Baby 6 months what should be able to. Child development in the sixth month of life. When the baby is sitting

15.07.2023

Six months is one of the most important stages in the physical and emotional maturation of the baby. A child at 6 months begins to manipulate toys more consciously, tries to communicate with people around him. The baby tries his first complementary foods and even forms taste preferences.

Baby's height and weight at 6 months

The physical indicators of an infant depend on many factors, including heredity and gender, so they are presented in a wide range. Baby growth at 6 months:

boys - from 63 to 71.9 cm;
girls - from 61.2 to 70.3 cm.

Permissible weight of a child at 6 months:

boys - 6.4-9.8 kg;
girls - 5.7-9.3 kg.

Baby food at 6 months

In order for the growth and body weight of the baby to be within the above norms, he must eat fully and regularly. The main nutrition of the baby at 6 months is still breast milk or an adapted mixture, but towards the end of the first half of life, it is necessary to introduce complementary foods. Pediatricians allow both basic and pedagogical methods. In the first case, new dishes are offered to the crumbs on a schedule and in limited quantities. The second option - the child independently tries tiny portions of dishes from the "adult" table, to which he has a food interest.

Mother's milk remains the main thing in the diet of a six-month-old baby, but at lunch you can offer him a new dish. Feeding a baby at 6 months with normal body weight should start with. For their preparation, hypoallergenic products growing in the region where the child lives are better suited:

vegetable marrow;
light pumpkin;
broccoli;
squash;
cauliflower.

Puree is made from only one vegetable and water. You can not add salt, sugar or oil, this is too intense a load on the digestive system of the crumbs. With tolerance, you can diversify the child's menu at 6 months. It is better to introduce them 10-15 days after the sample of vegetables. Simple one-component purees from such fruits are suitable:

peach;
apple;
banana;
pear;
plum;
apricot.

corn;
buckwheat;

Complementary foods begin with a test to track the reaction of the crumbs to a new product. For the first time, it is advisable to give the baby 0.5-1 teaspoon of the dish. Gradually, you can increase the portion to the maximum limit. Daily intake of complementary foods for 6 months:

vegetable puree - 10-120 g;
porridge - 10-150 g;
fruit puree - 5-60 g.

Baby menu on IV at 6 months

Babies fed an adapted formula are better able to digest new foods. children 6 months continues, but is not the main component of the baby's diet. Milk mixtures are included in the menu in the amount of 400-500 ml. The rest of the food is complementary foods. Its variety and portions depend on how much a child weighs at 6 months, what foods he has a food interest in, whether there are allergic reactions to certain dishes. Approximate recommendations for the amount of complementary foods per day:

vegetable puree - 150 g;
porridge - 160 g;
fruit juices and purees - 60 g each;
cottage cheese - 40 g;
meat puree - up to 30 g;
yolk - 0.25 pcs. (not every day);
whole milk - up to 200 ml (in dishes if tolerated);
biscuit cookies, crackers - 3 g (per sample);
butter, vegetable oil - up to 3 g (per dish).

Baby routine at 6 months

From six months, the amount of continuous, night and daytime sleep of the baby changes. The regimen of a child at six months becomes closer to an adult schedule. The baby still wakes up regularly for feedings, but does it less often. With normal development, health and a stable emotional state, a baby at 6 months old can rest at night without waking up for about 7 hours in a row.

How much should a baby sleep at six months?

The total duration of sleep for a baby at this age is about 12-14 hours. More than half of this time falls at night (up to 10 hours). Daytime sleep of a child in six months is 3-4 hours:

in the morning, after feeding - 40-60 minutes;
at lunch - about 2 hours;
in the evening - about 60 minutes.

Baby not sleeping well at 6 months

Sleep disturbances and anxiety are common during the described period, especially after 19-20 hours. A child at 6 months does not sleep well at night due to. At this stage of development, the lower incisors grow, which cause itching of the gums, soreness and swelling of the soft tissues in the mouth. Other factors that provoke worse sleep in six-month-old babies:

too long wakefulness;
many new impressions and emotions;
stress;
lack of fatigue;
vigorous activity, games before going to bed;
features of biological rhythms;
separation anxiety (fear of separation from mother);
new conditions for sleeping (another room, bed);
bloating;
increase in body temperature;
any health problems.

Six months is a significant date in the life of the crumbs. By this time, the baby acquires many new physical and emotional skills, makes the first attempts at communication, learns to control his body. When a child turns six months old, parents need to purchase educational toys, give the baby more time for joint entertainment. Additionally, you need to take care of the safety in the premises, the baby can already move independently.

What can a baby do at 6 months?

A six-month-old baby freely rolls over from back to stomach and back, many children love to spin like a top. There is a list of basic skills that a baby should be able to do at 6 months:

sit with support;
keep the head and control its position;
lie on your stomach with support on your hands;
stand for a short time with support under the armpits;
open your mouth at the sight of a spoon;
remove food with lips;
support the breast with your hands while sucking;
eat sparse food from a spoon;
shift the toy from one hand to the other;
make attempts to crawl (by any means).

What should a child be able to do emotionally at six months:

imitate adults;
follow the toy for a long time, interact with it;
to recognize people;
show emotions (laugh, frown, get scared);
respond to words and music;
pronounce repeated syllables;
express desires with the help of sounds;
have preferences (favorite toy, cartoon, person).

Parents should keep in mind that every baby is unique in its development. Some babies start sitting, crawling and doing other expected activities at 6 months, others a little later, some babies skip certain stages, moving on to more complex tasks. It is important to allow the child to grow up in accordance with his personal rhythm, not to force him to do anything “by force”.

How to develop a baby at 6 months?

Both mom and dad should take part in raising a six-month-old baby. When a child turns 6 months old, he understands the difference between "his" and "strangers" people, enjoys the attention from family members and behaves wary of strangers. For proper maturation of the child, time should be devoted to improving both physical, and emotional, and social skills. The development of a baby at 6 months involves:

age-appropriate toys;
educational entertainment;
use of modern technologies (gadget games, cartoons);
doing gymnastics.

