The arrive six months and it seems that the baby is getting older. Now you can start eating little things, take things with both hands and manipulate them (rattle, rather), bringing everything you catch into your mouth.
Some authors explain that now the baby is "older" and has the ability to sleep through the night and even that it would be advisable to pass it to his room.
In this post we will try to clarify these concepts and talk about everything that happens in the life of a six month old baby
As I said, six months sounds like a "barrier", a milestone, a date marked on the calendar, a time that is reached when the baby is still a baby, but to which abilities are attributed big boy.
The truth is that the baby is maturing and leaps and bounds, however the six months are not so different from the five and our performance as parents should not differ too much: A lot of love, a lot of contact and above all a lot of empathy.
The six month baby feeding
The baby has been drinking milk exclusively and on demand until now. Exclusively because he has not taken anything else (or at least this is what is recommended) and on demand because he has been able to take the amount he wanted when he wanted to, whether he has been breastfed or has taken artificial milk.
When you turn six months you can start offering complementary food, which is all that food, as the name suggests, complements (but does not replace) milk, so that babies begin to try new foods, new flavors, textures and new ways of eating.
Babies who have taken breast milk can continue to drink it, and in fact it is recommended that they do so, at least, up to two years.
Luckily, it has been a long time since breast milk was analyzed at various times of breastfeeding and there have been many times when it was wrongly said that "your milk no longer feeds you", since we now know that breast milk remains the main food until the year of life for the amount of nutrients and immune cells they provide.
Keep in mind that the fact that you can start eating some foods should not lead the baby, ever, to a loss of autonomy. Until now I ate on demand, when I wanted and how much I wanted. It would be a mistake to start deciding on the baby by offering what adults want and waiting for him to eat it. Food is also on demand..
The dream
Although, as I said when introducing the entry, many authors explain that a baby at six months should sleep all night, it is considered normal for a baby to have frequent awakenings even up to 2 and 3 years.
The truth is that at six months they sleep all night (considering all the hours between 00:00 and 06:00 all night) only 16% of babies.
Given these data it seems quite illogical that we force any situation. It is not necessary to teach a six-month-old baby to sleep, because he already knows how to sleep and, as it is normal for him to wake up, because it is part of his evolution, it is not necessary, and in fact it is inadvisable, to use methods in which babies cry to learn not to request the presence of dad and mom during the nights.
On whether it is necessary to take the child to his room or not, each family must decide which is better for everyone, since there is no evidence that can show that a baby who sleeps from six months in his room has a better development or is more There are no studies or studies that say that a baby who is still in his parents' room when he turns six will grow up with a maturational or psychological deficit.
Vaccines at six months
We see in the vaccination calendar of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics that at 6 months the babies are given the third dose of the hexavalent vaccine with the polio virus, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and influenza and the second dose of the MCC vaccine (meningococcus C) to those children who have not been given at 4 months.
Vaccines can have side effects, such as local pain (in the puncture area) and fever, which are the most common symptoms. Before the fever we must remember that we can give them paracetamol, but not as a prevention of it, but as a treatment.
Socialization and language in the six-month-old baby
At this age they begin to realize that those things that disappear from their vision still exist. Until this moment, everything that stopped being in its angle of vision was understood as missing, ceased to exist. Now is able to look for an object that has dropped and even throw it to find it later.
As for the language, one of the most anticipated moments for the parents arrives, since the baby begins to babble (some are even able to say something like “pff-pff”, which parents quickly interpret as “dad”, although not be true).
Body development
A six month old baby is able to pick up objects with one hand, with both e even pass it from one hand to the other.
Many begin to be aware of their surroundings and if we cover their faces with a handkerchief they are able to take it off.
At this age they usually turn from being in supine position (face up) to prone position (face down), although some stay in the middle with the arm trapped under their body.
The six months is also the time when they begin to have a little balance while sitting and many babies even manage to do it with nothing to hold them (if your baby does not, calm down, many do not remain seated until after nine months) .
The ideal is to start spending a lot of time on the ground. If it is very cold, you can put a mat or an eva rubber puzzle, since a sheet or blanket may lack fixation and make the baby slip when you want to start moving. In this way they are the ones who start to turn around and see what movements they need to get to one or another place or toy and therefore they will begin to develop different gestures and precursor movements of the crawling.
In a few days we will continue with our baby calendar explaining how the seven month baby develops.
Photos | Flickr (traveling.lunas), Flickr (kellywoolen), Flickr (deanwissing)
In Babies and more | Baby calendar
