6-month-old baby developments:

By month six, your baby is strong enough to roll over or even sit down and look around to explore the surrounding world. He may have his first solid food. He may now understand the concept of Perspective in his vision.

Before we start talking about the developments of a 6-month-old baby, we should mention that all babies are unique and meet these developments at their own pace. This article merely shows what your baby has the potential to accomplish and how you can help him/her do it better.

Vision

Up to six months, your baby didn’t have the depth perception. This is what we use to say whether an object is nearer or farther away than other objects. Eyes are now working together to build the 3D view of her surroundings. This would help her further in reaching for stuff and grabs them.

Hearing

Your 6-month-old baby will pay more attention to toys that make sounds and music. He will recognize speech sounds and more specifically his mother tongue language rather than foreign languages.  He will try to repeat sounds you make.

Muscles and Motor skill

So now he is capable of rolling and get ready to being more mobile. “Crawling is on the way people look out!” He seems to shout.  Your 6-month-old baby sits upright without support for a longer period. Some kids might start even crawling, and it might happen at first that they go backward which is pretty funny. Take a look at this video:

He now masters working with two hands and transfer objects from one hand to another before he put it in his mouth. He might find messing around with you can be fun, so he drops stuff to see you pick them up.

Communication skill

“Mom! Lately, I’m getting the feeling you don’t pay attention to every single thing I do. Mmm, I should call my lawyer” I know babies can be selfish sometimes.

She is learning that she can use sounds to get your attention. She will develop specific sounds to make you understand what exactly she needs. She will do whatever necessary to get your attention. Babbling, squealing or changing tones (go to high pitch to make you deaf). She might still repeat sounds she finds easy to say like ba ba , ma ma, da da or ga ga.

 Social skill

There might be different approach when you have your friends and family around; your baby might love it and try to gain their attention by making sounds or he might go to “who the hell is this guy?” zone (stranger anxiety). Most probably it will be the first case but be aware that second one might come up soon.

He might now have a favorite toy to share his fear and separation anxiety.  Stuffed animals are most likely to be chosen for this matter.

Cognitive skill

Your 6-month-old will continue to learn more and more about “object permanence” (objects exist and don’t disappear and appear from nowhere). One of the reasons why she love to drop things is to see it comes back (this is your job somehow). She also would like you to play peek-a-boo with her for the same reason.

Other development:

Teething

When you are using your finger so, your baby can soothe his sore gum by biting it, Be careful because his teeth are coming up and it might suddenly become an unyielding and painful bite. Remember that you should not react harshly otherwise you will damage you baby’s mouth and teeth. A full set of primary teeth will take 2.5 to 3 years to get complete. Between ages of 4 to 7 months, Lower central incisors will appear.

Teething may come with fever and diarrhea. Diarrhea happens because he will droll crazy before and during teething. For fever, it’s always good to check it with your doctor.

Touching

Passing a toy from one hand to another will increase his touching sensory. Your six-month-old baby likes to be touched and get massaged and feel your warmth.

Feeding:

It’s time for you to consider giving your six-month-old baby a solid food. You might start with just one or even half of a spoon of solids. The pediatrician will suggest starting feeding the baby solid foods at six month age. Whatever solid food you use don’t forget to mix it with breast milk (formula).

He would most likely react to every single solid food you give him. He is not used to many tastes as what he drank for six months was just breast milk. Even small amount of solid foods can change color and odor of his stools.

Sleeping:

Your baby is now can sleep through the night without waking you up several times. She might roll over during the night and go from her back to her tummy. Don’t worry it’s normal and now there is much less possibility for SIDS to happen, But just to be cautious, it’s better to turn him around if you get up in the middle of the night and find him on his tummy.

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How to help your child develop at this age

Vision

Book withs bright colorful images still can amaze him. He would love to see his reflection in a mirror. A crib mobile still provides your child a chance to learn how to follow an object with proper eye movement; especially musical crib with bright and colorful hanging toys.

Any toys that he can hold on to it and look at and pass it from one hand to another.

Hearing

You can listen to her and repeat what your little one says. Using different tones and making animal noises can amuse her. You will teach her different sounds and make her laugh.

As always and forever, reading a book to your kid is highly recommended. At the beginning is about bright pictures in the book and your soothing voice but, later on, this will help your child to recognize words better (language development).

Muscles and Motor skill

Your six-month-old baby would love to play with his Stuffed animal, Squishing toys, rattles and teething ring and these kinds of toys which he can easily grab and move around will help to improve his motor skills.

Moving a bright , colorful toy from side to side of your baby when he is lying on his tummy can help him develop his muscles so he can sit up or roll over much easier. You can also put his favorite toy out of his reach (not too far just a bit) so he will try to crawl towards it.