By the first half of the year, the baby is already well mastering the grasping reflex, but fine motor skills need to be improved. Suitable toys for 6 month old babies:

beanbag;
large soft cubes;
large foam puzzles;
cups;
musical, interactive toys;
big cars;
nesting dolls;
large balls, balls;
Stuffed Toys;
plastic sets of dishes;
inflatable, soft books with bright pictures;
labyrinths;
tweeters;
spirals with balls;
soft bags with different fillers;
Velcro and others.

Entertaining a baby at six months is very simple, he will even like household items - a saucepan with a lid, a rustling bag, clothes with large buttons. If for 6 months the child was presented with a lot of educational toys, parents should help the baby to master them. You can assemble and disassemble a pyramid, nesting doll, puzzle together. The main thing is to comment in understandable words on your movements and actions of the baby, calling him by name (“Dasha put on, took off the ring”). During such games, it is important to show the baby how to move his hands correctly, what to do with objects.

A special place in the development of young children is occupied by nursery rhymes. They not only amuse, but also teach the child to understand words, feel the rhythm, establish a connection between them and subsequent actions. Nursery rhymes for babies 6 months old can be practiced in the morning, supplementing them with exercises and washing:

We woke up. We woke up. They stretched sweetly, mom and dad smiled.
Who is already awake? Who stretched so sweetly? Pull-pull, from socks to the top of the head. We stretch, we stretch, we won't stay small. That's how fast we grow, that's how we'll walk with our feet.
Washed cheeks. Washed the nose. And the eyes are forgotten.
Give me your hands, get up from the bed. Let's go wash up. Where is the vodka? Let's find!
Hey, okay, okay, okay. We are not afraid of water. We cleanly wash ourselves, smile at our mother.

Rhymes for fine motor skills:

Finger boy, where have you been? He cooked borscht with this brother, went to the forest with this brother, ate porridge with this brother, sang songs with this brother.(bend fingers).
One two three four five! Let's count fingers. Strong and friendly, all so necessary. The fingers are fast, dexterous and clean. This finger wants to sleep, this finger jumps into bed! This finger - took a nap, this finger - fell asleep. This finger does not sleep, strives to run away.
A fat and big finger went to the orchard for cherries. The pointer from the threshold showed him the way. The middle finger is the most accurate, it knocks cherries off the branch. Nameless collects, fills buckets with cherries. And the little finger-master plants bones in the ground.

When a child turns 6 months old, he knows how to sincerely laugh, so he definitely needs to read funny, entertaining nursery rhymes:

Two firefighters ran (stroke one and the other cheek of the baby), and they pressed the button (touch the nose): beep!
Sun, sun, look out the window. Shine a little, I'll give you peas.
Rain, drip more fun. Drip, drip, don't be sorry. Just don’t get us wet, you knock on the window.
The sun looks out the window, Masha (child's name) shines into the room. We clapped our hands, very happy with the sun.
What legs, what legs? These are the legs of our baby. We will not give such legs to a dog or a cat. These legs, our legs will run along the path.

Children are entertained by the simplest games, for example, "cuckoo", and old nursery rhymes, which also contribute to the development of motor skills and orientation in space:

magpie-crow;
over bumps;
the bunny went out for a walk;
bears and others rode.

Cartoons for babies 6 months

Not all modern pediatricians advise introducing a child to gadgets, TV or a computer at such an early age. The development of a child in half a year fully occurs even without cartoons, most experts say that there is no value in them. If the parents decide to show the crumbs entertainment programs, their viewing should last no more than 10 minutes a day. At 6-7 months, the child can be shown the following cartoons:

Smeshariki;
pieces of wood;
Tiny Love;
Luntik;
smart;
Baby Einstein and others.

Exercise contributes to the normal formation of the musculoskeletal system and strengthens the muscles. In order for a 6-month-old baby to develop properly, you need to regularly do simple gymnastics:

"Soaring" based on hands on the stomach.
Crawling with help.
Flexion and extension of the legs (one at a time and together).
"Flying boat" with support (handles are retracted to the sides).

By his first "anniversary" the child achieves incredible success. Comparing photos and videos of a newborn baby with the little man who is now walking in his crib, you will find a huge difference.

If you start summing up the results of the past period, you will be amazed at how much your baby has grown and gained weight in six months, how many skills and abilities he has mastered. But the baby is not going to stop there, and your task will continue to help his development, because there are still many goals ahead: the child must learn to crawl, talk and walk.

To help your baby learn new skills, you need to have an idea of what a baby needs to be able to do so you can get a feel for how to develop a baby at 6 months old. You can be guided by a child development calendar, which outlines what achievements babies should have in six months.

The physical development of children in the sixth month of life continues to go at a rapid pace. The baby puts a lot of effort in order to master new skills and bring those already acquired to a normal level. The child development calendar indicates only approximate dates for when and what the baby should learn and what should change in his life. If the girl next door can already crawl, and your boy has just learned to roll over, you should not worry that he is lagging behind in development. Even if by the end of the sixth month the child has not mastered the necessary skills, doctors give another two weeks to develop them.

at the sixth month of life, all children should begin to crawl; without lifting the stomach from the surface, they move forward, backward and in a circle;
the level of coordination of hand movements allows a six-month-old child to use two limbs at the same time for grabbing, throwing and clapping, the baby can roll over while holding a toy; also, by the end of the sixth month, the baby should be able, looking at objects, to take them with his right and left hand.
fine motor skills develop, a baby at six months old can open boxes, can turn the dense pages of children's books, insert cups into each other;
a child at six months old should be able to sit up independently or with support;
rising in the prone position, the baby should be able to do this without the participation of the forearms;
at six months, the child should be able to hold the head in an upright and sitting position;
a change in the position of the body in space triggers the stimulation of the vestibular apparatus, so the child constantly asks to be held by adults in his arms, he likes it when he is rocked, raised to the ceiling or circled.

Care

Six-month-old babies, as a rule, already have their first teeth in their mouths. The timing of their eruption depends on hereditary factors, in some babies they appear before six months, in others only by 7-8 months. The order of teeth growth may also differ from the standards. Parents should not worry if the time for the appearance of the incisors is delayed or if they grow in a slightly wrong order.

The growth of teeth in six-month-old children is associated with profuse salivation, pain, itching and fever. Therefore, you need to have a supply of certain medicines in the first-aid kit in order to take care of the baby’s painful gums in a timely manner and bring down his temperature. In addition to age-appropriate antipyretics and pain-relieving gels, it will be useful to purchase several teethers for the baby.

