New Parents and What Milestones to Look For

Imagine a new life being born, with its tiny feet and arms and they only look up to you. Every new change requires some sort of celebration and some sort of goal setting.

Having a baby is a big change in your life. You would need to prioritize their needs and development. This is why new parents’ milestones need to be set. You will have to set a developmental milestones checklist and ensure you have a doctor’s contact on hand for any emergencies or issues.

Let’s get into milestones for new parents!

1. Body movement:

In the first month, you need to be alert for certain movements. Like baby-making jittery hand movements with fast reflexes, bringing hands closer to face, trying to turn head around while lying on belly and hands in fists.

In the next two months, the movements might improve. These can be using arms for support when lying down, putting hands in mouth, trying to hold and jiggle toys, raising head and chest when lying down, making hand movements like grasping, forcing legs down when made to stand and moving legs with shaky motions while lying down.

Then after four months, the baby might be able to sit even without using hands to hold her in place, able to turn body while lying down, able to walk a little with support, move objects between hands, able to reach things and able to grasp better.

When your baby becomes 1, you might notice considerable improvement. They might be able to crawl, able to sit by themselves, able to balance their body more, able to stand on their own, be able to change positions, might walk with some wall or object support and even walk on own for a few steps, grasp well, use the index finger to point and poke and also take or place objects.

These movements become further better and firmer as they get older.

2. Senses:

When your baby is born, many senses would slowly develop. Patience and love is the key. As they grow their senses develop, you would need to consistently monitor and help where needed.

After a month, the baby’s sight sense will be developing. The eyes would be able to see in black and white contrast, check surroundings and recognize some patterns. Patterns with high-contrast will be preferred by them and they tend to lean towards familiar faces of mother-father.

They would be able to hear sounds and sometimes look for the sources too. They won’t like bitter smells like lemons perhaps but know the smell of breast milk. They would like a softer touch and hold, rather than an aggressive one.

After two months, the sight sense improves. They can gaze as well as watch moving items apart from recognizing faces better. They might be able to move hands and eyes together even. They start to make some sounds like babbling and also copy surrounding sounds. They might even smile when you speak to them and look at you.

After further four months, they can see colors and have sight over a longer distance. Their eyes can follow movements better. Their senses get better each day as they understand their surroundings.

3. Emotional intelligence:

After a few months of being born, the baby will show few emotions. These emotions will help express what he can’t communicate. For instance, it might start with smiling on things that make them happy like being held by a mother or playing a game or crying for things that make them unhappy like not being fed.

They will start copying actions of surroundings like hitting the forehead in frustration like a mother. Within a few more months, their emotional ability enhances. They might start proper play games and grasp certain emotions of others like mother shouting which could make the baby cry. They are able to explore things by touch and might find half-concealed objects.

When they become one year old, their emotional ability develops even more. They might watch cartoons and copy them, they would show their favorite or preferable toys by now and may become more expressive like crying or making more sounds when parents don’t respond.

They also might be able to understand parents’ behavior in different circumstances like at the time of changing clothes or playing, and might favor the person who takes care of them all day.

Furthermore, they can show hints of fear or anxiousness near certain people or situations, understand what circumstance and respond accordingly like get favorite toys for playtime, understands object uses as well as location and can name images by now like a cat for a cat picture.

4. Speech:

It might take 6-8 months for baby’s to show some speech development. In earlier months they just make sounds. Now, they might be able to say yes or no for activities, speak a couple of letters or word-like sounds when happy or sad, and also understand and reply if their name is called out.

After they become a year old, might try new words like calling out parents. They might use other expressions like ‘aahhh!’ or ‘nooo’ for expressing surprise or sadness. They would copy words they hear on TV or from their surroundings. Just recently a 1-year-old girl picked up ‘shit’ from siblings!

5. Warnings:

Like always there are a couple of things to check for and consult a doctor. Some warning signs would be can’t crawl when age, poor body coordination movements like a hand going sideways than the body, not speaking at all, not curious while playing or finding objects, and doesn’t use any gestures or expressions to communicate a problem.

As they grow even older some more warning signs are not grasping objects like pencils or toys, not able to jump or stand properly, can’t throw when playing, can’t stack 3-5 blocks together, doesn’t want to be with anyone apart from parents, ignores play or other children, anger issues and can’t make our more words.

Warning signs for each age are different, but typical ones are lack of curiosity, lack of interacting with anyone, slow body and sense development, speech problems and constant irritation.