These first seven months of your child’s life have flown by, and chances are you’ll surprise what occurs subsequent. This text will lead you thru your 7-month-old child’s new developmental milestones and their new feeding patterns. You’ll additionally learn the way a lot sleep your 7-month-old wants, together with what to learn about their wake home windows and sleep regression. As well as, you’ll uncover new and thrilling methods to work together together with your baby, all whereas retaining them secure from damage. So, buckle up — this new month of improvement is about to take off!
Your child is turning into more and more extra lively daily, and their mobility expertise are beginning to flourish. They’re additionally starting to develop how they work together with their surroundings. Some new improvement milestones you may stay up for your 7-month-old reaching embrace:1
- Rolling from again to entrance after which again
- Sitting with out the assist of their fingers whereas nonetheless requiring exterior assist
- Reaching for toys or meals utilizing one hand
- Transferring toys or meals from one hand to the opposite
- Enhancing of their skill to trace objects
- Having totally developed and mature eyesight
- Responding to their identify and the phrase “No”
- Having fun with babbling and fascinating in social play
- Figuring out feelings by the tone of somebody’s voice
Throughout this time, your child will love exploring totally different meals and begin consuming strong meals extra ceaselessly. They are going to start to regularly eat strong meals thrice per day plus further feeds of breast milk or method. Offering a wide range of veggies, fruits, pasteurized dairy, and proteins (equivalent to eggs) will assist guarantee your child is uncovered to a variety of vitamins. These meals may be served mashed, pureed, or softly cooked.2
Keep away from meals with a excessive threat of choking, together with sizzling canine, raw veggies, grapes, popcorn, and nuts. Different meals to keep away from are honey, unpasteurized juice and dairy, and excessive sodium, no-calorie sweeteners.3 Infants must also not have cow’s milk till they’re 12 months previous as a result of threat of iron-deficiency anemia.13
Whereas your 7-month-old might attain the milestone of consuming extra strong meals, most of their vitamins will nonetheless come from breast milk or method. Infants have small stomachs, so to make sure they get sufficient milk, supply them their bottle about an hour after strong meals.2 Offering iron-fortified child cereals is a good way so as to add vitamins to your child’s food plan; nevertheless, it’s not suggested so as to add the cereal to your child’s bottle except their pediatrician instructs you to.3
It’s important to supply just one new feed at a time with a number of days in between earlier than introducing one other new meals. This lets you decide in case your child might not tolerate the brand new meals. Some indicators and signs to observe for in a possible meals allergy embrace:3
- Rash
- Bloating
- Diarrhea/vomiting
- Hassle respiration
- Hives
In case your child is experiencing bother respiration or a quickly progressive full-body rash, search fast medical consideration. When you imagine your child might have a much less extreme meals allergy, you’ll want to contact your pediatrician and ask about subsequent steps.
Whereas individuals used to imagine that ready to start out high-allergen meals (equivalent to wheat, soy, eggs, milk, and peanuts) would scale back the chance of an allergic response, the alternative is true. Ready to start out these meals might enhance the chance of meals allergic reactions.3 It is strongly recommended to supply high-allergen meals as quickly as your child begins consuming solids, one by one.
You may additionally be questioning how a lot sleep a 7-month-old sometimes wants. As your child turns into extra lively, their sleep sample will change. 7-month-olds want 12-16 hours of sleep each day, together with two each day naps that common one and a half to 2 hours every.4
Though your child might have been on an excellent sleep schedule final month, at 7 months previous, they could expertise a interval of sleep regression. Sleep regression is a change in your child’s sleeping sample that features issue going again to sleep and staying asleep. In case your 7-month-old is experiencing sleep regression, they could nap for shorter durations, be more and more fussy, or have a change of their urge for food. Sleep regression sometimes lasts two to 6 weeks.5
All kinds of adjustments could cause sleep regression in your 7-month-old, however the most typical causes for sleep regression embrace:5
- Ache from teething
- Reaching a brand new developmental milestone
- Progress spurt
- A change of their routine
- Journey
- Sickness
Sleep regression could be a troublesome time for fogeys and infants alike, however there are some methods to assist your 7-month-old child, together with:5
- Retaining a constant bedtime and bedtime routine
- Recognizing your child’s sleep cues and placing them to mattress on the first signal of tiredness
- Permitting your child a couple of minutes of fussiness whereas they’re falling asleep in the event you really feel snug doing so
Sticking to a constant each day schedule throughout this sleep regression interval is important. That features having constant wake instances, nap instances, and bedtimes. Many 7-month-olds will nonetheless take two naps each day and have wake home windows of round two to a few hours every.6 Every child’s wake time and bedtime will look totally different, however here’s a pattern sleep schedule to assist in giving you an thought:6
- 7 a.m.: Get up
- 9-9:30 a.m.: First nap of the day (one to 2 hours)
- 2-2:30 p.m.: Second nap of the day (additionally one to 2 hours)
- 7-8 p.m.: Bedtime routine
It is strongly recommended to not permit your child to sleep later than 4 p.m. throughout their second nap, as that may trigger them to have a more difficult time falling asleep at bedtime. Aiming for a bedtime 10-12 hours earlier than your child sometimes awakens for the day can also be really helpful. This may assist guarantee your child will get sufficient sleep.6
Sometimes, there are not any scheduled well-baby checkups or routine vaccinations at this age, so long as they’ve had common checkups and vaccinations by means of 6 months previous. However that doesn’t imply there aren’t just a few issues to look out for, together with improvement considerations and customary diseases your child can expertise.
