Your Baby and You: Week Thirty Eight
YOUR BABY
Physical Development: A neat pincer grip
Many babies develop a very neat pincer grip (whereby they pick up objects, often very small ones, with their thumb and forefinger) by this age. This enables them to pick up smaller items of food and other objects with more accuracy and ease. It is particularly helpful when it comes to feeding themselves and many advocates of baby led weaning believe that these skills are developed earlier through self-feeding. In the long term it is a grip that is used countless times in everyday life, writing, fastening zips and buttons and picking up coins.
Behavioural Development: Comforter attachment
Around this age many parents come to realise the importance of a certain object, or objects, in their baby's life. You may notice that your baby struggles to go to sleep without a certain soft toy or a comfort blanket, or that they get upset if you take it away. This kind of behaviour isn't anything to worry about but here are some tips for managing this attachment:
- Set some limits to when or where your baby has the item, perhaps keeping it only for in the cot or in the house
- Keep it clean, many soft items are washing machine and tumble dryer safe which is helpful for a quick turnaround before the next nap!
- Buy an identical item. Alternating them will reduce wear and tear, give you more time to get them regularly washed and dried and also gives you a 'back-up' should the other one go missing!
Feeding: It isn't all plain sailing
Whilst many parents start out on the weaning path with great anticipation, frustrations can start to surface within a few months when it isn't all plain sailing. Here are some of the most common gripes when it comes to feeding babies:
- The time - with three meals a day on top of milk feeds it can feel as though your whole day revolves around preparing food, feeding your baby and clearing up afterwards. Some babies are slower eaters than others too, which can be exasperating! Persevere, in time your baby will learn to eat faster. Try to eat with your baby where you can. It's another 'task' taken out of your day, whilst your baby learns valuable mealtime lessons by watching you eat.
- Fussiness - whilst one baby seemingly accepts everything, others are a little more difficult to please. Food is still so new to your baby, everything is an experiment and it is natural for them to refuse new tastes and textures. Don't give up, keep offering the same foods a few days later, most children come to enjoy foods more the more familiar they are with them. If you think your baby may not be hungry enough for their meals, look at their feeding routine. Are they having big milk feeds too close to their meal times?
- Wasted food - if you're one for limiting food wastage, watching your baby spit food out, throwing it to the floor or point blank refusing it can be frustrating. Stay patient, the wastage does get less over time. In the mean time, serve smaller portions and top their bowls up as you go along. Using a highchair with a large, lipped tray can help to catch some of the debris ready for another attempt!
- Lack of inspiration - it can be really hard coming up with new ideas for foods for your baby. It's important to maintain variation in their diet, for optimum nutrition, but also for expanding their tastes for different foods. Talk to other parents about what they like preparing for their babies, and visit parenting forums online where there are continuous discussions and exchanges of ideas for recipes. Planning ahead can really help you, and having a few batch cooked meals in the freezer means you have something to fall back on when inspiration (and time!) escape you.
Safety Advice
The Stairs
Don't wait until they figure it out themselves; make sure you are a step ahead of your baby when it comes to using the stairs. Install stair gates at both the top and the bottom of the stairs to prevent them from attempting them without your assistance.
From the moment they can crawl begin to teach them how to use the stairs safely, one of the best ways to do this is to place your baby on their tummy and encourage them to come down steps backwards. Use simple repetitive commands as you position them on their fronts, such as 'turn around' and 'on your tummy'. It will take a lot of repetition but it's an invaluable lesson to teach them for those occasions where they come across steps at other people's houses and when they are learning to come down slides. Never ever leave them to attempt stairs on their own though whilst they are babies or young toddlers, no matter how adept they may seem, serious accidents can happen on the stairs.
Common illnesses and ailments: Cuts & scrapes
Even with the best efforts to protect them, there may be occasions where your baby cuts or scratches their skin on something. Always keep cuts and grazes clean by running them under tap water, and then protect them with a sterile dressing. Cover the area with clothes if you think your baby could remove the plaster themselves as plasters can pose a choking hazard.
THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR BABY THIS WEEK
Activities: Teaching object permanence
Play peekaboo with your baby using a toy that makes a familiar sound such as a squeaky toy or some bells. Hide the object behind something and activate the noise to encourage your baby to come and look for it - this helps to teach your baby that even though they cannot see the object, it doesn't mean that it has gone altogether.
ALL ABOUT YOU THIS WEEK
Your Body: Improving your post-natal fitness
Exercise is important for everybody, whether you have had a baby or not. Starting to exercise after having a baby, however, is very difficult for many women. A number of factors put new mums off, such as:
- Tiredness
- Lack of spare time
- Poor confidence, especially body confidence
Provided you have had an uncomplicated recovery from your birth, you should now be able to exercise regularly, if you haven't started already you should look into your options. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Day time exercise classes and gym workouts - utilise your local gym's crèche if they have one
- Evening and weekend exercise classes - there are classes at all sorts of times of day and night, find some that correspond to the times at which your partner is at home to take care of your baby and make it a regular fixture
- Mother and baby exercise classes - from buggy walking & jogging to baby yoga, there are lots of classes out there where you can take your baby with you
- Exercise DVDs - removing the need for childcare, you can exercise in your own living room and a DVD comes at a fraction of the cost of most gym memberships. Swap DVDs with your friends or invite them over to work out with you
- Personal training - it might sound like an option only for the very wealthy, but a few PT sessions at home can teach you how to get optimal results from working out within your own boundaries and with what equipment, if any, you have available to you. PT sessions don't need to be weekly or continue indefinitely, booking in a monthly session can help you to focus on new targets and stay motivated, and will still come at less than the price of most gym memberships.
Your Emotions: Finding other mums competitive
The development of babies is fascinating for all parents, and whilst most milestones have a very broad timeline within which they are 'normally' achieved, any suggestion that a baby might reach it slightly early or late is prone to attracting much attention. Parents of babies who clap, crawl, walk or talk earlier than the so called 'average' baby are sometimes undiplomatic in expressing their pride - often by comparing their baby with others. Rest assured that 99% of the time they have no idea that their comments have the potential to hurt other people, but don't shy away from asking them to hold back a little if you are finding them offensive.
Things to do: Have people over
If you're getting out and about with your baby you will probably find that you are making new friends and running into familiar faces more and more often. Invite other parents over to your house for coffee, or offer to do tea for the babies. It's a great way to spend an afternoon, it's cheap and you will no doubt find that they return the favour before long!
