Developmental Milestones of Infants

Are you a parent who just had your first baby recently? And are you now taking care of your little bundle of joy? A handsome baby boy maybe? Or a beautiful baby girl, perhaps? Either way, congratulations and welcome to the world of parenthood!

Do not forget to breastfeed as demanded, as well as to bathe him or her daily with warm water. Do get his or her scheduled shots as these will protect him or her from certain infectious diseases such as measles and chickenpox. In addition, one thing pediatricians constantly remind first time mothers is to take note of the developmental milestones. What are they exactly?

Developmental milestones are a set of functional skills or age-specific tasks that most children can do at a certain age range. What do they mean and why is it significant? At a certain age, a child is expected to have already performed or showed these developmental milestones. It is good news if they do but if not, then there may be a problem with his or her nervous system. Sometimes, the problem may not be so obviously pointing at the nervous system, like a problem with vision or maybe a defect in hearing are also both very common. We may never know the problem exactly but what we can do as parents is to watch and take note of them.

Here we focus more on the developmental milestones of infants, more specifically, those who fall between 1 month and 12 months. Stay tuned if you are interested in knowing more about those of older children.

At 2 months, the baby should already be able to:

• Smile at people
• Coo and make sounds
• Turn his or head towards a sound and follow things with eyes
• Hold head up and begins to push up when lying on tummy

At 4 months, the baby should already be able to:

• Smile spontaneously
• Babble
• Cry to express hunger or pain
• Reach out for a toy or object with his or her hand
• Roll over from tummy to back

At 6 months, the baby should already be able to:

• Recognize faces and know strangers
• Respond to sounds by making sounds
• Respond to own name
• Show curiosity about things around him or her
• Sit with support

At 9 months, the baby should already be able to:

• Play with toys and have favorites
• Say “mama” or “dada”
• Use fingers to point at things
• Look for things you hide
• Stand with support
• Crawl

At 12 months, the baby should already be able to:

• Show sadness whenever mom or dad leaves
• Play peek-a-boo or pat-a-cake
• Copy and use gestures
• Bang two things together
• Follow one-step directions
• Sit without support
• Stand alone