Month Seven

Babies First Year: Month Seven

How Baby Is Changing

Baby is sitting up better as his lower back gets stronger. He may be able to keep busy for a while playing with toys on the floor.

Your baby is ready to get moving! Soon you'll see him pushing up on his hands and knees, and crawling across the floor.

If your baby isn't moving on his tummy yet, encourage him. Sit in front of him and put a favorite toy just out of his reach. Praise him when he tries to get the toy.

When a baby rocks back and forth on hands and knees, crawling isn't too far off. Watch his hands. He can pass a toy from one hand to the other. Give him two toys at a time. What does he do when you hand him a third toy?

Baby Wants You To Know

How I Grow

• I creep on my stomach, I may even crawl.
• I can get around on my back by lifting my bottom and pushing with my feet.
• I balance myself and sit for a while with no support.
• I keep my legs straight when you pull me up, and I try to stand by myself.
• I explore my body with my mouth and hands.
• I can keep my diaper dry for up to two hours.
• I may have some teeth. I feed myself finger foods -- but I'm pretty messy!
• I play with a spoon and a cup, but I'm not so good at using them yet.

How I Talk

• I may begin to imitate the sounds I hear, that's how I learn.
• I say several sounds in one breath, like ma, mi, da, di and ba.

How I Respond

• I want to be included in all family activities.
• I like to see and touch myself in the mirror. I get excited at pictures of babies.
• I like to grab, shake and bang things and to put them in my mouth.

How I Understand

• I concentrate better now, and I spend lots of time examining things.
• I can tell if something is near or far.
• I can tell when people are angry or happy by the way they look and talk.

How I Feel

• I'm afraid of strangers, so stay with me when they're around.
• I feel strongly about what I want and don't want to do.
• I feel playful, and like to tease.

How You Can Help Me Learn

• Give me toys that make noise, such as bells, music boxes or rattles.
• Let me try to feed myself, even though I'm messy.
• Say different sounds for me to imitate.

Fun Activities

Has your child learned to blow air? Does baby use his tongue on the roof of his mouth to make clicking sounds? These are two important tricks for learning to speak. If you make a game out of blowing air and clicking your tongue, your child will try to imitate you. Put a small ball on baby's high-chair tray. Blow on the ball until it rolls toward him. See if your baby blows it back to you.

Now is also a good time to play the "touch and name" game. Touch different parts of your baby's body and name them: "This is Billy's foot. Here is Billy's nose. Where are Billy's fingers?" Touch parts of your own or your partner's body, and do the same thing: "Here is Mommy's nose. Here is Daddy's nose. Here is Billy's nose." This game helps your baby learn about himself and his body, and understand the connection between words and objects.

Most infants cannot point to a named body part until about 17 months of age. But research shows that beginning to play language games now will help your child learn more quickly.

Feeding Baby

Protein foods
Between 7 and 9 months, you can add strained or pureed meats, poultry and fish to your baby's daily diet, if your doctor recommends them. You can either buy the foods or prepare them at home. Many infants are eating mashed foods by 8 months, and diced by 10 months. Plain, single-ingredient foods such as strained chicken, strained beef and strained fish are a better buy than vegetable-meat "baby dinners." There is as much protein in one jar of strained chicken as there is in more than four jars of strained chicken and noodles.

Grains
In addition to iron-fortified baby cereal, you can add bread, toast, crackers, bagels, cooked rice or noodles, or soft flour tortillas. To avoid choking on crumbs, be sure your baby eats biscuits, crackers or small pieces of toast only while sitting up.

Fruit Juice
By now, you may be giving your baby fruit juice from a cup. Read the labels to be sure you're buying 100 percent juice, and not fruit-flavored drinks that are mostly sugar and water. Note: Wait until your baby is about a year old to try orange or tomato juice, because they can cause allergic reactions.

Read baby food labels
Wait until your baby is about a year old to give whole eggs or egg whites. When you do, make sure they are fully cooked. Egg whites can cause allergic reactions in young infants. Undercooked eggs can cause food poisoning at any age.

About weaning
Some mothers decide to wean their babies from the breast (or bottle) about now. Others wait until later. Some babies lose interest in nursing as they become more active. When you wean your baby, replace the feeding in which he or she is least interested with a bottle or cup feeding. After a week or two, replace another feeding. Do this gradually until baby is weaned. During weaning, be sure to give your baby extra hugs and kisses.