Continue to bathe your baby daily in the bathroom, do gymnastics with him to strengthen muscles.

Since a baby at six months old may not be interested in sitting in an arena, you should organize for him the most comfortable and safe "sex" life. Place a thick blanket on the floor and let your child play on it. The baby will play and exercise in crawling, while there will be no risk that he will fall from somewhere. You will need to make daily care of the surfaces on which the baby crawls.

Emotions and behaviors

The manifestation of emotions in the baby is still bright, all experiences are reflected on his face. Since the baby is already beginning to master toys that require precision movements, sometimes he may begin to cry due to failure. Moods can also arise if the child does not get what he wants or is forced to endure what he does not like.

A child in the sixth month of life continues active communication with loved ones. He has already formed his own "vocabulary" - a set of certain sounds pronounced with different intonations helps the baby to report that he does not like something, or he is glad that his dad is coming home from work or a new toy. This "children's language" is far from an adult, but attentive parents understand even these sound combinations and understand what exactly the baby wants.

At six months, babies already know their name and react when they are addressed, feel comfortable with familiar people, and when strangers appear, they are alert and may even cry. Do not worry, this is a completely normal reaction of children at six months to other people's adults.

Children not only experience their own emotions, but also successfully copy the expressions of our faces. If you try to “make faces” with the baby, he will repeat after you angry, joyful, sad facial expressions. At six months, the child is well able to feel our mood and can copy it, so keep a benevolent and calm atmosphere at home so that he will always be in a good mood. For a baby, not only physical, but also emotional and psychological development is important, so being in a tense environment will negatively affect his personality.

Height and weight

At the end of the sixth month of life, the baby should add about 600 grams of weight and grow by 2.5 - 3 centimeters. The proportions of the child's body change, gradually approaching the ratio of body parts to the adult model.

Speech

The speech skills of an infant in the sixth month of life continue to improve. New sounds are added to his articulatory arsenal, he combines them in different ways, repeats them many times, sings and pronounces with different intonations.

Continue to constantly talk to the baby, and read fairy tales with different intonations. Children may enjoy playing the dialogues. Of course, their speech is far from perfect, but taking turns talking with adults gives them visible pleasure. When telling the baby about something, pause for his remarks, and he will definitely “skip” something.

Feeding

Breastfed babies change their diet. As a rule, they begin to wake up less often at night and eat the most 2-3 hours before full morning awakening. Because of this, in the first half of the day they eat reluctantly. By following your pediatrician's advice, you will continue to introduce complementary foods to your baby's diet as scheduled. The pediatrician will take into account the developmental features of your baby and his physical condition, and will tell you when and what foods the baby can try.

Dream

Due to the fact that in children in the sixth month of life motor activity increases during the day, their nighttime sleep becomes longer and stronger. Some children may sleep until the morning without waking up. Daytime rest takes place in two stages, lasting from an hour to two. The average sleep duration of a six-month-old baby is as much as 4 hours shorter than the sleep of a newborn. Freed from rest in the crib, the baby spends time on active physical development and exploration of the world.

Games and toys

At the age of six months, the baby's fingers and hands move very actively, normal coordination is established, and therefore the nature of the toys that suit the child changes noticeably. The baby can now play with containers of different sizes and colors by nesting them in each other.

The research interest of the baby can be satisfied by buying him developing products with different details: rustling and ringing. You can also sew small bags, fill them with different cereals and tie or sew tightly. By touching and feeling their contents through the fabric, the baby will develop fine motor skills and enrich his tactile experience.

Children continue to "open" their body, the boy can get carried away playing with his reproductive organ.

Don't panic, this is completely normal behavior. There is no need to pull the baby, because in this case he can be capricious, try to distract him with some bright toy and take his hands with it.

A baby at six months old may be interested in musical toys, children like the process of pressing large buttons, after which melodies or sounds begin to play. The development of hand coordination allows kids to be able to stick small parts into holes and watch them fall. You need to be close to the baby, teach and guide him.

In an effort to be like you, the child will enthusiastically turn the dense pages of a children's book, and may even try to babble, pretending to read it. If you often showed him pictures in books and told him who was depicted on them, by the end of this period, the baby can touch your finger to the corresponding depicted hero to your questions (Where is the grandfather? Where is the turnip?).

Games with adults in the sixth month of life will be associated with the development of the vestibular apparatus to prepare for active crawling and walking. Children are delighted when they are rocked on a blanket, like on a hammock, they also like the role of an "airplane".

The development of the vestibular system by the end of the sixth month is very important, because very soon the baby will begin to crawl on his own. In order for the child not to fall on his side after rapid movements, he must be able to withstand such spatial overloads. From the newborn period to six months, the baby lay, and if he changed his position, he was securely held by his parents. Now he begins to move independently, and for this you need to train the vestibular apparatus.

At this age, the child already knows a lot. He can already roll over from his back to his stomach and back on his own, lean on one hand, grabbing another toy, hold on to an adult’s hand with his fingers, and some children at 6 months old can already sit. The baby, most likely, is trying to crawl on all fours, approaching the toy of interest. And if you take him by the armpits, he will rest and push off with his legs, as if dancing. Perhaps the child is trying to stand up on his own, holding on to the edge of the crib. A six-month-old child examines the toy by feeling it, and if the toy is hidden, he will start looking. At this age, the baby can play independently for up to 10-15 minutes, but it will be more interesting for him with his parents.

The child screams and cries less, now he tries to interact with adults with the help of babbling. It may seem that the baby is already saying the words, but this is not so. At this age, children successfully imitate adult speech, but there is still no semantic fullness in babbling. At the same time, the baby is trying to understand the meaning of what you said, for example, he can look at the thing that is being said, recognize the voice of his father and mother. In children's thinking, a primary understanding of cause-and-effect relationships appears. He knows that if you press a button, music will play, and so on. The kid begins to be interested in the functions and qualities of the surrounding objects and asks to show them to adults.

The best way to stimulate the development of skills and abilities of the baby is through games. For example, the development of speech can be supported with the help of colorful books that contain not only pictures, but also short text. Read aloud to children, this will help the kids to speak earlier.

