What to Expect 0-3month Milestones

Milestones to what people use to talk about babies and how they develop. It's often used by professionals to work out where children are in relation to other children. It's also important to remember that not all children will meet these at the same time, and some children may develop in some areas faster or slower but, will often catch up if they are behind. However, if like me the child is slower in a number of areas, its worth letting your health visitor or GP know.  This is nothing to be worried about, as they will normally carry out a range of checks to see where your at. If like me they might visit 5 times to see any improvements, which my son did, he was just a lot later at children his age. If this is the case, they will refer you on, normally to a professional to help support in these areas. 

 In the first 3 months babies are normally, crying, eating and sleeping. It's important that even though the babies are young they are still learning, and observing the word around them, listening to the tone in your voice and becoming familiar with the world around them, and also getting used to routines. Babies will also start learning to lift their head in order to look around, they will also respond to their care givers by smiling. By 3months old while doing tummy time, the baby should be able to lift their head and shoulders off the floor for a few seconds. A lot of babies will be fascinated by their hands and often bring them to their mouths, and chew on their hands.   

Babies will normally sleep around 14-16 hours a day, this will include 3 or more day time naps. They will normally manage around 5hrs of sleep in the night. Some babies might wake more, as they need more calories and more feeding which will help them grow better.  For the first 6 months babies will have milk only, a normal 3month old should have around 720ml – 1200mm a day spread out in around 5- 8 feeds.  

Around 3months old a baby should be kicking their legs, they may kick one or two at the same time, which can make changing a nappy challenging. They may also have learned to move from side to side or move backwards and forwards. Its important that If they are developing this that they are safe, and if your changing table, or baby mat is high up that they will not fall off. I often think of not using a changing table and do it on the floor.  

By 3months old a baby should be able to hold a toy, and even though their hand and eye coordination is not fully there, they should be able to focus on a dangling toy which is around 20cm in front of them and be able to recognize familiar nearby voices.  

 

Some items I recommend that can help the baby develop are some activity mats/gyms which are great with helping with hand and eye coordination.  I recommend games like peek – a – boo where you can use a blanket to hide your face and peek around, or even just place your hands in front of your face. Often the baby will respond to this and start vocalizing and may make some baby talk noises in response to your actions.  I also recommend sensory books, and books with lots of colours and pictures.  

 

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Teeth are a huge issue when children are young, Another parent thinks the Canines are the worse teeth, you can read why she thinks that here.