Your 8 Months Old Baby Growth and Development

Your child has finally started saying “mama” and “papa” and is becoming very curious about the world around him. As a parent, there’s nothing more fulfilling than watching your little one grow up, physically, mentally and emotionally whilst achieving all the necessary milestones.

Below are some of the landmarks that you can expect in the coming weeks with regards to infant development at 8 months.

Video: 8 Months Old Baby – Development, Activities & Care Tips

Growth of Baby

Nothing can quite fill you up with joy than watching your baby grow and develop. During the next four weeks, you will watch him improve his mobility, recognize others’ faces and much more. Here’s what to notice or look out for in your eight months baby activities.

Baby Development

Your baby will be rapidly developing his cognitive, social and emotional skills during this time. He will show a sense of empathy by being sad when kids around him cry, and he will be happy when he sees you! He will recognize different faces and be able to differentiate between voices. He will be developing different grips and gain better control of his fingers during this time, being able to pick, throw and grab objects at will and with increased accuracy.

32 Week Old Baby Development

Your 8-month baby’s weight will increase, and your little one will begin trying to crawl. He will be propelling himself forward using his hands and is able to stand on his knees by holding furniture as support. This is not a good time to use baby walkers since playing and moving about on the floor will increase his mobility and build his posterior muscles. Let your baby roam around and keep cables and cords out of reach or anything that makes him trip or blocks his way.

33 Week Old Baby Development

Your baby will be choosing what he eats and how much he eats. He will still need to continue consuming breastmilk. However, this is the time you let him have a go at family foods since his molars are developing. Where mobility is concerned, your little one should be able to slowly clapping his hands and improve his dexterity with his fingers. Encourage him by showing how to clap and play games like Pat-A-Cake and let him copy you. At first, the household may get noisy due to utensils clashing like cymbals but keep in mind that he is gaining finer control over his motor movements in the process.

Your baby will also learn how to wave his wrist side by side or up and down. Encourage him to wave to family members and repeat that action in response to verbal cues given by family members such as “goodbye” or “see you later.”

34 Week Old Baby Development

Your baby’s vision will be improving rapidly during this week, and his short sight will be at its best. His long-range vision will take some time to improve, but he will be able to make out objects and people from a far-away distance and approach them. His true eye colour will also be slowly emerging, and besides vision, he will master the pincer grip. Since his dexterity is developing, he will now be able to pick up, drop and throw objects with increased precision. In addition to this, he will be able to point towards objects with his index finger as well.

35 Week Old Baby Development

Your baby will be very close to walking on his own at this stage. You may encourage him to walk by holding his hands and guiding him towards a direction. Remember that your baby’s leg muscles are developing and it’s a good idea to help them kneel and sit down. Your baby might take some time getting used to sitting down after standing, and that’s okay. Alternatively, you may use a toddle truck with a stable base to assist and train their mobility. Cruising up the stairs and crawling across rooms shouldn’t be a problem at this stage.

Baby Health

Your baby’s health will be steadily improving. He will continue to be breastfed and eat solid foods now. Encourage your baby to self-feed and allow them to explore different tastes and textures in meals. Finger foods such as rice, cheese, and carrots will help them get acquainted with their taste buds, and you will often find them playing with saucepans and beakers. From a cognitive health standpoint, your baby will be able to understand basic instructions and will make object-noun associations. He will also greet family members when they return home from work by smiling gleefully.

Baby Milestones – 8 Months

At eight months old, these are the milestones you can expect your little one to achieve-

• Speech improvement – Your baby will be making more consonant-based sounds and slowly transition to phrases. He will begin to understand words like “milk,” “cat,” and “table” and will have created object-word-link associations in his mind for them.
• Improved grip – From the raking grasp, he will transition to the pincer grasp and be able to make complex motions with his fingers. His dexterity will increase and you will notice him trying to control and manipulate objects with his hands with greater precision now.
• Tracking moving objects – No longer will your little one just be aware of moving objects but rather try to follow them or catch them.
• Can handle separation – You can now expect your little one to be okay when you’re away from the house or him for a few hours. He won’t cry or be fazed at this age.
• Will try to chew – Your baby’s jaw muscles will start exercising as he tries to chew while eating different foods.
• Standing on feet– Your little one should be able to stand on his feet partially or at least try to by now. His lower muscles should have developed, and he should now be capable of making other motions.

