9 month old baby

Your 9-Month-Old Baby’s Development and Milestones

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It’s amazing how your 9 months old babbling baby starts to show joy and interest in all the small things and also gets annoyed when something is forbidden or out of reach.  In this blog post, you will find the important milestones for a 9-month baby – the normal growth range, sleep, feeding, activities, must-have toys, and a daily schedule. Milestones When researching my content, I use official websites such as the CDC ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). They list the below as the milestones a child should reach by the end of 9 months: Social/Emotional Milestones Is shy, clingy, or fearful around strangers Shows several facial expressions, like happy, sad, angry, and surprised Looks when you call her name Reacts when you leave (looks after, reaches for you, or cries) Smiles or laughs when you play peek-a-boo Language/Communication Milestones Makes a lot of different sounds like “mamamama” and “bababababa” Raises arms to be picked up Cognitive Milestones (learning, thinking, problem-solving) Looks for objects when dropped out of sight (like his spoon or toy) Bangs two things together Movement/Physical Development Milestones Manages to get to a sitting position on their own Moves things from one hand to another Uses fingers to “rake” food towards himself Sits without support By 9 months of age some babies might start using the furniture to try to stand and even climb stairs on all four.   Baby Growth    The normal growth range at 9 months old differs between boys and girls. Length Girls range from 63 – 78 cm (25-31 in.)  in height; Boys range from 65 – 79 cm (26-31 in.)  in height; Weight Girls range from 6200-12100 gr (14-27 lb.) in weight; Boys range from 6900-12400 gr (15-27 lb.) in weight.   Another important aspect is that the growth rate of the baby will slow down after six months: you will expect the baby to gain about 500 gr (1 lb.) and 1 cm (3/8 inch) per month moving forward.  Expect your baby to triple his or her birth weight by about age 1 year. For more info on this, check the Growth WHO Standards table and other baby standards here.   Baby Sleep   At this age your baby will have 2 naps a day with the below structure: 1st nap at 9 am; 2nd nap at 1 pm; 6:30 – 7 pm bedtime (with no feedings during the night). It is normal for your baby to get up between 6 and 7 am in the morning, but also normal at this age to wake up between 5 to 6 am. Your baby might seem well rested ( probably slept for 11 hours during the night), but 12 hours is also achievable. There are a few things to try in order to push the wake up hour to 7 am: keep a sleep log to note down what you change in the routine and how it impacts your baby’s sleep. Get a free here; if you don’t have 80% darkness in the room, you should try harder to achieve it. I wrote here about the important room and baby sleep training prep; if your baby sleeps less than 1.5hr during the day, move bedtime 15 mins earlier each day until the baby will get on track (remember: sleep log!); if your baby sleeps more than 3hr during the day, try and cap the longest nap (so the baby will be prepared for the 12 hours night-sleep). if you tried all of these, just let the baby enjoy some crib time (don’t make light in the room until it gets as close as possible to 6:30-7 am).   Baby Feeding   This is the perfect time for the baby to enjoy 3 solid meals a day. See some of the solids that can be introduced below: Try waiting at least 2 days after introducing new food to the baby to check for any allergic reactions. If you notice symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting it might mean that the baby is allergic to a certain food type. Don’t forget to start giving the baby water. If you use bottled water, check the level of sodium or sulphate. Look on the label to check the levels: Sodium (Na) <= 200 mg/l ; Sulphate (‘SO’ or ‘SO4’) <= 250 mg/l.   Baby Eyes   Your baby’s eyesight is still maturing, but now he/she is able to see pretty well near and far and focus on moving objects. At this age, some babies will have the patience to “read” books, but most of the babies will just eat them.   Activities   Sky is the limit, there are so many activities that you can do without the need of any special toys or materials: practice crawling and standing up practice getting down from the bed kick a ball crawl up a step play the drums and the piano drop objects in a container get to a hidden toy clapping and playing peekaboo calling “Mama” or “Dada” giving you toys experiencing cold and hot meet animals saying bye bye drinking from a cup learning to self feed learning the meaning of Yes and No   Must-have toys   (Note: I participate in the affiliate amazon program. This post may contain affiliate links from Amazon or other publishers I trust (at no extra cost to you). I may receive a small commission when you buy using my links, this helps to keep the blog alive! See disclosure for details.) When you exhaust all the activities that use no materials, get some of the below toys (9M +); your baby will love them: Sorting Bin. It allows babies to slip the blocks through elastic bands at any position. Get them here. Musical Press and Go Inchworm Toy. This toy will attract your little ones to chase and crawl, which will build muscle strength and gross motor skills as they play; buy one here. Interactive 3D Fabric Activity Book. Stimulate Growth of Vision and Brain: Colorful content and