It is important to start developing fine motor skills of the hands. Games with boxes or molds, nesting dolls will help here. Put a small ball, 5-6 cm in diameter, in the child’s palms, squeeze his hands with the ball inside with your own hands and roll it there. Squeezing a special tweeter toy and playing with spirals along which you need to move the figures will help the development of fine motor skills of the hands.

Games that promote psycho-emotional development

The game of patties, familiar to everyone since childhood, has not lost its relevance. It contributes to the development of fine motor skills of the hands, and the emergence of cause-and-effect relationships.

The game "Conversation with a cup" will contribute to the development of speech. For her, you need to collect several cups of different sizes together and put them in a cardboard box. Bringing each to your mouth, say a word (for example, the name of the child). The kid will notice that the word sounds different every time, and the more often he listens to them, the sooner he will begin to repeat.

Causal relationships will help to comprehend the game with a ball filled with water. To do this, fill a balloon with some water and tie a string to it. Squeeze and decompress the ball so that the baby sees how its shape changes, and then let the child play with it. By experimenting, the child will find out that the ball bounces when it is thrown and wobbles when it is twirled.

Pour different amounts of water into plastic bottles. Hit each one with a spoon to make the bottles make different sounds. The child will also notice the difference and want to join the game.

You can also teach your child to deal with problems with the help of games. For example, when a child holds a toy in both hands, offer him a third. At first, he will try to grab her without releasing his hands, but he will soon realize that this is impossible and first you need to release at least one toy from your hands.

If you hide your favorite toy under the blanket, leaving some part of it visible, the baby will grab it by the part that he sees, and after a while he will learn to pull the blanket off the toy.

At the age of 6 months, it is already possible to give the child a game board, placing on it the baby’s favorite toys and those items that are easy to handle.

Games for the development of coordination

Slowly and clearly tell your child a story about birds. When you say the phrase "The birds have flown", gently raise your baby's hands up and clap your hands. After some time, he will begin to wait for this moment and laugh in advance, and in the future he will begin to clap his hands.

The child will learn to maintain balance if mom or dad put him on his shoulders and rock him a little. The baby will begin to control his movements, and in addition, he will see the world from a new point of view.

It will help the development of coordination and swaying the baby on the leg. To do this, sit on a comfortable chair and put the baby on his leg. Take his hands and start swinging your leg to the beat of a song.

If the child is already learning to crawl, build an obstacle course for him with several pillows in colorful pillowcases. Let the baby try to get over them.

If the child does not want to crawl, you can push him to this with the help of a spinning ball. Start slowly spinning the ball at some distance from the child, getting his attention. Most likely, the baby will become interested and crawl closer to the ball.

Play with the ball by placing the child on the floor and rolling the ball back and forth in front of him. To make the child have fun, sing a song to him.

Playing the tunnel will help develop not only coordination, but also mental skills, spatial orientation, and problem solving. To build a tunnel, you will need a cardboard box and a small baby blanket. Trim the box on both sides, making a tunnel. Lay the baby on the floor on one side of this tunnel. Go to the other side of the tunnel and call the baby. When he climbs into the box, cover your end of the tunnel with a blanket so the baby can't see you, and then reach out to the child and pull him towards you so that he crawls to your side.

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What does a 5 month old baby look like

The movements of the baby are conscious and clear, the voice is loud and emotional, the desires are understandable, the daily routine is set. A little more, the baby will crawl and sit down, consciously pronounce “mother” for the first time, rise to his feet and walk. Each child does this at their own time and at their own pace. Your task is to support him in mastering the necessary skills.

Every day you will observe how quickly the child learns new things, daily reaches small, but peaks of perfection. A baby in the sixth month of life performs the same exercises several times in a row, training the muscles and realizing how this or that movement is performed. Due to the improvement of the nervous system, the child can already be aware of his actions and strive for new skills.

A pleasant feature of this period is the filling of the house with babble and children's laughter. The kid needs communication and actively participates in dialogue with adults. A little more time will pass and instead of babble, the first words will begin to appear.

Physiological changes

The body of the baby becomes strong and strong. The baby can already do a lot, tends to move and change position, rolls over from his stomach to his back and back. The child grabs toys, shakes them, brings them to his eyes and mouth, knocks. The muscles of the abdomen and back become developed, soon the baby will sit down and laugh joyfully.

Depending on the features laid down by nature, temperament, character, children learn to sit down at different times. Some cope with the task in 5.5 months, others have already exceeded the mark of 6 months. No matter how much you want to help the little one, you should not force things. You can offer muscle-building exercises, massage, and take him to the next level with toys, but don't force him to do something he can't do yet.

With insufficient development of the back muscles, the load to hold the body falls on the spine, which is fragile and easily bendable. This is especially true for girls. It's all about the formation of the reproductive system. The uterus and ovaries of the girl are located directly at the bend of the body and are protected from external factors by the abdominal muscles that hold the internal organs. The influence of early planting babies on the formation of infertility has not been proven, but such suspicions exist. Of course, if the daughter sits on her own before 6 months, having developed enough muscles, you should not stop her, but you should not force her either.

At the sixth month, the desire to move after the object is manifested. The stronger this desire, the faster the little one will crawl. The basis for the future ability to crawl is constant flips from the stomach to the back and back, lifting the body up, lying on the stomach. Every day the muscles of the arms and legs become stronger, allowing the baby to crawl without raising his stomach, spin, crawl away. To help master this skill, offer to reach for toys more often, stimulate the desire to change location.

By six months, the baby may well stand for several minutes, holding on to a support. The development of the muscles of the legs and arms allows him to keep himself in an upright position. But do not offer him such entertainment too often. Everything has its time. First, the baby needs to master the ability to sit or crawl, only after that he can move on to lifting to a standing position.

The ability to stand upright when parents hold the armpits appears as a result of the complete attenuation of innate reflexes. Now the baby, being in this position, does not sort out the legs and does not strive to bend them, but straightens them completely at the knees and hips.

Physical development

The rate of weight gain is still quite high. For the next 4 weeks, the goal is 600 grams. Height increases by an average of 1-3 cm. The head grows by 1 cm, and the chest by 1.5 cm. The baby has grown to the age when the chest girth should gradually become larger than the girth of the head.

