Helping Your Baby Develop

As your baby enters her seventh month of life, her language, recognition, and social skills are at an important stage of development. Help ensure that your baby's development stays on track by trying some of the following activities:

• Talk to your baby when you are together.
• Expose your baby to a variety of sounds, and help her try to locate them.
• Imitate the sounds your baby makes and try to get her to make the sounds back to you.
• Provide some quiet time when the radio and TV are not on.
• Get books from the library or store, or make your own with bright pictures from magazines, or make an album of photos of familiar family members. Point to and name objects and people as your baby looks at them. Your baby may stay interested only a few minutes at a time, but try to do this every day.

Developmental Milestones

Babies develop at different rates, but by the end of baby's seventh month, she will probably:

• Get up on all fours and rock back and forth
• Feed herself a cracker
• "Creep" or scoot around on her belly
• Look for something that has dropped
• Get her first tooth

Baby Walker Alert

The Canadian Pediatric Society strongly urges parents not to use baby walkers. They can lead to high-speed, dangerous falls and allow your baby to travel to potentially unsafe places that he wouldn't otherwise be able to reach. Baby walkers also can slow down your baby's progress when she's learning to walk.

Using a walker strengthens only your baby's lower legs. The muscles in the upper legs and hips (the ones most used in walking) do not get a workout. Becoming mobile too early may lessen baby's desire to walk on his own. Let your baby progress from crawling, to cruising, to standing, and to walking at his own pace.

Eat and Play

Once your baby can sit well enough to be in a high chair, mealtime becomes playtime. Let him grab the spoon, put it in his mouth or bang it on the tray. By 7 or 8 months, he may be ready to eat a cracker or dry cereal by himself. Not only does this introduce him to "grown-up" food but it also lets him practice his fine-motor skills.

Remember, even though he is eating solid foods, breast milk or formula is still his primary source of nutrition. Make sure you watch your baby closely whenever he is in his high chair. Never leave him alone, not even for a second.

More Visits With Your Baby's Health Care Provider

As your baby interacts more with other babies and children, he is more likely to pick up colds and viruses. These illnesses are a normal part of growing up. Talk with your baby's health care professional if you notice any of the following symptoms or any symptom/sign that seems unusual:

• Runny nose or congestion that interferes with eating or sleeping or lasts longer than a week to 10 days
• Cough that is associated with vomiting or that interferes with sleep
• Wheezing
• Unusual fatigue and crankiness
• Diarrhea or vomiting
• Decreased appetite
• Fever
• Pulling at his ears

Although you will take your baby to her health care provider when she's sick, the importance of well-baby visits should not be forgotten. Schedule regular visits to your baby's doctor, even if your baby appears well. These routine visits are your opportunity to make sure she is growing and developing properly and to ask any questions you may have. Changes in care and feeding of your baby will be recommended at appropriate ages. The health care provider will suggest ways to protect your baby from common dangers as her development progresses. These visits are also when she will receive the immunizations she needs (and make up any that she missed at the recommended age) to protect her against many serious childhood illnesses.

Your baby's health care professional can list the immunizations received and procedures performed during an office visit on an immunization record. Health care professionals can provide record forms for families. The record should be complete and kept for your child's school years and beyond to show that immunization requirements have been met.

Regular visits to your baby's health care professional reassure you about your baby's progress, and your questions and concerns can be discussed then. The fewer anxieties or frustrations you have, the better you can provide a normal, positive environment for your baby.