Baby development : 2 month old
2-month-old baby developments:
Before we get to how much a two-month-old may develop I want to give you good news. Finally, after weeks of taking care of your precious baby at all times, during the day and night, Baby rewards you with a beautiful, adorable, toothless smile; a perfect little smile. Hopefully, it will make all those sleepless nights worthwhile. Your baby’s first genuine smiles will be among the most heart-warming events in your entire life. Enjoy it!
Back to our topic, we should mention something first. All babies are unique and meet these developments at their own pace. This article just shows what your baby has the potential to accomplish and how you can help him do it better.
Vision
Color differences are becoming clearer to your baby, and they start to distinguish between colors. By two months, your baby begins to move beyond his early preferences for two-color objects towards more detailed and complicated designs, colors, and shapes. Let him look at and touch a wide variety of objects. They can now see around 60 cm from their face so your baby will be able to see your face pretty well while feeding. They marvel at interesting sights, such as water flow, animals, and other children.
Hearing
Baby’s hearing is improving, too. Your 2-month-old will especially enjoy listening to the sound of your voice. Regularly talking (or singing) to your child, is an excellent way to get them used to your voice and also a way to soothe and calm them. They will be able to differentiate between voices they’ve heard more frequently. Notice how he looks to see where certain noises are coming from. Using toys to make sound is not only good for their hearing, but if they can follow their movement, it improve their eye movement (smooth tracking) and increase the strength of their back and neck muscles.
Muscles and Motor Skills
Two-month-old babies are gaining more control over their bodies. They love kicking out when lying down, which is great exercise and helps strengthen their legs. Your baby doesn’t yet have the coordination to play with toys. But she may bat at a colorful object hanging in front of her. Your baby may even briefly hold a toy that you place in one of her hands. You will notice when they grab something they don’t let go of it. It’s not because they want that thing badly, but it’s just they don’t know yet how to let go of things. That’s what evolution told them to do, never let go off something.
Your little one first discovered her hands a couple of weeks back, and now she’s downright fascinated with them. Watch as she examines them, puts them in her mouth, and tries to suck on them. These actions are one of the best ways babies have of comforting themselves.
You might find your baby is now rolling around more. She’ll probably be able to move from her side to her back and her back to her side. The complete roll over won’t come for another month, but you’ll still want to keep an eye on them if you have them elevated
Communication
For a 2-month-old, most communication consists of crying, But you may hear a few gurgles, grunts, and even some sweet coos. By now, you have learned when your baby is telling you “Yes, I’m interested, please continue” or the opposite, “Noooo, I need a break”.
“I’m interested” might include:
Looking at your face, Smooth movements of arms and legs, Reaching out to you, Turning eyes or head toward you, Smiling (don’t sing baby got back, remember Ross!)
“I need a break” might include:
Crying, Turning head and eyes away, Back arching and squirming, Blushing of skin, Breathing faster, Yawning
Other development
Drooling
Your baby’s salivary glands have been working since she was in utero, but you may notice that she’s started drooling. She’s also putting everything in her mouth and producing more saliva than she can swallow. Fear not though, their drool contains a lot of bacteria-killing enzymes, so it’s no bad thing to get it on their toys or other surfaces they’re interacting with.
Sleeping
Your baby’s sleep patterns are evolving, but at two months, they still aren’t fully established. At this age, babies sleep 15 hours a day. But those hours are sporadic, and they usually aren’t ready to sleep through the night. You may find that your baby is beginning to sleep in more solid blocks (of 4 to 6 hours)
All babies need to be put to sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Also, remove all soft objects from baby’s crib, including pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, and soft bumpers.
How to help your child develop at this age
Language skills:
They might not be able to follow along just yet, but reading to your baby can contribute to soothing them while also helping them to become more familiar with your voice. Try varying the tone, intonation, using accents, and singing will make the connection between you and your baby that much more interesting. You’ll find plenty of good books to read to your baby. Choose board books that have large, bright pictures and simple text — or even wordless books.
When you’re talking to your baby, give them time to respond to what you are saying with a look or babble. Research shows babies whose parents who allow them to respond, learn to talk earlier.
