Parenting on children are never easy, it requires time, caring, love and effort to raise a child. We all want our young ones to grow up strong and healthy. But what about those times when we are noticing our child isn’t meeting toddler milestones or couldn’t keep up with other children? What are the factors we should be alert for? Well, It is very important to know every child develops at different rates. This guide’s purpose is to provide indicators that will help you possible delays as we as starting points to see if your child is on the right track. Also It is important as a caregiver to be well informed about developmental milestones, what to look for, and know when to start talking to specialists. Children’ milestones are behavioral or physical checkpoints in children’s development as they grow. It is advised that the first four years if a child’ life are the most important period of development physically, emotionally, cognitively, socially and morally.
What most babies do for the first 6 months
Social and emotional
- Turns head toward direction of sound
- Copies and follows movements and facial expressions, like smiling or frowning
- Language / Communication
- Begin to babble
- Babbles with expression and copies sounds he hears
Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)
- Let you know if he is happy or sad
- Responds to affection
- Reaches for toy with one hand
- Uses hand eyes together, such as seeing a toy and reaching for it
- Follow moving things with eye from side to side
- Watches faces closely
- Recognizes familiar people and tings at a distance
Movement/ Physical Development
- Holds head steady unsupported
- Pushed down on legs when feet are on a hard surface
- May be able to roll over from tummy to back
- Can hold a toy and shake it and swing at dangling toys
- Bring hands to mouth
- When lying to stomach, pushes up to elbows
- Raises head and chest while lying on stomach
Sleep
Most babies are sleeping six to eight hours stretch by six months, when babies at this age have trouble falling or staying asleep. If your little one is not sleeping through the night that doesn’t necessarily mean that anything is “wrong,” it could just mean that your baby is developing at a different timeline or has different sleep needs. Things like a growth spurt, an infection, or teething could also interrupt your infant’s sleep at night Some parents find that babies start sleeping a little better through the night once they begin eating solids – it’s just another sign your baby is growing up fast!.
When to be concerned
Although every baby will develop differently, if your little one is displaying any of the following signs or symptoms, be sure to talk to the doctor about them of the following signs or symptoms, be sure to talk to your doctor about them or discuss them at your baby’s 6 month well-child check up:
- Doesn’t attempt to reach for items around them
- Doesn’t respond to affection from you
- Doesn’t appear to respond to sounds
- Can’t bring items, like a rattle or stuffed animal, to their mouth,
- Can’t make sound
- Is unable to roll
- Has not laughed or made “happy” noises like squalling
- Seems stiff or does not move head easily
- Is not gaining weight
Common Mistakes from parent
Nowadays parents just leave a tablet to their children to escape their parenting responsibility for a while. Electronic devices are actually very convenient and good technology to educate babies. However, excessively relying on the electronic device would cause harm to your children as they did not provide any physical communication and the brightness of the display can harm their vision effectively. Parents should avoid letting their babies heavily rely on the electronic device. This is different because the babies will not communicate with their parents and will not understand love and care from their parents. When they grow older, they will become easily distractible by electronic devices and facing difficulty when social with others. There are myriad ways of parenting other than using current technology to distract our kids from crying and escape the responsibility of being a parent by shutting them from crying.
Due to the current generation, parents are harder compared to the older generation as the working hours are getting longer and more stressful. After work, parents are exhausted and don’t have much energy to pay attention to their kids more. However, this can be done and solved by managing time and between parents. Final advice to the parents, love is the key to observing the growth of your children for a happy life.
