Self-help & Language/communication

Your baby is 39 weeks old today and has been eating solid food for a good amount of time.  He is interested in touching his food. He has also started holding the utensil, not necessarily to feed himself, but to bang it on his tray or drop on the ground.  Don’t count on your baby (at almost 10 months old) to take his spoon and feed himself efficiently yet. Babies are still figuring out how to control their body movements.  They are gaining coordination in their motor skills day-by-day.  Thus, if you allow them to explore, especially with their self-help skills, it will prove to be advantageous in the months to come.  Just remember, it will be messy!  Your baby will get food all over his face, high-chair tray and on the floor; it is absolutely inevitable.  My son, at one year old, still got more food on his face and hands than in his tummy at times.  

Another self-help development that you will see is your baby assisting in dressing.  He is not going to pull up his pants just yet, but instead it may be when you are putting his shirt on.  You will put the shirt over your baby’s head and guide his arms to the sleeves, but your baby will start to extend his arms through the sleeves and assist in that manner.  Always say, “Thank you” when he helps in such a way!

Your baby may be quite precocious and may already say a few words.  She can start saying words such as “Mama” and “Dada” as early as her ninth month. Isn’t that  amazing?  However, don’t worry if your little bundle isn’t saying words yet, there is still much more time for this and on average, most will start at about a year old.  Each child is very different; my daughter started using baby signs at ten months old and my son at one year didn’t sign a single word!