The most active children, who learned to crawl and sit early, by the end of the 6th month of life, may gain a little less than the established norm. This is due to the increased waste of energy, physical activity. If the baby is slowly gaining weight, but at the same time actively moving, playing, eating with pleasure, cheerful and cheerful, then there is no reason for concern. At your monthly pediatrician appointment, tell your doctor about your progress.

Boundary indicators of the physical development of a child at 5-6 months, depending on gender

Psycho-emotional development

Along with the emergence of new motor skills and increased daily activity, progress in improving the nervous system is noticeable. The peanut already responds to the name, reacts to the presence of strangers, tries to imitate speech. If you are engaged in the development of speech, then already during this period the baby can repeat some syllables quite well and pronounce sounds accurately.

To stimulate the development of speech during this period of life, it is necessary to talk with the child as much as possible, read books to him, sing songs. Between 5 and 6 months, active speech perception is formed. The more the baby hears, the better he will understand you.

When talking with a baby, you should try to use his name as often as possible. Do not constantly call him a bunny or a cat. The perception of one's own name is an important stage in the formation of personality. The use of affectionate nicknames is possible, but several times less than the child's own name.

The kid is happy to communicate with familiar adults, attracts attention with a variety of sounds, babbles. New emotional manifestations of joy appear. The baby may scream at the sight of his mother or his favorite toy. The child really likes the expansion of sound possibilities and during the period of wakefulness he constantly improves this skill.

With strangers, the baby behaves wary. The basic instincts of self-preservation begin to work. He understands the intonation, distinguishes the sound, associates the voice with the person. If just 2 months ago, any person could pick up a baby, then at the moment it can end with crying and trying to return to the mother’s arms. The baby's memory for faces is still short-lived. The person whom the baby saw 2 weeks ago becomes a stranger and unfamiliar. If grandparents want to play and communicate with the baby, then they need to take care of frequent visits.

Normal development is impossible without a calm atmosphere. The baby needs a daily routine, the absence of an overabundance of emotions, constancy. Until six months, you should refrain from a large number of guests, do not take the crumbs with you to noisy events. With excessive nervous stress, babies become capricious, sleep poorly and eat.

motor skills

The period between 5 and 6 months of life is filled with many different changes in the motor skills of the baby. Some children master them a little earlier, others - closer to six months, others - having exceeded the mark of 6 months. Among the most striking motor skills of a 5-6 month old baby are:

Confident lifting of the torso from a supine position to a sitting position with the help of parents. Some children by 5.5 months master the ability to independently perform this exercise. Keep the body in a sitting position for a while. Lifting the torso from a position on all fours is considered correct, but in most cases, babies first learn to sit down by raising the torso from a lying position, leaning on their arm.
Attempts to crawl or mastering this skill. Depending on the development of the muscles, the baby may begin to crawl or only attempt to move his body. Quite often, this skill begins with a backward movement. The baby moves backwards, because the mechanism for moving the body back is easier to understand for the baby. You can help the little one master this skill by showing the position on all fours. Holding the stomach at some distance from the surface, move the baby's arms and legs, imitating movements. In order to properly move the limbs of the little one, it is worth remembering that crawling is obtained if the hand moves along with the opposite leg. If you move your right hand forward, then you need to move your left foot along with it.
Strong arching of the body, lying on the stomach. The kid confidently raises his shoulders, resting on his hands. Can tear one hand off the stop to get a toy. During this exercise, the spine bends, giving the baby the opportunity to rise higher and see more. Being in such a stance, the child turns his head around in search of interesting objects. Carrying out such exercises involves placing bright objects and toys on all sides.
Rolls quickly and confidently from back to stomach and back. Can perform this action while holding a toy. The maturation of the psycho-emotional sphere gives the baby an understanding of the comfortable position of the body. Depending on the desired manipulations with the toy, the baby can choose the position of lying on his back or stomach. During this period, small rattles should be given to him for independent study, so that the coups are easy.
Lying on his back, raises his legs high, pulls them into his mouth. The flexibility and plasticity of the spine, the development of the muscles of the back make such a pastime accessible to the baby. It is necessary to monitor the length of the toenails and the cleanliness of the crumbs' feet so that germs do not get into the mouth and it does not scratch the delicate heifer.
Makes confident grasping movements. He holds the toy, shifts it from hand to hand, pulls it into his mouth and examines it. Copying the behavior of adults, it can knock, shake, pat. Can find a rattle hidden under the diaper. The development of basic fine motor skills is very beneficial for the brain. It is good when the baby has several small light toys that fit comfortably in his hand. On them, he will hone the skill of manipulating his hands.
When raised to a vertical position, the baby fully extends the legs at the knees, seeks to find support.

Hearing, sight, reaction to sounds

The possibilities of the sense organs increase. They play a crucial role in the formation of the knowledge base, so they continue to improve. The eyes can distinguish primary colors and several shades. The kid with pleasure carefully examines the faces of adults who take him in his arms, touches his cheeks and nose, hair. During the dialogue, he tries to touch his lips.

The child actively reacts to the changes taking place around, babbles joyfully when replacing toys. A complete change of rattles once a week is recommended. Do not rush to buy new ones, it is enough to hide already studied items from the little one for a week and they will become interesting again. This happens for several reasons. Firstly, the predominant use of short-term memory, and secondly, the formation of a knowledge base. Every day the amount of information received about the world increases, the baby masters new movements. If today he used the entire arsenal of research skills on a rattle, then in a week he will realize that he did not perform new exercises with this object.

Hearing becomes more perfect. The little one constantly listens to the sounds around him and reacts to them. The usual measured sound calms him, new sharp sounds frighten him. The need to see the object that makes the sound is growing. Now the baby wants to see what he hears. The reason is the development of the brain. It requires more and more sound-visual information to expand the knowledge base.

The formation of connections between visual and sound information in the first year of life is the basis for future mental success. Do not try to create complete silence in the room, to exclude natural sounds. The more their baby hears and relates to certain objects, the better. Still undesirable is white noise from TV and radio. It is desirable to reduce the time spent by these items to a minimum.