Along with monitoring your 7-month-old’s developmental milestones, monitoring for any developmental considerations is essential to present wanted interventions early. Some issues to be careful for are:1
- They’ve stiff or tight muscle tissues
- They seem floppy or have very free muscle tone
- They’re unable to assist their head
- They refuse to cuddle or don’t present affection or work together with their caregivers
- One or each of their eyes flip inward or outward
- They can not roll over or sit with assist
- They don’t reply to sounds round them
In case your child reveals any of those indicators, inform their physician of your considerations. They are going to be capable of direct you on the following steps chances are you’ll must take.
Your child will put every part, and I imply every part, of their mouth. This virtually ensures they’ll turn out to be sick. A number of the most typical diseases your baby will expertise embrace:8
- Colds with a runny nostril, sneezing, congestion, and cough
- Diarrhea and vomiting attributable to viruses
- Ear infections
- Hand-foot-mouth illness, the place sores develop within the mouth, the palms of the fingers, and the soles of the ft
You possibly can monitor and deal with many of those diseases at house. Nonetheless, it’s important to hunt fast medical assist in case your child is experiencing any of the next signs:8
- Fever lasting longer than three days
- Ear ache
- Issue respiration
- Change in perspective, equivalent to elevated irritability or lethargy
- Dehydration (cracked lips, decreased moist diapers, and decreased tears)
Though no routine vaccines are wanted at this age, in case your child is 7 months previous throughout chilly and flu season, it is very important take into account getting them an influenza flu vaccine. This vaccine needs to be administered by the top of October to guard your baby from the flu for the complete season.7 The COVID vaccine can also be really helpful for all these 6 months and older.14
Now that your child is beginning to work together with you and their surroundings, playtime will turn out to be much more particular for each of you. Playtime will primarily give attention to social interactions and exploration. Listed here are some methods you may interact together with your child all through the day:9,10
- Sing enjoyable songs and embrace actions on your child to imitate
- Present toys in numerous shapes, sizes, colours, and textures
- Play peek-a-boo
- Present toys that transfer or make noise when your child interacts with them
- Place a toy simply out of their attain for them to seize
- Learn to your child each day
As your child turns into extra lively and cellular, it’s important to take care of a secure house for them to play in. The next suggestions gives you a framework to construct on when making a secure surroundings on your child:11,12
- Take away all small objects from their attain
- Place gates on stairways
- Place window guards on all home windows
- Transfer their crib away from any home windows
Different methods to maintain your child secure embrace:12
- Not retaining sizzling meals or drinks inside their attain
- Not leaving them unattended within the bathtub
- Eradicating all water from the bathtub after bathtub time is over
- Utilizing a correctly put in rear-facing automotive seat in all autos
- Protecting sharp corners
- Ensuring all cords are out of attain
- Securing doorways, drawers, and cupboards with security locks
- Protecting electrical shops
- Securing furnishings to the wall
- Placing drugs, cleansing merchandise, and every other probably toxic/hazardous supplies out of attain and locked away
Watching your baby enter this new life stage is thrilling and rewarding! Your 7-month-old might be reaching new milestones and experiencing shifts of their sleep, feeding, and extra. This journey will convey pleasure, love, and amazement as you watch your child develop. Embrace the each day adventures and the snuggles, as this can be a particular time for you and your child.
