The first chapter in your cherub’s life draws to a close with months 10-12. Here are some of the exciting things you can expect as your baby approaches the age of one!
Growth
By 12 months old your baby should be around triple their birth weight and have grown about ten inches in length.
Coordination and Motor Skills
At this time, your baby should be able to sit up without help and even pull themselves up to standing and sit back down again. You’ll also notice them maintaining their balance while doing things like throwing balls.
Your little one should be a pro at moving around now too. One of the 11-month milestones to look out for is your baby being able to hold their head upright whilst crawling. You’ll also notice them crawling towards or away from objects or people in the distance. They might even move around the room by pulling themselves along furniture– so make sure it’s all bolted down to prevent topples. Most excitingly of all, your baby may even take their first steps at around the one-year mark. Don’t worry if this isn’t the case though- some babies start walking as late as 17 months.
Your little one’s hand eye coordination should be coming on in leaps and bounds too. They should be pretty good at feeding themselves finger foods by now and be a dab hand at the pincer grip. You might also notice your baby banging and hitting objects to make noise- and whilst this might cause a headache, it’s a brilliant sign of hand-eye coordination development. A few more signs to look out for include putting things in containers and taking them out again and poking.
A few ways to help your baby’s motor skills and coordination at this time include:
- Reading books together with liftable flaps, different textures and activities.
- Give them toys that move like cars and balls.
- Play music for them to “dance” to.
Communication
Slowly but surely, your baby’s babbling will be sounding more and more like speech in rhythm. They’ll likely now be able to use sounds to communicate too, such as saying “uh oh” when something is dropped or imitating animal noises. This is also the stage in your baby’s development to keep an ear out for one of the most magical milestones of all- their first words.
Your darling will have a more developed understanding of the words you use too- a key sign of this is crying when told “no”.
Non-verbal communication will be very developed at this time too. Expect waves hello and goodbye and pointing to objects that they want. Your little one will be able to recognise familiar objects by now and will be able to point to identify them. They’ll also follow where you are looking and pointing and be able to follow requests.
A few ways to help your baby’s communication skills to develop at this time include:
- Ask your baby questions and give them the correct answer after they respond
- If your baby asks for something by pointing, be sure to name the object as you give it to them.
Food
At this point your little one will be able to feed themselves soft finger foods and even drink a little water from an open cup. They’ll be enjoying a variety of yummy new tastes and smells- making this a great time to introduce new foods!
When trying out new foods, only introduce one per day. That way if your pickle shows signs of an allergic reaction, you’ll know exactly which food to avoid in future.
According to the NHS, 10-month-old baby food should be a fairly even balance of solid meals and milk feeds- three of each.
1 year old baby food should be mostly solids with less milk feeds, and the NHS says that your baby may even need two healthy snacks as well as their three daily meals. However, they advise that sugar and salt should still be avoided. Your babe is now also at an age where they can have full-fat cows’ milk to drink – although they’ll have to wait until they are two for semi-skimmed.
So- now you have a one-year-old! We hope our baby development series has been helpful during this first year in your parenting journey. Whilst these first twelve months are an enchanting time, there’s plenty more to look forward to as you start chapter two.
