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Baby's Development
By the end of this month, your baby may be able to:
- Walk holding onto furniture
- Drink from a cup
- Stand alone
Parenting
** Happy Birthday Baby! **
Now that your baby has turned one, he is officially deemed a toddler! He will go through many changes and undertake exciting new experiences throughout the next year. He will learn to walk, run, talk, sing, drink from a cup and eat new foods. Your job is to support, educate and encourage him every step of the way.
Communication: Shyness
Your baby will demonstrate a variety of personalities within the next two years. At times he may be extroverted: loud, talkative, overenthusiastic, and friendly. Or he may tend to be introverted: quiet, reserved, and shy. The personality your baby exhibits at any given time can depend upon the type of social setting he is exposed to.
If your baby remains shy, don't pressure him to interact with others and try not to label him as "shy." This will only cause him to feel uncomfortable and more bashful. Let your baby ease into social settings. Give your baby confidence by offering positive reassurance and support.
At this age your baby is too young to place his personality into any one stereotype. One-year-olds and two-year-olds are not usually able to "make friends" and typically engage in parallel play. Your baby is not yet capable of understanding social etiquette and excessive prodding may only cause further withdrawal.
Your baby's shyness may always remain a part of his personality, which is just fine. Or he may tend to be shy now but could be extremely outgoing in just a few months. The important thing is to not criticize and let him set his own pace in social settings.
Playing: Walking and riding toys
Push and pull toys offer a great means of physical support for your newly walking baby. Some even convert from a push (walking) toy into a riding toy with just a few modifications.
Be aware that there is a difference between a push or walking toy and a "baby walker." Push toys have a bar or handle for your baby to lean on while he freely walks about. Baby walkers generally have a tray or bumper that surrounds a baby and are support devices with wheels, enabling a baby to sit and shuffle or stand and walk about.
Baby walkers usually do not help babies learn to walk faster. They provide an easy option for a baby to move about and can lessen the baby's incentive to develop balance and dexterity.
In recent years, baby walkers have been found to be potentially dangerous. Baby walker accidents happen most often when a baby is left unattended. A parent or caregiver may feel the baby is in a safe, confined place and may be less stringent in their supervision of the child. A baby can move quicker in a baby walker since it has wheels and can thereby access steps or other safety hazards in a moments notice. Today, the majority of pediatricians do not recommend the use of baby walkers.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) , states, "Annually, baby walkers cause 21,300 hospital emergency room visits for children under 15 months of age. Most of the injuries were caused due to children falling down stairs.
Baby walkers can also:
- Tip over due to catching its wheels on cords, thresholds and rug edges, transitions from linoleum to carpet, etc.
- Roll accidentally into radiators, electric heaters and wood stoves
- Fall off of curbs and ledges
- Roll into swimming pools, ponds, etc.
- Give your baby added height allowing him to reach things that usually are unreachable.
Learning: Start with the basics
Your baby may now be able to react to easy questions and
commands. It's never too early to teach your baby some of
"the basics" by asking him where his nose, eyes or mouth are.
You may be surprised by his response. If he answers a question
correctly, clap or otherwise acknowledge his accomplishment.
If he answers incorrectly just show him where his body part
is or offer him some clues with hand gestures.
Your baby may even be able to answer other questions as well. When asked, "Where is the book?" he may point to a book. You can help your baby learn names, objects, colors or numbers by repeatedly talking about them.
**Remember to try to read to your baby daily. Picture books provide excellent visual interest for your baby at this age. While reading ask him to point to or name familiar objects. The time you invest in reading with your baby can instill a love of reading in him for years to come.
Health and Safety Information
Twelve-month well-baby visit
** Your baby should see his pediatrician this month for his twelve-month well-baby visit.
During this visit you can expect the following:
- Measurement of your baby's height, weight, length and head circumference
- A developmental assessment: does your baby cruise or walk, grasp objects, use a cup, self-feed, look for dropped objects, or socialize with others?
- A physical exam
- Immunizations (dependent upon pediatrician's immunization schedule)
- Recommendations about fluoride, iron, introducing milk (Vitamin D) and other supplements
Remember to ask the pediatrician any questions or concerns you may have regarding your baby and his health, social skills, safety or development.
Time to Introduce Milk
The majority of parents switch their babies from formula or breast milk to cow's milk when their baby turns one. Cow's milk provides calcium, vitamin D, riboflavin, and protein.
At twelve months of age, whole milk, or 2% milk is recommended instead skim milk because children need the extra fat and cholesterol for the most favorable brain and nervous system development. Skim milk or 1% milk can be introduced AFTER 24 months. Talk to your pediatrician about the best time to introduce cow's milk to your baby.
If you find that your baby is milk/lactose intolerant, or allergic to cow's milk, soymilk can be used instead. Many vegetarian families use soymilk in place of cow's milk as well.
The following can be used in your baby's diet as calcium additions or supplements to cow's milk:
- Hard or soft cheese (cottage cheese is often well-liked by toddlers)
- Yogurt
- Tofu (calcium coagulated)
- Calcium enriched orange juice
- Broccoli
Try to incorporate calcium in your baby's daily diet. If he falls short on calcium by a serving or two in any given day, he will probably make up for it the next day.
Additional Health and Safety Information
Tip of the Month: Returning to work after baby? Work/life benefits may offer more than standard compensation
Employees want to have the flexibility to deal with family needs on a day-to-day basis, as well as in an emergency situation. Companies want to hold onto employees who get the work done, wherever and whenever they do their jobs. This compromise between employee and employer has led to the ever-growing trend known as work/life benefits.
Work/life initiatives have taken a forefront in the criteria parents look for when searching for a new employer. Many parents may also try to come to an agreement with a current employer to incorporate some work/life benefits upon returning to their jobs after having a baby.
Some work/life benefits associated with working parents are:
- Telecommuting -Working from home can save parents hours off of a daily commute, allow parents to put in extra time after work (for example, when their children are in bed) and enable parents to work daytime hours with a child in their home.
- Mentoring and career counseling programs - These programs may help parents organize their lives both at work and at home. They may also help determine a path to follow to obtain career goals.
- Flextime - Enables a parent to work a full day and to still be available to their children when needed by adjusting working hours.
- Compressed work weeks - Enables parents to work four ten-hour days, instead of five eight-hour days.
- On-site childcare facilities - Company-sponsored daycare, before and after school care, and/or back-up childcare (i.e. emergency-care for kids on school holidays).
Other work/life benefits may include:
- Elder care resources
- On-site mammograms for time-crunched working women
- Yoga and exercise classes for stressed-out employees.
Many companies strive to lure - and keep - the best employees by finding the right mix of pay and perks. You will be hard-pressed to find a company that offers ALL of the above benefits. However, you should try to decide which ones are the most important to you or most positively impact your life and come to an agreement to incorporate some of these benefits with your employer.
Note: Developmental information within this newsletter provides parents with general guidelines to follow. Remember, all babies develop differently, and few hit their milestones exactly when conventional wisdom says they will. If your child was born prematurely, you can use your due date as a baseline for following your baby's development.
Reviewed by:
Jeremy Lichtman, MD
Pediatric Medical Associates
Review Date: Sept. 2004
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