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5 Effective Tips to take proper care of your 8-month-old baby

Team AckoFeb 8, 2024

Your baby is now 8 months old and is discovering and doing new things every day. Your baby would have improved his crawling skills and will be able to sit independently and even try standing up. You will enjoy listening to his cute words like “mama”and other babbles.

Contents

Feeding:
Teething:
Baby talk Speaking:
Keeping your house baby safe
Playing and Interaction
Reading
Emotions

He will be active and keep you busy. As his thinking skills and emotions develop, you can see your baby become angry or frustrated if you don’t give his toy. Your role as a parent is to understand your baby’s cues, improve his skills, appreciate his efforts and enjoy the feeling of him growing up.

Few pointers:

Feeding:

Ensure you give your baby at least 2 solid meals for additional nutrients and energy. Milk has to be given additionally to improve their growth. Breastfeed can be around 4 times since your baby’s stomach is full due to the solid-food intake. Include a variety of foods like baby cereal, different fruits, and vegetables, both mashed or pureed, non-spicy lentils, pulses, eggs, etc.

Give your baby finger foods like carrot, bananas, toast. Your child will be able to pick up items such as food with their thumb and first two fingers or hold items in a fist. Allow him to feed themselves and explore.

Always be careful to ensure they do not pick up anything unsafe. Set a routine for his feeds. Always give him small portions of food. Always introduce only one new food at a time checking for any allergies to your baby and adjusting your baby’s taste and preferences.

Teething:

Usually, a child’s first tooth comes between 4-8 months. During this time your child might get a mild temperature. Teething also causes rubbing of ears, rashes on face, there is a decrease in appetite, biting, sucking, drooling and wakefulness in babies, so notice for these signs. Avoid too much sugar and processed food to your baby now. His sleeping patterns will also change though he still needs afternoon naps. Let him get his naps, sleep helps in keeping your baby healthy and relaxed.

Baby talk Speaking:

Your baby will now be practicing to make noise and try to talk too. The more you spend time talking to your baby, the faster will his vocal skills develop.When you speak use gestures, exaggerate, be slow, use small sentences, repeat words, highlight and emphasize key words. Your baby will be listening to you attentively understanding the meaning to the words.

Involve your baby in your family conversation, during dinner time, play time, etc. Simple nursery rhymes, songs, games also help your child in developing communication and sequencing. Make small conversation with your baby asking him about how he enjoyed playing the ball, etc.

You can talk to him about all his day to day activities. Introduce colors, shapes, and places, use a picture book, show him animals, simple objects and food items, etc.

Keeping your house baby safe

Always have your house clean since your baby will explore the house around, he might find bits of dirt and paper etc which he might put in his mouth. Maintain 100% hygiene. Be extra vigilant by locking in medicines, closing cupboards and units where you have soaps and toiletries, etc.

Check for plants, bookcases, tables, heavy furniture etc which your child might pull and hurt himself. Also, check and block off stairs ashe might crawl all over and might fall too.

Playing and Interaction

Let your baby explore different colors and sounds. Have a few packed colorful and safe toys for him to play. Your baby will love to drop, throw orbang anything just to see what happens. You can give him simple plastic bowls, spoons or pots and pans, and see him enjoying the different sounds it makes.

Introduce mirrors to your baby, while he discovers his own reflection and enjoys your movements in the mirror. He will start babbling to the mirror too. You can also play peekaboo with your baby. Just ensure that your baby is not chewing and chomping his toys. Take him to the garden and let him enjoy the nature outside.

Your baby will now be strong enough to pull himself up and stand while holding on to something. He will know to crawl well and so will be moving around in the home and be in the way, so you will need to watch your child carefully.

Reading

Reading is very important and extremely beneficial for your baby’s language development. Enjoy reading books with different facial expressions or change your voice according to the different characters. Allow your child to explore their books, let them touch, feel and turn pages, move their finger over the pages. Point to the pictures where your baby shows interest in. Always act out what you read with your face, hands, and voice. Enjoy when your baby babbles back to you in return.

Emotions

Around this time, your baby will be able to express their emotions if they are happy or sad. They may do things like blow kisses to people they know well, clap their hands when excited or wave goodbye too. Your child will learn to empathize or mimic if they see another child cry. Your child will shrink away if he senses fear. Look out for these emotional cues to understand your baby better. You can teach empathy through the daily activities of the day and be a good role model for your child to follow.

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Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only, based on industry experience and secondary sources. It is not a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a qualified expert for health or insurance-related decisions. Content is subject to change, refer to current policy wordings for specific ACKO details.

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