Sight (tracking skills):
Choose a bright and noisy toy like a rattle (make it a lightweight one) and move it around so they can follow it with their eyes and maybe with their head. They will follow your hand with smooth tracking eye movement that they didn’t have just a month ago.
Another way is by using a mobile hanging above your baby’s cot. Not only can this help them to develop their tracking skill but also focusing.
Show your baby a wider variety of objects. Good choices include plastic cookie cutters, softballs, and stuffed animals. You can also use board books we mentioned before to improve their visual system as well, especially the one with vibrant colors with big pictures.
Placing your baby in a reclining bouncy seat is a safe position for him to view the impressive scenery.
Muscles and motor skill:
Give your baby enough space to stretch and move his arms and legs. Lay a blanket on the floor and let him move as he pleases. These movements can help your baby strengthen and tone his developing muscles.
This is a great time to introduce a baby gym – they’ll try to bat at the hanging toys, but careful not to overdo it – a five to 10-minute session is enough, and don’t persevere if they cry.
For a fun game that also develops her neck muscles, place your baby on her back and slowly pull her up by her hands to a sitting position. Slowly ease her back down, and repeat. She should be able to hold her head in line with the rest of her body as it’s pulled up.
Your baby will love colorful mobiles and toys dangling just above him, and he may gaze at them spellbound. He may even attempt to bat at them with a closed fist, and wriggle his arms and legs to show his delight.
Tummy Time: Putting Baby to sleep on his back is a critical discovery towards the prevention of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). When your baby is awake and interested in playing, spending time on his tummy is still essential for development. Becoming comfortable on tummy will help baby develop strong neck muscles to hold up that heavy head. Then while lying on his tummy, he will start to push up with arms, building a strong upper body and back. Also, putting him on mats with interesting textures, bright colors or ones that play different sounds will make lying on his tummy even more intriguing.
Touch:
Touch is crucial during baby’s first months. Some experts recommend baby massage or skin-to-skin contact, but holding or rocking her is good enough. It will help her to understand the different parts of her body.
For a simple baby massage, find a warm, flat surface to lay your baby on a blanket. Pour a baby oil in your palms and rub your hands together to warm them and the oil. Look into your baby’s eyes, and sing or talk to her as you do the massage.
We hope you find this review informative and helpful. Now it’s easier to find appropriate toys and gears for kids. Please let us know if you have any question. We will try to answer it as soon as possible. We also prepared a List of appropriate toy for this group age:
List of Toys for 0-3-month-old babies
You can also check our other posts about 1-month-old and 3-month-old baby developments.
First of all, I’ve gotta say that the baby pics you have within your articles are absolutely adorable! Where do you find such cute pics?
I just got done reading your Article about 3-month old babies and was enticed to see what knowledge you are sharing about 2 month olds as well as 1 month olds, and then I realized you actually had an article specifically written for all three…you are so detailed and I love it! So that’s what lead me to begin reading this article and I’m just as impressed on this one!
You’re layout is super clean, easy to understand and fun to read and the information and education that you provide here is absolutely priceless (especially for someone who is a new parent for the first time). I just wonder, how did you get so educated on babies? I had absolutely no clue about some of these things and I’m in my 40’s…I feel like someone somewhere forgot to teach me something!!! No joke! I’d love to know how began learning about all this baby stuff, would you mind sharing your story with me?
All The Best,
Jeremy David Wilson
Hey Jeremy
Thanks for the positive feedback,
First, just let me explain why I made one post for 0-3 month old toys and one for each month separately. the reason is when you are not child’s parents/caregivers and you want to just buy a nice gift ,normally, you don’t mind how the baby is developing specific skills. You just want to know what to buy to make the baby and parents happy. With small amount of knowledge, you can do that and “best toy for 0-3 month old baby” is for that group. I’m still working on these segments, but I will put at the end of these kind of posts 2 links:
One will lead “gift buyers” to a page with list of toys they can buy
Another one is for parents and leads them to a page to see how in detail a child will develop and how they can HELP them
They want to know what is going to happen next and what do they need to do.