Communication skill

When she starts a conversation with you, you can answer her and attempt to make the same sound as she made. You can also make a funny noise or imitate animals.

As it mentioned before, reading a book will develop your child language skills, so try to read them some books every day. You can do that before bedtime (sleep routine). Reading a board book with colorful images could be a fun experience for both you and the baby.

Social skill

Go outside the house and do some grocery shopping in a supermarket. Be careful he might become agitated and annoyed if it’s not a short trip (overwhelmed).

The more he sees other people besides you, the chances are higher he won’t develop a strong stranger anxiety.  So don’t isolate yourself and invite friends and family over (not the ones who make you worried about your messy house). Grandpas and Grandmas can be the greatest help you can get. Be there when your friends want to hug your baby because most of the time he will need your approval to trust the person.

We mentioned that baby starts to pick one toy (most likely a doll or stuffed animal) as his favorite. He is figuring out that he is not you and you are a separate person, so he will pick up a toy to be with him when you are not around. This way he is independent but still has someone with him.

Cognitive skill

Play peek-a-boo games with her. You can put a blanket on toys and reveal the toys to her over and over. She will be delighted. There are also some great books with some hiding animals in them which also can amuse her for a long time.

Other development:

Teething

As we mentioned before for 4 and 5-month-old, one of the best ways to calm your baby is using your clean finger and rubs it on his sore gums (finger nails! Don’t poke the bear). But this can’t be done all the time, you need more practical methods to soothe her. Giving your little one’s cold washcloths or teething toys is one of the most effective ways to reduce the pain.

Some doctors recommend giving a teething baby children’s pain reliever such as infants’ acetaminophen. Always ask your baby’s doctor for the correct dosage before giving acetaminophen to a child younger than 2.

Teething gels usually contain a local anaesthetic and an antiseptic, which work together to ease pain and prevent infection. A small amount rubbed on to the sore gum with a clean finger or cotton wool pad has a temporary numbing effect.

There’s no evidence that these remedies work, but some people find them helpful. Check that the brand you are buying is sugar-free. Sugar is a cause of tooth decay, so you don’t want to be covering your baby’s emerging tooth buds in sugar.

Touching

Still introducing her to different texture would help her have a better understanding of her surrounding world. You can check for board books that introduce different texture and make touching a part of the reading experience.

Talk (even better to sing) about various parts of her body while you touch those parts. As always, regular massaging your baby is recommended.

Sleep

Keep doing the bedtime routine every night. Baby can get relaxed, and he knows it’s time to sleep. The afternoon nap is still needed 1 to 3 times a day. It’s best to put him in the crib when he is drowsy and not entirely sleep so he can learn by the time he needs to soothe himself to go to sleep. This is helpful in the middle of the night when he wakes up. He can make himself go back to sleep without waking you up.

Feeding:

Recommended by pediatricians about six-month-old, you baby should start to eat solid food.

Don’t worry if he is not interested in eating solid food, breast milk will provide all nutrition your baby needs up to the age of 6 months. But just to be sure you should contact your pediatrician to discuss this matter.

Don’t push or force it to your baby, we don’t want him to have a bad experience with food.

Rice and Oatmeal cereals are the best choices because they don’t make an allergenic reaction in babies.

You might begin with smoothly pureed sweet potatoes. Whatever you choose, the texture should be super smooth and practically dripping off the spoon (dilute it with enough breast milk or formula — not cow’s milk or water — to make it very runny). As your tiny gourmand becomes a more experienced eater, gradually reduce the liquid you add, and thicken and slightly chunk up the texture.

Remember:

• Even each baby has her/his own pace, but if your child can’t do things listed below you may want to contact your pediatrician to make sure everything is alright:
  • Sit down unsupported (even for short period)
  • Babbling or squealing or making any kind of sound that shows s/he is trying to communicate with you
  • Smiling/laughing
  • Making eye contact/ smooth tracking eye movement (not jumping eye movement)
  • Responding to sounds
• Before you know it, she will start crawling and then it might be too late so Baby-proof your house as soon as possible.
• When the rolling starts it will happen everywhere, it means on the changing table, bed and every elevated surface. So take extra care at this stage.
• At this point, you should consider giving him different solid foods, but you should do it one at a time. This is because you will notice some of them might create an allergic reaction. If you give them all at once, you will never find out which one your baby is allergic to.
• Honey, milk and dairy products should not be used before the first birthday because they can carry bacteria that cause problems.

We hope you find this review informative and helpful. Now it should be 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:You can also check our other posts about 5-month-old baby developments.

You can also check our other posts about 5-month-old baby developments.

5-month-old baby developments