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As your little one turns seven months old, he’s finally able to understand ‘no’ and stare at you lovingly when you call out his name. As the days go by, you are overjoyed and look forward to seeing your baby grow and develop as per the development milestones. Here’s what to expect regarding infant development at 7 months.
Growth of Baby
At seven months, your baby is in a transitional stage of life. From being able to bear his weight partially on his feet to crawling and exploring his surroundings, your little one will go through a range of experiences. And through a flurry of emotions, when he fails to get the toy he wants or can’t convey what he wants to say through babbles and small phrases. The shapes of his head and body will change, turning more compact and the weight of a 7-month-old baby doubles too. You may find that girls have longer legs at this age than boys and you may need to dress them up in the next clothing sizes.
Baby Development
Your baby will be in his developmental stages during these weeks after he turns seven months old. He will be trying out all sorts of manoeuvres on the floor and after some time will be able to sit without any support. Try to encourage him to explore his surroundings and be by his side whenever he needs you. Your baby will also now be aware of his caregivers and will be able to differentiate voices of different people. He may want to be cuddled, may need a hug, or he may even sit still doing nothing. Sometimes he may not even be interested in exploring any new thing. Don’t be alarmed by this since it’s absolutely normal and rest assured that you’re doing your best as a parent.
28 Week Old Baby Development
Diaper Rash: This is a delicate time for your baby’s digestive system as you slowly begin incorporating solid foods into his diet. Your baby may develop a nappy rash, which means you will have to wipe his bottom and change his diapers more often to prevent the rash from developing. Sometimes red pimples may form on his buttocks due to heat which is why it’s important to keep him hydrated and his diapers clean.
Teething: Since your baby is growing, he will start teething also around this time. Make sure to take his mind off during this time with games and fun since it’s very painful.
29 Week Old Baby Development
Routine: Your baby will slowly get in tune with his routine, he will try to talk to you and spend time with you. This is the time to teach him new things like how to eat finger foods using his hands like breadsticks, banana, and baby sticks. He will also be sleeping for longer hours since he’ll be eating his fill of solid foods every day.
Washing and Feeding: Your baby may leave food stains on his trail and want to try eating on his own. Encourage him to eat on his own as it will engage him for a while when he goes through the weaning process. But make sure to wash stains off his clothes and change diapers often.
30 Week Old Baby Development
Naughty Behaviour: Your baby will become increasingly naughty at this age. He will bite, toss, turn and do everything he can to explore the world around him. This also means exploring triggers such as biting you when you breastfeed him. Yelling will make him find your reactions amusing, and he will do that more.
Learning Manners: Since your baby will be busy exploring and trying out different things around him, he may not remember everything in his waking. However, you can instil manners into your little one by gently repeating the things that you don’t want him to do, such as not throwing toys or biting people, or even grappling with someone’s hair.
Crawling: This is an exciting time for your little one as he begins to venture out indoors and shows signs of crawling. Make sure you clean the house and dust thoroughly since you don’t want your baby falling sick from lack of hygiene and prevent him from ingesting unsafe particles since that may lead to diarrhoea and a serious bout of crying.
31 Week Old Baby Development
Experimenting with Foods: Your baby will begin tasting different flavours and textures of food. Let him take advantage of that by introducing different varieties of food to his digestive system.
Teething Time: Your child’s teeth may pop out if he hasn’t already gone through the teething process yet. By this time, his lower front teeth are most likely to emerge.
Lullaby Time: Take him out to the park and introduce him to different environments. Lull him to sleep during the nights by singing nursery rhymes and other soft tunes that are soothing. Allow him to soak in his visual surroundings and let him make friends with other kids and observe pets.
Baby Health
At seven months old, you don’t have to worry about immunization or seeing the doctor. Just make sure you clean your baby’s hands before every meal and try to let him crawl on the floor. Your baby’s immune system is developing and is slowly getting accustomed to fighting against various infections so don’t be very obsessive about keeping the floor super clean all the time. Just make sure your home’s hygienic, that’s it.
Baby Milestones – 7 Months
At 7 months of age, there are certain development milestones that you should look for in your baby. Certain observations that you can make in your baby include:
- Increased appetite: Your baby will want to try out different tastes and textures of foods.
