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
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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 crinkle paper arouses babies interest and attention, which will stimulate kids visual growth. This is a great one to buy.
- Building Blocks and Sensory Balls. We have them everywhere: on the floor, in the bathtub: It can be used as chewable sensory blocks for your kids nibblers when they are teething. Find a nice set here.
9 Month Baby Schedule
- 7:00: Wakes up & Nurse / Receives bottle (Trying to get to 7 am, our little one gets up close to 6 am)
- 7:30: Solid food
- 8:00: Playtime (activities & toys)
- 8:45: Nurse / Receives bottle
- 9:00: Nap
- 11:30: Solid food
- 12:00: Outdoor time
- 12:45: Nurse / Receives bottle
- 13:00: Nap
- 15:30: Outdoor time
- 16:30: Solid food
- 17:00: Playtime (activities & toys)
- 18:00: Bath time and pre-sleep routine
- 18:30: Nurse / Receives bottle
- 18:45 – 19:00 Bedtime!
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!
