When Your Baby is 8 Months Old

Seven months of watching your baby make progress in achieving different milestones has been a great learning experience for you as a parent. As your baby passes each month and learns new things, you as a parent have every reason to feel proud and satisfied that you are doing everything from your side to facilitate your baby’s learning.

In this article, we look at the developments that you can expect in the eighth month.

a) Sitting, crawling, and standing
Now into the eighth month, he is able to seat himself without the need for any support and can even make his way about by using his bottom along with a hand and foot in front as levers. He would be able to pull himself up holding to furniture and you can test this by placing him next to one. You will find that he will try his best to stand up taking support from the furniture and hang on to it till he is able to stand on his feet. Despite falling down in the process, he is in no mood to give up and will persist till he is successful.

This acquired mobility invariably leads to many falls and in the coming days; you will have many reasons to feel apprehensive about his safety. You will however discover that he does well by himself and is able to keep within his limits of safety. By remaining a spectator and watching the action unfold in front of you, your baby learns things by himself and becomes more confident. On your part, you only need to ensure that certain fragile and unstable furniture does not get in the way of your child’s movement.

b) Using his hands
He now starts scouting for objects that have fallen down and makes use of his fingers to pick up food and hold it within his fist. He now knows that he can use his fingers to hold and release items and what’s more starts perfecting the art of picking up tiny objects with the help of his thumb and forefinger and middle finger. Finger dexterity is something he starts exhibiting more and more on a daily basis.

c) Getting more emotional
He now starts showing his emotions very openly and may even throw kisses to people he is comfortable with and is likely to repeat the act when encouraged by applauding. He may start showing initial signs of feeling empathetic towards someone crying by shedding tears himself. These are all signs that he is now in a position to display various moods.

d) Dealing with separation
Babies are bound to display very apparent signs of separation anxiety at this stage. Your baby will tend to become irritable around strangers, especially in your absence and often become withdrawn. You need to let him go through this stage as every time you do return, you are demonstrating to him that you will always be there for him and instilling in him trust and confidence. This subsequently loosens him up to be himself even in front of unfamiliar people and in your absence.

Do make sure to hug and kiss him before you leave him and if he protests, take the time out to cajole and pacify him before leaving. You will make matters worse if you also cry along with him. If you can find someone familiar who can be next to him when you leave, it will be ideal. During bedtime, make sure that you spend extra time with him so that he does not feel the pangs of separation. They can be pretty nasty at night time.

While some babies are able to take separations in their stride, others cannot and this is where the reassurance and confidence along with the time the parent is able to spend with the child comes into play. If your baby requires more attention, you need to give him that attention and not bother about spoiling him.

e) Exploring objects
Babies will get into the habit of looking at objects from an exploratory angle and are bound to bang them and throw them. They also begin to realize that it is possible to mend broken objects through gumming and you can encourage him by putting him at an activity centre where they provide access to such objects. He will surely love the feeling of being able to squeeze, bend, band and drop objects at will.
Babies will also love to see objects dropped by them picked up by parents like you and they will want to pursue this activity simply because they find it very amusing.
Your baby can also now understand that you can fit smaller objects within bigger ones and he is able to correlate real objects to their pictures. You will also notice that he has started mimicking actions of drinking from a cup by using an actual cup or the action of making a call by using his play phone.

f) Improving vision
Your baby is now able to see clearly and he can easily identify people several feet across the room. He is also able to fetch objects that he wishes to play with from across the room.

g) Is my baby developing normally?
You must be aware that the development cycle of each baby is unique and some of the milestones given in the above article are indicators to look out for. Actual pace of development may vary and that should not worry you too much.
Babies born prematurely are known to develop slower than the normal children and the doctors do factor this in when estimating their pace of development.

When Your Baby is 8 Months Old

Seven months of watching your baby make progress in achieving different milestones...