Your Baby-From 7-12 Months

This is the time when crawling really sterts to begin, they may even do a sort of bottm shuffle instead of a crawl but they will most certainly start to move- with speed!

At around 9 months or so baby may even be pulling him/herself up using the furniture as a support or with your help. A baby can at this age get themselves into an upright position if they fall over and using their super grip they casn get up quite easily but still have to simply fall down as they have not yet learnt how to get down gracefully.

By the time a year has come your baby will be zooming around the floor and picking him/herself up using the various objects around the room, itv is advisable to start looking at gates at this stage as some babies can take a few wobbly steps by a year and most babies can climb stairs easily( but not get down again).

At between 7 and 12 months most babies can use their fingers and thuimb in a pincer grip to pick up small objects and even start to look for toys that have dropped on the floor,even out of sight and can actually go and search for the toy as well.

This is a time that is not so good for the adult as one of the games that babies of this age like to play is to throw toys out of their pram or cot and watch the adults pick it up all of the time.

Speech In Your Baby

Babies are immitating sounds that you make and also starting to string sounds together like "dada" and "mama" this will help them when they reach around 12-15 months old when they try to get their first words out properly.

This is the time to talk to your baby and listen to simple songs and nursery rhymes as babies will take it all in and use it to communicate better with you, they also keep more interested for longer as you are stimulating them.

Height and Weight

One of the best ways to judge the development of your child is through height and weight and the regular visit to the clinic or health visitor will show you how your baby is developing. Bear in mind though that all babies develop at different stages so do not be allarmed if there are differences between your baby and the "normal recommended" stagesof development.

Your baby should now be sleeping around 14 hours a day and maybe only having a couple of short naps during the day time.

As the first birthday draws nearer you might see your baby standing without any help and may even be taking a few tentative steps as well. If your baby isn't walking by around 18 months then contact your Doctor or Health Visitor for advice.

From an adult point of view this is the best time as your baby will begin to understand the word "No" at about a year and may be starting to babble lots and use "dada" and "mama" alot more.