We reach the eight months in our baby calendar and we notice that our baby begins to get a little older and that we can interact more with him, while he interacts more with his surroundings.
The face begins to lengthen a little, the hair grows and little by little it stops being the baby that needed all our care to become a little explorer with more desire to see and touch than real possibilities of doing so (his eyes go ahead of your body).
In reference to sleep and food, there are not many changes. Some babies still do not accept any food and others are nevertheless able to devour whatever is put before them. We will try to explain below everything that happens in the period in which the baby has the aforementioned eight months.
Feeding in the eight month baby
As I said, there is not much that parents should do at this stage. Most of the food can be started after six months, so during the eighth month we just have to offer more variety.
If we have already given him chicken, we can also give him rabbit, lamb, veal or turkey. They can go eating rice, vegetables, legumes if they don't feel bad, etc. and we should give them foods with gluten if we have not done it previously (advisable from the sixth-seventh month, as Mireia told us when talking about the seventh month of the baby), always in small quantity.
If at six months we start giving them crushed food it can be a good time, since they have a greater psychomotor skill with their hands and a great curiosity for everything around them, so that start eating bits.
Make slices of fruit (apple, pear), peel a part of the banana and leave the base with a peel to grab it, make Russian salad and put on your table various pieces of carrot, potatoes, peas, ... so that it is picked and Knowing or giving them the tip of the loaf of bread can be a good start for them to enter the world of food as they are.
The dream at eight months of age
There is no standard behavior pattern for babies at this age. Some babies will sleep all night from the pull (the least) and others will continue to wake up several times during the night (the majority).
Some even wake up more often because they have now learned to move on their own, to crawl, to sit and it seems as if they even wanted to try their new skills.
Many mothers are found at this time clinging to the bars of the crib, standing and the mothers who collect see how the baby who slept peacefully next to him now appears, in the middle of the night, at the foot of the bed. It can be a good time, if you have not already done so, to put security measures that prevent a possible fall.
Socialization and language in the eight-month-old baby
At this age children are able to understand that things that disappear can reappear. We can play hide and seek with them and, if after hiding behind something or someone, we appear alternately on the right or on the left, they end up looking away to the right place before we appear.
When we dress them they begin to collaborate with us, stretching the arm so that it passes through the sleeve or doing some force with the head so that the shirt enters better.
Some begin to imitate gestures (close the little hand to say "goodbye", do "the five little wolves") and even start saying "ma-ma" or "pa-pa". People say that they say it nonspecifically, that is, because they have learned to say it, but without knowing yet what is the meaning of the words "mom" and "dad".
The anguish of separation
Towards the eighth month the so-called separation anguish appears. It is about the anxiety and discomfort that the baby suffers when he separates from his primary reference, his primary caregiver, who is usually the mother.
The baby who had been extroverted and who "went with anyone" suddenly becomes arisco and cries when a stranger makes a move to catch him or catches him almost shouting for the return to the maternal arms.
Far from being a problem, separation anguish shows that the baby has developed a significant relationship with the mother, that is, who has her, what a baby of that age has to feel, that mom will always be when she needs it.
This phenomenon can cause problems if it is misunderstood. Many people may not fit the baby's crying well in their arms and may even blame the mother: "See, from so much to take him in his arms now he does not want to be with anyone." This is unfair and uncertain. The child only he wants to be with the mother because he has realized that he exists as a person and that his mother can leave at any time (even if it is to the sink) and leave him alone and, since they are not aware of the time that passes, they request the immediate presence of their mother even when ten seconds have passed (“but mom, where have you been all this time? ”)
Body development at eight months of age
At eight months of age many children begin to pick up objects more accurately and for this they use the call upper clamp, name that receives the act of making clamp (worth the redundancy) with the index fingers and thumb to take objects (the same clamp that we do to take a crumb of bread).
Most children are able to sit without support and, those who still wobble a little, make the "side parachute", which is nothing more than throwing a hand to the ground to stop a possible fall in case of leaning towards a side.
The soil is already part of their natural habitat and they are capable of turning, crawling and some even crawling. The most horny are already standing and begin to look for grabs to climb.
Most likely, at this age they don't want to lie down or change their diapers. The roof is boring and the time they are getting dressed and undressing is time they could be devoting to playing, observing, listening, etc. They love to be sitting and standing (especially standing, those who begin to keep in this position).
Walker yes or no?
There are so many times when the baby wants to stand up that many parents consider the possibility of buying them a walker.
The truth is the walkers are advised against for two reasons: because they are dangerous and because the time they spend in them is time that they are not on the ground.
They are dangerous because when the child learns to use them he is able to move freely around the house with all the dangers that this entails (overturning, falling, taking things that should not be within reach, etc.) and they are harmful because where a child Really learn to move is on the ground.
On the ground he has the ease to acquire new postures that develop his muscles in a harmonic way. When the positions are forced (if we sit them when they are not prepared or if we keep them standing in a walker when they still wobble too much) the muscles develop asymmetrically and the movements become more erratic.
In addition, the walker can make them skip the crawling phase, since when standing and moving with a walker, they do not need to move along the ground. It is not that it is forced to crawl, because many children do not crawl despite living on the ground, however it is recommended because it provides many mobility resources to children.
In a few days we will continue with our baby calendar explaining how the nine month baby develops.
Photos | Flickr (Upsilon Andromedae), Flickr (lawyermama), Flickr (Joe Shlabotnik) On Babies and more | Baby calendar
