Explore tips on building attachment, introducing solids, sleep transitions, and baby-proofing. Support your baby's growth while managing common parenting challenges.
Key Concepts: Attachment
- Feeling guilt over your baby spending more time with your partner or your nanny? We totally get it. A reminder that the more attachment figures your child has, the better. Multiple attachment figures do not take away anything from the importance of your role!
- Your baby’s temperament will not necessarily be like yours or your partner's. Some babies are easier to understand and parent, and others are more difficult to soothe, and none of this is a reflection of how you’re parenting.
What to Try: Attachment
- When feelings of jealousy emerge (as they undoubtedly do sometimes), remind yourself that it is a gift for your child to have multiple people in their lives who love them and who they love.
- Aim to identify what your and your co-parent’s pain points are. Is it the sound of your baby’s cry? The way you feel when you watch someone else care for your infant? By recognizing the pain points, you and your co-parent can complement and support each other to avoid them.
Key Concepts: Feeding
- Right now your baby should drink between 5-7 bottles in a 24 hour period. If your baby is taking solids well, you can introduce another solid meal in their day.
- Yuck! Your baby may not like food immediately and that is OK. It can take up to 15 for a baby to decide if they like a food or not. Ugh…
- Can you believe it’s time to start thinking about your baby’s dental care? You don’t need to schedule a dentist appointment quite yet, but it is time to start incorporating dental care into your evening routine. Simply brushing their teeth at night will do the trick right now.
What to Try: Feeding
- If you/your baby are ready, begin to introduce thicker purees. This is a good way to expose your baby to different textures. Do this by adding in less liquid and/or mashing it slightly less. You can also add in a grain to thicken it up.
- Let your baby feed themselves. This is messy – yes – but it’s great practice for their coordination and gives them some control over their hunger/fullness cues.
- It’s hard…but don’t rush to clean them up while they are eating. Let them have a sensory (and messy) experience.
- Use a small soft-bristled toothbrush with a TINY amount of fluoride toothpaste (the size of a grain of rice) and gently brush around the gums and teeth. If your baby doesn’t have teeth yet, you can use a soft clean cloth to wipe their gums after they eat.
Key Concepts: Sleep
- Between 9-12 months babies may drop their 3rd nap. If your baby isn’t quite ready yet, that is also very okay.
- Sleep regressions! We love to hate them. A sleep regression is just a disruption in our child’s sleep, which is going to continue to happen through their development. Just like it is for us, many different factors can impact our baby’s sleep, including new milestones, illness, travel, and transitions.
What to Try: Sleep
- Look for signs that your baby is ready to drop their nap. Signs might include fighting the final nap of the day, taking two solid naps and seeming well-rested until dinner time, and/or if bedtime has become increasingly difficult because they’re not tired yet.
- If you notice your baby’s sleep suffering, here are a few things to think about/ask yourself:
- Is there a major change going on?
- Stay consistent and make sure all caregivers are responding similarly
- Aim for an earlier bedtime
Key Concepts: Development
- The time has come. Hello baby-proofing! Baby proofing serves two crucial purposes. It keeps your baby safe and allows them to explore in a “yes' ' environment (as opposed to an unsafe environment where you have to yell “no” constantly).
- Your baby’s language skills are rapidly developing. First up? Receptive language! These are the words and gestures that your baby understands the meaning of.
- Crawling may be around the corner for some of you, but it’s okay if it’s not. There are many different stages of gross motor development and not every child hits each stage. If you have concerns about your child’s gross motor development, it’s best to have a conversation with your pediatrician.
What to Try:
Continue to talk to your baby. Even though they aren’t talking, they can likely understand the word no, recognize words that they hear often (mom, grandma, more), look up when they hear their name, and follow simple directions. Try simple directions like “can I have your spoon?”
Offer floor time for your baby to continue to develop their muscles necessary to crawl. Make sure to keep them out of baby equipment that restricts their movement.
Key Concepts: Relationships
- Routines help children organize new information. Your baby is busy making neurological connections everyday! Repetition and consistency through routines helps your baby to solidify neural pathways and store information.
- We’ve all experienced it at some point…mom guilt. That’s the all too familiar feeling that you should be doing more than you’re doing or that you’re not good enough. This feeling is even well documented in the research.
What to Try: Relationships
- Pick a routine to conquer. We recommend starting with mealtime. Healthy habits around eating can make a huge difference in how your baby regulates their behavior at the table, relaxes to be open to trying new foods, and learns social skills.
- Say it with us - short and sweet goodbye routines are everything! This can help both you and your baby cope with separation. Use a goodbye phrase like “mommy always comes back” paired with a kiss. Keep it consistent.
- Can you identify what is leading to mom guilt? Is it after a long scroll on social media? Or after trying to take a work call while giving your little one a bottle? Once you can identify it, you can turn off what isn’t helping.