- Object remembrance: No longer will hiding objects fool your little one. Your child will find them.
- Improved depth perception: Your baby will gain awareness of distances and understand what’s far away.
- Enhanced colour perception: Your baby will be able to identify you and his surroundings. Enhanced colour perception also means he will be able to explore his surroundings and observe them.
- Sound sleep: Hours will get longer, and your baby will sleep more now. This is a good indicator of growth and development.
- Emotional and social development: Your baby will be to able to recognize you and your family members. He will react differently to different voices and become quiet when you say ‘no’ to something.
- Babbling: Random babbles include consonant-based sounds, and he may even start saying phrases. He will now be able to say ‘mama’ and ‘papa’ and slowly his vocabulary will enhance, he will even associate words with the objects around him.
Behaviour
Your baby will now not be phased when you leave the room for work. He will know that you’ll be coming back and will get a sense of time. Additionally, he may be moody or cranky during the teething process and cry a lot when he sees strangers or people he doesn’t recognize. You may have trouble putting him to bed, and his behaviour may become challenging at times simply because he is exploring and observing his surroundings.
7-Months-Old Baby Activities
These seven months baby activities will aid in the growth and development of your little one. Here’s what to do to keep him busy.
- Hide and Seek:
Hide objects partially and let your little one look for it. If he’s already able to find out partially hidden objects, then conceal them or hide them completely and step up your game. - Recognizing Faces:
Bring out your photo album and point to pictures of friends and family members. Talk to your baby about them and say their names. Do this often, and he will slowly start to recollect and be able to identify them. - Stacking Blocks:
Get a couple of different coloured blocks of the same sizes or a block set and show your little one how to stack up blocks on top. Let him do that now on his own and encourage him to keep trying while being patient. This is a motor-skill development activity that will also tune his sense of object-location coordination.
- The Puree Game:
It’s time to put his tastes to the test. Get four bowls of different coloured food purees and let him try them out. Not only will it develop his sense of smell and taste, but you’ll also get to learn more about his food preferences. Watch out for his facial expressions and notice what he likes! - Nursery Rhymes:
Do sing-a-longs and hum nursery rhymes with a picture book and your little one on your lap. The images will keep him entertained while your vocal expressions of the rhymes will work his sense of processing already heard information. This will also develop his babbling skills and teach him new words too.
7-Months-Old Baby Care
You have to remember that your baby has certain needs and varying interests. You may have difficulty sleeping at first because of your baby’s behaviour but you will slowly find his feeding, sleeping, and behaviour patterns to be a little more predictable, thus making your life easier. Your baby will also get used to his bedtime routine.
Sleeping
At around 6 months and beyond, your baby will sleep for longer once new foods are introduced to his diet. Your baby’s sleep timings and patterns will vary based on individual profiles but if you are interested in changing his sleeping routine in some way, then think about your own sleeping habits and consider whether or not they need you around while falling asleep. Breastfeeding babies will wake up in the middle of the nights for one feed every single time until they are introduced to the new food groups and weaned.
Feeding
Your job is to introduce your little one to new food groups, including solids. Your baby will be exploring different flavours and textures, and his appetite will keep changing during this time. You may find him sleeping longer once you add solid foods to his diet. Aim to inculcate healthy eating habits and let him decide regarding portion sizes and how often he wants to eat. Don’t let him snack too much and make sure he gets his 3 meals a day.
Tips for Parents
Here are some tips for parents to make their lives easier during parenthood-
- Share with others: For parents with friends and extended family members, we recommend sharing your little one with them. If Aunt Nancy wants to take care of your tot in the evenings, let her! The diversity of people will do your little one good.
- Hire a Babysitter: If you’re having a tough time balancing work and motherhood, then it’s time to hire a babysitter. Not only will this help your tot but he will feel much safer once he gets used to that person.
- Distract Him: If your little one makes a lot of noise when being said ‘no’ or throws tantrums, simply distract him with a game or a fun activity. Remember, they have wandering and curious minds.
- Mindful Hygiene: Let your baby explore different rooms and don’t let him spend too much time in the crib. Get him exposed to different microorganisms as his immune system is still developing.
These are the growth and development milestones you need to watch out for in your 7-month-old toddler. Look for these signs in your child and help him in his growth and development phase and he will be happy and so will you be.
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