Knowing the developmental characteristics of your eighteen-month-old baby is important to contribute to his development effectively. However, always remember that every baby’s learning and development process differs.
Why is Monitoring Your Baby’s Development Important?
Babies grow up very fast and suddenly acquire abilities that surprise you. Even though every baby is different, a baby should reach specific milestones at a certain age. For an early diagnosis of mental and physical disorders, parents must consciously monitor their baby’s development. Autism, intellectual disabilities, language and speech delays and related disorders are usually diagnosed between fifteen and twenty-four months.
So, what are the milestones for an eighteen-month-old baby? What should he be able to do? How can you effectively contribute to his development? We discuss these important questions to help you monitor and support your baby’s development.
What Can My Eighteen-Month-Old Baby Do?
- He may start to use spoons and forks.
- He can walk fast or even run. 🙂
- He can use about forty words.
- He can show you any part of his body when you ask.
- He can recognise objects in a picture book and tell you what they are.
- He can understand when you tell him “No,” but we cannot promise that he will listen to you. 🙂
- He can spend more time playing with age-appropriate toys now.
Baby Nutrition at Eighteen Months
Opt for plenty of natural, unprocessed, healthy foods, fresh vegetables and fruits. Give your baby foods from each food group instead of favouring some over others. Each food group contains important nutrients for your baby. Pay attention to the nutritiousness of the foods you serve. All over the world, cake, pasta, chips, white rice, chocolate, and ice cream are among children’s favourites. The later you introduce these to your baby, the better, and once you do, try to give them occasionally as a treat.
Measurements at Eighteen Months
On average, an eight-month-old boy weighs 9.5 kg and a girl 9 kg.
An eight-month-old boy’s length will vary between 77 cm and 86 cm. An eight-month-old girl’s length will be between 75 cm and 86 cm.
Sleep at Eighteen Months
Your baby is now able to sleep more regularly than before. If you are exhausted by your baby’s sleep issues, you may consider different forms of sleep training. Creating a bedtime routine is valuable; reading stories or telling fairy tales is a great way to wind down. They will start to attract your baby’s attention more and more. Choose the best routine for you and your baby, and tell him it is time to sleep well before bedtime.
An eighteen-month-old baby sleeps an average of twelve to thirteen hours. Yet, this may differ from baby to baby.
How Can I Keep My Baby Away from the TV?
Your baby is growing up fast, and a period may start where he will want to go beyond the limits you set. During this period, many parents and caregivers complain about their baby’s interest in watching TV shows or cartoons on a tablet or phone.
Remember, it is up to you to keep your baby’s screen time in check. Instead of offering your baby TV or technology, you can engage him in fun games that attract his attention. For example, if he likes a character from a certain show, buy this as a toy and act out the show together. This live show will attract his attention more than the one on television. 🙂 Be aware that it has been observed that babies who get a lot of screen time have a decreased ability to play alone and to use their imagination.
How to Stimulate Your Eighteen-Month-Old Baby’s Development?
Your baby is now actively walking, running, and exploring and will encounter many new concepts and aspects of the world. As mom and dad, you now need to choose your activities, the places you take him and the people you spend time with more carefully than before, as your baby is very sensitive to his environment. 🙂
Developing social skills is one of the best foundations for a baby growing up. To strengthen his communication skills, you should often make eye contact and, if possible, let him meet babies of his own age. Although these meetings may not seem very useful yet, he will already begin to learn about sharing and friendship.
Play is a must for his healthy development!
You can play many games with your eighteen-month-old. For example, as he can now distinguish body parts such as nose-eye-lip, you can have fun asking him to point these out. 🙂
Play Suggestions to Spend Quality Time with Your Baby
When you offer your eighteen-month-old baby the right stimuli and motivation, he will learn skills you never expected very soon. This month, your little one shows great progress in all areas of development. He continues to surprise you every day. The activities listed below will strengthen the bond and communication between you.
- Using nesting cups or matryoshka dolls, you can help your baby to place them in the correct order, from large to small or small to large.
- You can empty the washing machine together. Your baby will also enjoy helping you to hang the wet laundry and mess around with it. After drying the laundry, you can ask your baby to help you to match socks or fold laundry. It will give him a sense of responsibility and improve his matching skills.
- At home, you can have a lot of fun acting and imitating sounds, like “vroom vroom, the car is driving,” or “zzz zzz, the baby is sleeping.” You can encourage your baby to imitate and act as well.
- Place photos of your baby and other family members on the table or carpet. Then put some personal items of those family members in a basket. Help your baby match the items with the correct photo.
- Babies also love playing outside. Help him get to know his surroundings by taking nature walks together. Being outside and enjoying sunlight daily is very beneficial for health. If the weather is bad, you can still enjoy going out if you dress appropriately.
Observing your baby’s skills during activities will help you get creative, diversify and make them fun.
Shopping Advice – What to Buy?
Eighteen-month-old babies enjoy a ride on parent-controlled bikes. At home, your little one can scribble and colour in colouring books. Toys with music and lights will also attract his attention and boost his intelligence. Take a look at ebebek.com, read other caregivers’ comments and buy them at affordable prices.
It’s Your Turn Now – Write a Comment
How are you raising your eighteen-month-old baby? What challenges did you experience this month? How did you overcome them? We welcome your comments so that other caregivers can learn.
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