Being in the same room with the TV, the baby will look at the screen, trying to understand what makes the sound, will try to understand the changing picture. A fragile nervous system, vision and hearing will be subject to information attack, which can affect the calmness of the baby, his comfort.

Hair and nails

Already in the previous month, hair and nails began to grow faster, making adjustments to hygiene procedures. In place of the bald patches on the back of the head and the sides of the scalp, new smooth hairs appear, and the fluff with which the baby was born gradually disappears.

If you have not bought a brush for combing, then you should take care of it. It is recommended to use a special comb-brush for babies. It differs from the objects used by adults in soft, thick villi. It is better not to use an adult comb. The scallop can scratch the head, the massage is too voluminous, it is inconvenient for her to put the child's head in order. It is recommended to carry out the combing procedure twice a day as part of the morning and evening hygiene procedures.

The use of hair shampoo is not required yet. The baby is still in minimal contact with the outside world, and excessive use of soap solution on the scalp can lead to excessive drying of the hair, reducing their growth.

Baby's nails require weekly inspection. It is necessary to carefully monitor their length, timely cut off the protruding parts. This must be done with special scissors with rounded ends. It is not recommended to use tweezers or items from an adult manicure set. The child should have their own scissors, designed only for cutting the nail plates. It is not recommended to perform other actions with them or use them for another person.

Nails should be cut in a straight line, without rounding the shape of the nail. Thus, you will keep the shape of the nail plate, you can avoid improper growth, the formation of burrs. The ideal time for this procedure is the hygiene block after an evening swim.

First tooth

Children who have not acquired their first teeth before, at the age of 5-6 months, will definitely do this. They will have increased salivation and swelling of the gums will be noticeable. Babies react to this process in different ways. Some pass it quite calmly, almost imperceptibly. Others become moody, sleep poorly and eat. Still others experience the appearance of teeth very hard. Among the most common difficulties that accompany the appearance of teeth are:

Violation of night and day sleep. Breastfed babies often ask for breasts and cry while eating. Formula-fed babies fall asleep hard and sleep anxiously.
Diarrhea. Often, on the eve of the appearance of the top of the teeth, the babies begin to empty themselves, the structure of the feces becomes more liquid.
Temperature. On days of active teething, the baby's temperature may rise to 38.5 degrees, which does not require the use of antipyretics. With a combination of tooth development and infection, the temperature can be higher, so you should have a suitable antipyretic and pain medication on hand.
Runny nose and increased salivation. Some children feel nasal congestion, itching in the gums.

Usually the most difficult is the process of the appearance of the first teeth, and then the manifestations will be less intense.

To reduce the intensity of the manifestation of negative symptoms contribute to:

Frequent breastfeeding. Mother's milk has an analgesic effect. If the baby changes the frequency of eating during teething , let him do it.
Use of cutters. Pharmacies and children's departments sell special toys made from materials that allow you to scratch itchy gums. Often, they contain a gel inside that allows you to cool the inflamed skin, to some extent, relieving pain. When using teethers with cooling gel, you should carefully read the instructions and use them correctly. Most require pre-chilling in the refrigerator. The duration of preparation for use is indicated by the manufacturer on the package and can be from 10 to 40 minutes.
Pediatrically prescribed pain relief gels. Usually, specially designed teething gels containing an analgesic are prescribed. Their use is possible after consultation with a pediatrician and strictly in the indicated dosage and frequency.
Doctor-prescribed suppositories to reduce fever and pain. Most often they contain ibuprofen and are used when the temperature rises. Their use is possible only after consulting a doctor, in the absence of an allergic reaction to the components.
Manual mode. Many children in the period of teething begin to intensively ask for hands to mom or dad. The increased need for being on the hands is due to the discomfort experienced by the little one. If you clearly know that the baby is bad, then do not deprive him of the feeling of comfort and tranquility. The teeth will soon appear, and your baby will again go on an independent study of the world.

The appearance of teeth is the most difficult period for mom and baby. It is unlikely that it will be possible to completely get rid of unpleasant manifestations. This time just needs to be lived through.

Digestive system

By five months, the digestive system of the little one is already fully formed. Behind were intestinal colic, accompanying the settlement of the gastrointestinal tract with beneficial microflora. The baby no longer spit up or does it very rarely. The body is ready to receive a new, more varied food.

Usually, at the sixth month of life, healthy babies who are breastfeeding begin to receive complementary foods. Children who eat the mixture begin to get acquainted with porridge. The volume of non-dairy food gradually increases and by 6 months it is advisable to replace the second feeding with it.

social contact

The child needs more interaction. Talking and reading books become an important way to form the sound base of the little one, contribute to the development of speech perception, establishing contact between the child and parents.

During this period, it is worth filling the life of the crumbs with various types of communication: dialogue, bodily contact, joint dancing and singing. The more you communicate with the baby, the faster and better he will speak.

Care rules

Child care at the 6th month of life remains the same. As before, in the morning it is necessary to carry out a gymnastic complex, wash, clean the auricle and nose. During the day, do not forget to keep the groin area clean, clean the hands, feet, and body as it gets dirty. In the evening, every day you need to bathe the baby in the bath or offer to swim in the bath with a special circle.

It is good to gradually wean the baby from the constant wearing of a diaper. You can wear it for a night's sleep and a walk on the street. At home, it is advisable to keep him in shorts. Early weaning from diapers will make it easier for you to potty train your little one. The kid will not get used to the constant absorption of urine and feces, he will understand the difference between dry and wet panties. All this will quickly show the benefit of using the potty and the need to communicate to you when you want to pee.

Bathing and hygiene

Bathing a baby in the 6th month of life remains a daily procedure. Soap is still not required. If desired or prescribed by a doctor, you can use decoctions of herbs, but do not be zealous. Any herbs, if used improperly, have side effects, they should be treated wisely.

Bathing a child in duration is 15-20 minutes and consists in a complete ablution and wiping of the entire body. To wash your face, it is good to use cotton swabs. Soak a cotton pad in free-standing water. Wipe the face of the little one in the direction from the nose to the ears.

Be careful when cleaning your fingers. It is necessary not only to rinse the palm, but also to wipe the skin between the fingers.

The groin area requires special attention. Be sure to wash all the wrinkles. When washing a girl, do not part the labia and rub the vaginal area. This area is very delicate and knows how to clean itself. Simply rinsing with water is sufficient.

