens when you both are ready for it. If you feel the baby is doing well and eating the solids properly then you can drop the breastfeed one by one. Replace the feed with a meal. The first feed you should drop is the day feed, followed by the early morning feeds. The last ones to go are the night feeds. They should be dropped after the baby turns one year as he starts eating all that is cooked at home and becomes less dependent on your milk. You can even introduce whole milk or cows milk after the age of one. Just ensure that you drop the feeds one at a time and over a period of time because suddenly stopping two or three feeds may harm the baby. They derive not only nutrition but also a sense of comfort and safety when you hold them close to feed them. Let it be a gradual and beautiful end to this lovely experience of feeding your little one.
Important for This Month
- Learning and Toys: By now playtime is a big part of your baby’s day. He loves to experiment with toys, turn them around and at times even rip them apart. Engage him by giving him simple tasks like stacking the blocks or putting all the blocks into a plastic bin. When you look for toys for 9 month old, ensure that no part is too tiny or small as it can be a choking hazard. Books with big colorful pictures will excite him. Try reading the same books everyday so that gradually your baby recognizes it and waits in excitement to see the next page. Books are great for overall baby development.If you take a toy away from your baby you are most likely to get a response mixed with some displeasure. Gradually your baby 9 months old is letting you know what he likes and what he doesn’t. In the coming months this exact situation will magnify as your baby learns to express himself better and differentiates between things.
- Baby Shoes: As soon as your 30 week old baby begins to stand, as parents we feel that walking is around the corner and we rush to pick up those cute little baby shoes. But the reality is that walking is still a few weeks away and in the initial days, its not advisable to wear shoes for the baby. Bare foot gives him a better grip and a better idea about the textures and surface of the floor. The balance is also better if the baby walks bare foot as the arches of the foot will be in touch with the ground. Shoes will come of use for outdoor walks in the coming months.
- Separation Anxiety: This is commonly understood as the clingy behavior of the child in presence of strangers or unusual waking up at night. This month onward it is seen that separation anxiety peaks in babies and they want their moms for everything and exhibit fear for everyone else. This can be a tough phase if you are leaving your little one at daycare. Hold your baby and calm him down. Give him a toy or an object that he loves as it will provide him with a sense of security. It is a phase and will pass in a few months.
- Words and Language: What does a baby do at 9 months? Beginning from now, you will realize that all the baby talk has been replaced by newer and longer sentences and your baby 9 months old is responding to them with a baba or mama. He does not understand the words just yet. Studies have shown that if you talk to a baby effectively and directly (television and background talks are not included here), he will learn to recognize your voice tone and gradually pick up words. These form the base of a fluent vocabulary in the future.
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