Behaviour

Your baby’s behaviour will start to change a lot. This is the age when he is beginning to understand his surroundings, however, may not have the developed physical body or muscles needed to fetch the things he wants by himself. Your little one will also be chatting away all day long and experimenting with sounds using his own voice. Just remember to gently reinforce words that are linked with object-associations or people-associations to help him develop his vocabulary and add meaning to those babbles.

Their vocal skills will also expand if you make them interact with family members and involve them in social activities within the household.

8-Month Old Baby Activities

Here are activities you can do with your little one to speed up his growth and development in every single way-

1. The talking game – The talking game is an excellent way to let her senses soak in different words, vocabulary and start processing verbal information. Whenever you play with her, make sure you talk about the activity you’re currently doing to get her absorbed in it.
2. Meeting others – Meeting new folks, friends, and family members will greatly reduce the anxiety of socializing with people. Socialising is also a great way to exercise visual recall and improve her social skills too.
3. Reading out stories – Babies enjoy illustrated books, especially the ones with big pictures and bright colours. This is the time to start reading out to her and stimulate her sense of colour perception and language understanding as well.
4. Make her crawl – Tell her to catch you by crawling towards you or ask her to get an object for you by making her crawl from one room to the next. Crawling strengthens her leg muscles which will prepare her for walking in the future.
5. Give her toys names – Give her toys a name and make her associate your sounds with them. Labelling objects with names create an object-noun link in her mind, and as you repeat it, he starts associating those names with the objects.
6. Mixing foods – Throw in a little spaghetti with different coloured vegetables and let your little one explore the different tastes and textures. Let your baby eat with their own hands since this will help them build their finger movements and enhance dexterity. Plus, they’ll find it fun, and that’ll keep them busy for awhile.

8-Month Old Baby Care

Your baby will be chewing toys and collecting every dust and particle lying in the house like a detective on the hunt. Make sure you babyproof the house and keep medicines or toxic products away from their reach. Make sure you keep movable furniture, potted plants and anything that can be dislodged from their place intact since you don’t want falling objects or them getting hurt. At this age, they don’t link cause and effect, so don’t be alarmed if your little one starts to chew on your household pet or bite when you least expect it.

Feeding

Your baby may be less reluctant to consuming breastmilk unlike before once you introduce solid foods to his diet. Make sure he eats two to three solid meals a day to get his fill of nutrition and aim for 4 breastfeeds a day at this stage. For parents who are bottle feeding, 4 milk feeds are recommended too.

Sleeping

Your baby will be sleeping a lot at this age. You may find them sleeping anywhere between 10 to 12 hours a night in addition to taking between 1 to 3-hour naps in the afternoons. Don’t fret though; it’s completely normal and absolutely terrific news for you since you get to catch up on sleep a little finally and also plan out the everyday schedule. Your little one’s routines and sleep patterns also become more predictable.

Tips for Parents

Here are some tips for parents who want to speed up their baby’s development or prevent developmental delays –

• Do not let your baby use a walker during these few weeks. The floor will become his best friend in teaching him how to crawl, sit and partially stand or walk
• Introduce your kid to the world of colours and shapes through picture books and friendly comics.
• Stack up a few pillows and ask him to crawl up them to build their sense of proprioception and strength.
• To encourage physical activity, turn on some fun music and dance and sing along with that. You can use sock puppets or props to make it more fun and let your baby copy the rhymes and mimic words.

At the end of the day, your baby is exploring and expanding in many ways, just let him/her have a go at different things and remember not to get agitated whenever you hear funny noises in the noise (like the banging of cups and saucers). It’s just their curious minds at work!

It’s absolutely amazing to watch your little one progress from crawling to baby steps during these weeks. Introduce them to new foods, keep them busy and entertained and you’ll be well on your way to successful parenting. The proof is in the pudding, and you must be patient because sometimes your little one might fall or slip when crawling or moving around and you have to let him learn how to deal with that.

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