When bathing in a bath, the water should be about 37 degrees, while swimming in the bath - about 27. The difference in temperature for different types of bathing is determined by the goal. In the bath, you relax the baby, wash, while bathing in the bath, stimulate the movement of muscles.

After any kind of bathing, you should additionally rinse the baby with clean water not from a bath or bath. It should be prepared before bathing, so that it is a little cooler than the water in which the little one bathed.

Nutrition

Between 5 and 6 months of age, all children begin to introduce complementary foods. Formula-fed babies continue to increase the amount of fruit puree and juice they receive, and breastfeeding babies begin to receive additional foods on the second morning feeding.

On the second feeding in the first week of the 6th month of life, the baby receives juice for acquaintance. Usually parents prefer apple juice. If no reaction is observed, then during the first week the amount of juice offered is increased to a teaspoon. A week later, you can offer a different type of juice. By 5.5 months, you can invite the baby to get acquainted with fruit puree.

Table of age for the introduction of new products, depending on the type of feeding

Lure	Artificial feeding	GW
Juice	3-4 months	5 months
fruit puree	4 months	5.5 months
vegetable puree	4.5 months	5.5 months
Porridge	4.5 -5 months	5.5-6 months
Meat puree	6 months	6 months
Cottage cheese	6 months	6 months

Table of allowed products for children under 6 months

When introducing complementary foods to the baby, you can cook food yourself or buy ready-made foods. When using canned and boxed food, you should carefully examine the packaging for age assessment. For different ages, food goes through different degrees of processing, so you should not choose porridge for a 5-month-old baby, on which there is a mark from 7 months.

Sleep and daily routine

A child's nighttime sleep reaches 10-11 hours and most children do not wake up for a snack. During the day, the baby sleeps 2 times. Daytime sleep usually lasts 2-3 hours and coincides with a walk.

During the period of active teething, night and daytime sleep can become intermittent. It is worth consulting with a pediatrician about the use of painkillers to maintain the usual regimen.

hardening

The hardening of a child at the 6th month of life remains the same. Air and sun baths should be carried out several times a day. Rubbing with water at room temperature can be done in the morning and evening after waking up.

How to develop a baby

Separately, in the sixth month of life, attention should be paid to the variety of developmental activities. Strengthening the cognitive function of the brain allows you to introduce the first games and training sessions into the life of the crumbs. Adults can offer the child:

Learn to throw toys, knock them on different surfaces.
Exploration games. Offer the baby a bright toy and object. Let him examine it, feel it, taste it. Name a thing. Show what you can do with it, what sounds it makes.
Mirror games. First, let the baby look at his reflection. After you can wave to the baby, show the articulation exercise. It is good to sing in front of a mirror, recite poems.
Capture game. Try to train your child's fine motor skills by inviting him to take objects of different sizes and shapes from your hands.
Music games. While listening to a musical composition, turn the sound on and off, tap and clap to the beat of the melody.
Dance with the baby in your arms.
Let's have a chance to feel the surrounding objects. This helps the child a lot in building a knowledge base.
Smell different scents. Offer to smell a flower, perfume, fruit, etc. Name the subject to be studied.
sensory development. It is good to give the baby to study objects of different textures. Special soft rugs from different types of fabric perfectly develop the baby.

The development of a child in the 6th month of life involves a versatile study of the world around him with the help of the senses. Logical and analytical operations are not yet available to the baby, but in order for them to arise, strong connections must be formed between the object, its name, sound, appearance, taste, and sensory qualities.

Development toys

In the sixth month of life, in addition to rattles and garlands, new types of toys can be offered to the little one. Increased motor skills allow you to play:

Pyramid. Please note that the plastic from which the pyramid is made must be safe. Its structure should be even and uniform, the color scheme of the elements should be close to the primary colors of the spectrum. As the first pyramid, it is enough to take a small one, up to 6 elements.
Tumblers. This type of toys is very popular with children of 5 months. They are happy to push them, touch them, make them sound.
Soft liners. For babies, special sets of large insert mosaics are sold, on which, at the age of 5 months, the baby can develop fine motor skills, and, becoming older, study the depicted objects.
Books for babies. There are many books for children up to a year on sale. They can be made of fabric, hardboard or even plastic. The main requirements for such products are safety, durability, brightness and availability of images.
Development mats. There is a huge variety of baby rugs. To enhance the developing and massaging effect, it is good to use options stuffed not only with soft materials, but also with small details. But when using them, you should carefully monitor the integrity of the thing in order to prevent swallowing a small filler. Babies don't understand danger, they just play with what they see, put into their mouths.
Sensory pads and cubes. For the development of motor skills of the hands, you can offer the baby to feel special sensory toys filled with various small objects of different sizes. After each game, carefully review such toys for integrity. If holes, puffs or breaks appear, it is worth removing the item from permanent use or repairing it.

Do I need to go to the clinic every month

Many parents, by the age of 5 months, have a question about the need for a monthly visit to the pediatrician. In the absence of developmental and behavioral problems, some adults consider this optional. This is not a correct judgment. In the first year of life, the baby's body goes through a difficult stage of development, requiring constant monitoring by specialists. It is imperative to control the harmonious development, the establishment of the normal operation of all systems, the emergence and formation of basic skills. It is not always possible for parents to notice some deviations from the norm in time and choose the correct sequence of actions.

Modern medicine allows you to notice and eliminate a large number of unwanted manifestations in a timely manner, so you should not neglect the need for a monthly visit to the pediatrician and be sure to go through narrow specialists. Mandatory is the control of a neuropathologist, otolaryngologist, ophthalmologist and orthopedist.

What should alert

At the sixth month of a child's life, it is necessary to carefully monitor the timeliness of the appearance of skills. You should contact your pediatrician immediately if your baby has:

congenital reflexes have not disappeared;
the skills of turning from back to side did not appear;
there is difficulty in lifting your torso from a prone position;
reduced activity. During wakefulness, he does not want to move and play, the reaction to the offer to work out becomes sharply negative;
no reaction to his own name, he does not turn his head towards the sound;
a marked decrease in the rate of weight gain and growth. Its indicators are very different from the lower limit of the age norm;
if outwardly everything is fine, but you feel unreasonable anxiety.