That is going to be helpful and efficient in my mind.
about my story, I think it’s just passion. Well actually I don’t have any degree in this field. I’m a PhD student in micro-technology.So, in a way I love research and my favorite thing in the world is history and psychology. I read a lot about them. As you know in early childhood , even the time you are in your mother’s whom, your personality will get shaped. For this reason I wanted to focus on childhood and help other people understand how much this is important. for example If I’m saying parents should talk to their child , sing to her ,dance with him, is just because those bonding are priceless and the baby feel s/he is wanted outside of his own world.
I think I talked too much but it feels great when you can share your story with people who trust you and you trust them,
Thanks for asking Jeremy,
Cheers
This a great article. It was just four months ago when our daughter was this age and it’s already hard to remember back that far. It’s an exciting time as they are beginning to notice things and try things out. I’m glad to learn that their drool is naturally anti-bacterial.
The only time we usually massage our baby was after spending long amounts of time in the car seat during vacation as she got soar. We would rub our thumbs down the rib cage a couple times and this seemed to help.
Hi Josh,
I’m glad you find it interesting. It’s indeed a really amazing time when he began to react to his environment. He is becoming a person. Well, you did the right thing and it was necessary to massage him after a long sit. Although in this article we wanted to emphasize on massaging your baby so you stimulate the body parts and he can relax at the same time.
Thanks for sharing your personal experience with us.
Cheers
That is what I consider a very helpful post for many parents, I am not married but I remember my sister always searching over internet about these types of posts for hours after my nephew was born, she really had so many doubts that your post might have cleared if I would have found it back then.
Like the developments of a two month old I know it is very important for a mother to know if her baby has started to recognize her voice and face.
I vividly remember my niece responding to her voice when he needed her presence after she has been away for few minutes(like when she goes to take a bath).. I also have seen him enjoying a bright colored toy which makes sound( as you mentioned)..
Thank you so much for the advise you gave under the “sleeping” part about SIDS..that’s very valuable..
Hi Hari,
It’s totally normal for parents to check all the things about their child online although they might have an excellent pediatrician. Babies can recognize their mother’s voice in the first few days. The hearing is one of the only skills that is almost fully developed even before birth. It takes time for them to recognize their parents faces for like a 7 or 8 weeks.
The SIDS is truly important for new parents, and I hope they also notice it.
Thanks for your positive and heart-warming comment Hari
Cheers
hi Jagulba!
What a great article! You describe so well what a 2 month old baby would look like and do! It is such a tender age. So happy that you got a smile from your little one! It is the cutest thing 🙂 When a baby smiles you cannot help but smile too. The milestones a baby reaches over the course of the first year of life are just incredible. At 2 months of age they are already able to interact with the world in their own way. Yes what they can do, see and touch is limited but they are becoming social beings and it is amazing to see!
Hi Emily,
A baby’s smile (especially the first ones) is one of the things you cannot resist smiling. It’s hard to say for sure what they see and what they understand but so far by our knowledge, we know they are interacting with their surrounding at 2-month-old (an interaction that we can understand).
Thank you so much for coming back here and leave wonderful comments.
Cheers
thanks so much for all the valuable info! As a new grandma, I especially appreciate the brush up course on the development of the typical 2 month old…my grandson is 1-1/2 mos, now, and I’m really looking forward to all these milestones in his development.
Hi Barb,
Congratulation on your first grandchild. You will be amazed how fast S/he grows up and reaches all these milestones. Enjoy all of it!
Cheers
You sure out a lot of research into this post because it’s filled from top to bottom with great information. I was really surprised to learn that baby saliva is filled with bacteria-killing enzymes. A tidbit I was completely unaware of. You have a vivid way of talking to the reader and I like that. It’s very friendly.
Anyways, just stopped by to say thanks.
Hi Debra,
Thanks for your support and positive feedback. It is amazing how evolution gives us protection as we grow up. Although it’s best to clean things before giving them to a child.
I’m glad you liked my posts.
Happy Christmas
Cheers