baby guides toddler

All models are wrong, but some are useful. A repository of baby guides

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Famous aphorism, which originates from 1976, was mentioned by George Box when referring to statistical models. I find “All models are wrong, but some are useful” to be applicable to all the models in our lives, but especially to how we’re supposed to raise our kids. Internet is full nowadays of guides about everything you need to know to raise a child. You’ll find in this article the most important mental and physical baby/toddler development info, so bookmark this page! (Note: I participate in the affiliate amazon program. This post may contain affiliate links from Amazon or other publishers I trust (at no extra cost to you). I may receive a small commission when you buy using my links, this helps to keep the blog alive! See disclosure for details.)   Understanding Growth Standards for Children   The WHO Child Growth Standards were developed using data collected in the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study by the World Health Organisation. The site presents documentation on how the physical growth curves and motor milestone windows of achievement were developed as well as application tools to support implementation of the standards. The below growth curves can guide you in the first 2 years of age:   Tracking Your Child’s First Major Gross Motor Milestones   As a first time parent I was concerned about how soon my baby girl managed to achieve the major motor milestones. The below chart sums up a comprehensive study by the World Health Organization. You’ll see that the windows of achievement are wide, there is no reason to be concerned if your baby is inside the window. Reference: WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study Group. WHO Motor Development Study: Windows of achievement for six gross motor development milestones. Acta Paediatrica Supplement 2006;450:86-95.   Tracking Mental Development Milestones in Children   I’ve mapped below the first 3 years of mental development milestones based on 3 famous books: The Wonder Weeks: A Stress-Free Guide to Your Baby’s Behavior Misbehavior is Growth: An Observant Parent’s Guide to the Toddler Years Misbehavior is Growth: An Observant Parent’s Guide to Three Year Olds      The Wonder Weeks: 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes – or leaps – during their first 20 months of babies’ lives: Below is what Amber Domoradzki observed as childhood developmental stages: Creating a Healthy Sleep Schedule for Your Baby   I really like how Dr Marc Weissbluth advises In his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, 5th Edition: A New Step-by-Step Guide for a Good Night’s Sleep to “watch your child, not the clock”, but still tells you to try and stick to a sleep schedule. A schedule will help you obtain healthy sleep patterns. You’ll baby will give you signs when she/he will be ready to have the sleep schedule adjusted. I shared my experiences with sleep training in this article: https://thebabydatascientist.com/2-successful-sleep-training-methods-to-try/   Navigating Sleep Regressions in Infants and Toddlers   Sleep regressions; I’m not sure how real they are, but be aware that they might happen: A Step-by-Step Guide to Introducing Solids to Your Baby’s Diet Introducing solids: the cheatsheet of baby food by months. You’ll find details in this article: https://thebabydatascientist.com/introducing-solids-the-cheatsheet/ Immunization Schedule for Children 0-15 months old:   Find below immunization recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Ages 15 months old and younger . Some countries might provide the below vaccines for free based on the national vaccination schema:   Encouraging Independent Play in Children   Solo play is encouraged and beneficial, but how long can our babies / toddlers play by themselves? at 6 months up to 5 minutes at 12 months 10 to 15 minutes at 18 months up to 20 minutes at 24 months up to 30 minutes A full article on this here: https://thebabydatascientist.com/independent-play-6-to-24-months/   OMG Are they all wrong? Well yes, it will not be 100% applicable to your child. Still, they’re useful. It’s reassuring to know what to expect and that difficult periods are normal.

sleep training works

Use this baby sleep log to get your baby sleep through the night

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A sleep log can significantly reduce the amount of crying during sleep training For most of us, data is very important and in many ways, it helps manage our lives better. I would say this definitely applies to sleep training. If you’re able to record the information in relation to your baby’s sleep and use the data to interpret what went good/bad from the previous days, you’ll be able to minimize the amount of crying during sleep training. (Note: I participate in the affiliate amazon program. This post may contain affiliate links from Amazon or other publishers I trust (at no extra cost to you). I may receive a small commission when you buy using my links, this helps to keep the blog alive! See disclosure for details.) In his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, 5th Edition: A New Step-by-Step Guide for a Good Night’s Sleep, Dr Marc Weissbluth advises that you should “watch your child, not the clock”, but also emphasizes the benefits of a sleep log. Yes, it’s important to see when the baby is drowsy, so he/she’ll be ready to sleep, but can we read the sleep signs all of the time? If you’re a first time parent, it’s even more difficult to read the signs. This is one of the most compelling reason why you should keep a 2 weeks’ time sleep log when sleep training your baby. What the sleep log will tell you 1. When your baby is more likely to be ready for day naps; 2. When the optimal time is for the night sleep; 3. How many times have they woken up during the night. What is considered to be normal: 1. Follow a sleep schedule and a consistent bedtime; 2. The Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, 4th Edition: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night’s Sleep book recommends 6-7 pm as bedtime (you can get there slowly). 3. Sleep consultants consider that a healthy baby can be night weaned at 8 months of age. I stopped breastfeeding Bianca during the night at 10 months of age and she slept through the night, for 12 hours. Grab your free Sleep Log and let me know how it helped you:   This is a personal blog. My opinion on what I share with you is that “All models are wrong, but some are useful”. Improve the accuracy of any model I present and make it useful!