Weaning from the pacifier

Many babies use a pacifier as a sedative from birth. If untimely weaning from the use of this subject, undesirable consequences may appear. Using a pacifier does not give the baby sufficient jaw freedom and reduces the activity of the muscles responsible for speech. In addition, the nipple can negatively affect the health of the teeth and the formation of the jaw.

To avoid consequences, it is worth reducing the frequency of use of the pacifier by the child. It is optimal to completely get rid of this item by 6 months. If requested by the baby, it is worth offering him an occupation, talking with him. Distract him and entertain him. Gradually, the child will get used to new circumstances and stop asking for a pacifier.

The sixth month of life is a wonderful period. The child has changed dramatically and is improving every day. The emergence of new skills, a gradual transition to a new plane, active socialization allow you to introduce new options for spending time, coloring life with new activities. During this period, mom should think about herself, remember the need for rest and proper nutrition. The older the baby gets, the more strength you will need.

Finally! So you have come to the first serious date in the life of your crumbs - 6 months. For us adults, this is not a great time, but for a child, the first six months is a significant milestone. Over the past months, your baby has already learned a lot: he began to comprehend the basics of communication, roll over and sit down, eat solid food. What else should a 6 month old be able to do?

What a baby can do at 6 months: height, weight, motor skills

During the first months of life, your child gained about 600-900 grams of weight per month. At the stage of development of a child at 6 months, he should already be twice as heavy as at birth. By this time, he is gaining weight at about 400 grams per month. Its growth rate will also decrease slightly, to about 1.2 centimeters per month.

If in the fifth month of development the baby has learned to get up on all fours, then at 6 months the child will most likely begin to sit down on his own. At first, he will lean on the handles to help himself, but very soon he will be able to sit without any support. And will do it with great pleasure! After all, his horizons in this position are much wider, he is more involved in communication with others and has more opportunities for games.

A six-month-old baby has long been able to roll over from his back to his tummy and back, and by this time some children can even move around the floor in such a simple way. They are quite capable of crawling forward, but most often they move only in the backward direction so far, pushing off the floor with their handles and sliding on their stomach. No matter how funny and ridiculous it may look, the baby is doing everything right: he is moving in the direction where, from the point of view of muscle tension, it is easier and more convenient for him to move. You will see, in less than a couple of weeks - your baby will crawl in all directions and with amazing dexterity.

Baby development at 6 months: adult sleep

At the developmental stage of 6 months, the child can already calmly sleep through the night until morning - sometimes he sleeps soundly for up to eight hours in a row. Many parents whose children still have difficulty falling asleep at this age turn to the method of pediatrician Richard Ferber.

Ferber's method is to put the baby to bed before he falls asleep. If the child cries at the same time, you do not approach him this very minute, but wait for a while. And every night you increase the reaction time to crying and come up two to three minutes later than last time.

Of course, this method will not work for every child, and not for every parent. But it’s worth a try, you don’t do any harm to the child, but rather learn to fall asleep on your own - in his own interests.

Now that your baby can roll over from his back to his tummy, don't worry if you find him sleeping in a different position than you put him in. The risk of occurrence, which all modern young mothers are so afraid of, decreases to almost zero by the sixth month of a child's development. However, it is better to remove all soft toys, pillows and the like from the crib while sleeping.

Eye color: recent changes

Surely you have noticed that by 6 months your baby's eye color is no longer the same as it was at birth. Light eyes by this time often change color to a darker one. But if your baby's eyes are still sky blue, the chances are very high that they will remain so from now on and forever.

Menu and diet: how and what should a child eat at 6 months

If you are not yet pregnant by the sixth month of your baby's development, your doctor will likely recommend that you do so. They usually start with iron-enriched porridge diluted in milk or. Or - from special children's curds and kefir.

When your child gets used to these foods, start giving him pureed fruits and vegetables. Preferably not mixing, one kind at a time. Every time you feed your baby something new, wait a few days to make sure he is not allergic to that new food. Allergies can manifest themselves in several ways, but the most common are nausea, diarrhea, and a skin rash.

If signs of allergy do not appear within 48 hours, then they will not appear.

Most doctors do not believe that eggs and fish can cause allergies in a six-month-old baby. But honey should not be given to a child, at least until he is one year old. Honey may contain bacteria that cause botulism in children. wait up to a year. Although milk-based products - special children's yoghurts or curds - can be given.

If your baby doesn't like a new food, wait two or three days and then try feeding him that food again. At this stage of development, children are very changeable, their tastes can change from day to day.

A child at 6 months: features of communication

To help your six-month-old baby, who is already smiling, laughing and making various sounds (not yet put into words), quickly master communication skills, read fairy tales and tell him stories. You can do this at any time of the day, the more often the better.

During this period, children recognize people and objects around them. Your child will already feel comfortable surrounded by relatives - mom, dad, grandparents. As well as surrounded by favorite and familiar toys. Finally, 6 months is the optimal age when a baby is needed.

What a baby can do at 6 months: summary

So, let's summarize the results in a capacious list. By the age of 6 months, the child usually:

can roll over from back to tummy and vice versa;
demonstrates readiness to crawl - pulls up on the handles, pushes off and “slides” back on the stomach;
can sit for some time with or without support;
trying to get up, grabbing the side of the crib;
willingly takes toys with both hands and loves to play in a sitting position;
likes to throw things and watch them fall;
actively pronounces sounds and syllables;
responds to its own name and can already recognize some objects by name;

What to look out for when caring for a 6 month old baby

The first thing to establish daily and careful monitoring is the skin of the child. After all, 6 months is the traditional start date for the introduction of complementary foods, and it is not surprising that the new diet, as if in a mirror, is reflected in the condition of the baby's skin. and any redness is a signal to temporarily reduce the dose of complementary foods, or even “postpone” the tasting of a new product for 10-20 days.

In addition, at 6 months, gymnastics and exercises are extremely useful for development. After all, his motor activity increases every day - this means that the load on the muscles and joints is also growing. Massage and gymnastics help to adequately withstand the increased load.

And finally, communication. Now, when the child is more and more consciously trying to enter into a dialogue with you, communicating with him is not only extremely useful, but also incredibly pleasant.