9 Month Old Baby: A Development And Milestones Guide

It’s the third quarter since you gave birth, and it is only three months from now until your baby turns one! Your 9-month-old baby is now uttering words that make more sense and is becoming more adventurous in their activities.

Here are the developments to expect now that your baby is 9 months old, keeping in mind that every baby is unique and when and how they hit their milestones may vary. 

9 Month Old Development and Milestones: Is Your Baby On Track?

9 Month Old Baby: Physical Development

Standing and cruising by holding on to something are just a few things your baby might be able to do now that they are 9 months old.

Your 9-month-old baby may be able to sit for extended periods and pull themselves up to stand up from that position. Because the baby’s bones and muscles have further developed, they may now be an expert crawler and may even start crawling with only one hand and both knees while holding an object with the other hand.

Your baby’s motor skills have improved a lot by this time. By now, your 9 month old baby may have become an expert in crawling — sometimes even crawling up and down the stairs. They might also quickly change positions, like sitting back down from crawling or even pivoting.

Watch out because your baby might also be able to pull a stand and cruise from one place to the other while holding onto furniture. (So make sure you’ve childproofed your home!)

Fine motor skills have also improved a lot by the ninth month. Your little one will already be able to pick up smaller toys and better coordinate hand movements.

At this stage, your child’s median height and weight* should be along this range: 

• Boys
  – Height: 71.8 cm (28.3 inches)
  – Weight: 8.9 kg (19.6lb)
• Girls 
  – Height: 70.1 cm (27.6 inches)
  – Weight: 8.5 kg (18.8lb)

And your child’s head circumference* should be:

• Boys: 45 cm (17.7 inches)
• Girls: 43.83 cm (17.3 inches)

How to support your 9 month old’s physical development

• Give plenty of outdoor time to your baby while ensuring that they are properly dressed. 
• Play a game of chase. While the baby crawls, you can chase them on all fours, and babies love it!
• Don’t use any pads or helmets for the baby unless prescribed. Crawling is an activity that strengthens your child’s wrists and legs. 

Consult a doctor if your baby:

• Refuses to or cannot crawl. 
• Cannot stand up when holding on to an object like a stool. 

Cognitive Development

Your 9-month-old baby is now more observant and curious, and their understanding of language is also improving. Your baby is also becoming a good listener and better at understanding body language.

This is when your baby might already recognise the meaning of “no” through your actions.

The ninth month will also be the time your baby will start mimicking your actions, copying the sounds you make and becoming a comedic performer who will do anything to make the adults around laugh.

How to promote your 9 month old’s brain development

• Hide something in front of your baby using a sheet, and let them discover it!
• Babies at this age love to follow objects when thrown or falling, so that is one activity that will ensure a few laughing bouts!
• Encourage your child to use building blocks and finger paints. These activities can help develop your child’s creativity and numeracy skills. 
• Your baby should get no screen time. Instead, read to and play with your baby to encourage cognitive development. 

Consult a doctor if your baby:

• Cannot pass an object from hand to hand. 
• Shows no interest in playing or interacting with you or others. 
• Does not babble or string sounds together. 

“Hi Mummy, I’m a big, 9 month old baby now!”

Social and Emotional Development

This is also the stage where separation anxiety and stranger anxiety are becoming an issue. Your baby can now easily pick up when you’re about to leave them, and becomes especially anxious when strangers are around. 

A lot is going on in your baby’s mind now. They are observing, absorbing, reflecting, and trying to imitate what they see. Emotional development is quite rapid at this age, even though it may not be apparent. 

How to nurture your 9 month old’s emotional development

• Tell your baby you love them often, and show this with lots of hugs, kisses and cuddles. 
• Take the baby out to explore the world. The cars, buses, people, and everything they see is important for their social development. 
• Interaction with pets can boost a baby’s social and emotional development at this stage. A petting zoo or aquarium visit should be on your list. 
• Babies of this age love waving and saying “hi”. Encourage this interaction with your little one whenever possible. 

Consult a doctor if your baby:

• Does not interact with you or anyone else. 
• Shows no interest in new or fun environments. 

Speech and Language Development

In between constant babbling, your baby might start to utter real words, phrases and sometimes, sentences.

Note that your baby thinks they are saying something you understand, so remember to respond to whatever they say.

Your 9 month old baby’s babbling may start to sound more like real words now — meaning you can probably start hearing “dada” and “mama”.

While it is more likely that your baby babbles constantly, it doesn’t mean they are not picking up on comprehension. At this stage, your little one might still comprehend more from your tone than the actual words. This means the more you talk to your baby, the better they learn how to communicate.

Careful, though, as this also means whatever you say, your baby might end up imitating.

This stage plays an important role in helping your baby understand the difference between emotions and the good and the bad.

Through the tone of your voice, your baby can pick up if you are pleased or not. They may now also start to understand the word “no”; however, your baby may not obey it just yet or at least not all the time.

Using the word sparingly can help your baby understand it better. Saying “no” and following up by removing your baby from the scene or taking away the object you don’t want them touching or sucking while introducing a new object will help them pick up its meaning.

Health and Nutrition

Image Source: iStock

By 9 months old, your baby can be given four small meals a day (around half a cup of quantity) and two small snacks.  

Typically, the calorie intake for boys and girls of this age is as follows:

• Boys: 714.1 Kcal/day
• Girls: 678.5 Kcal/day 

Their daily nutrition should be composed of the following: 

• Protein

Babies this age need to consume a total of around 23.75 grams of protein per day. This equals two to three tablespoons of cooked chicken, turkey, or red meat or four to five tablespoons of dry beans and peas. This amount of protein is contained in an adult female palm-sized portion of fish. 

• Fruits 

Feed your baby about 1/4 cup of fruit every day. 1/4 cup of fruit equals 1/4 cup of fresh, frozen, or canned fruit or  1/8 cup of dried fruit. You could also give 1/4 of a banana, 1/4 of an avocado, or 1/4 of a medium papaya or large mango. Always give fresh fruit rather than dried or canned, which can have high sugar quantities. 

• Vegetables 

Your child requires 1/4 cup (25g in total) of vegetables every day. 1/4 cup of vegetables equals 1/4 cup of cooked vegetables like pumpkin or broccoli, half a cup of spinach or other leafy greens, 1/4 large tomato, or half a medium carrot.

• Grains 

Introduce an ounce or about 28 g of grains in your child’s meals daily. An ounce of grains equals one slice of bread, one cup of oatmeal, or half (1/2) a cup of cooked pasta or rice. Choose to give whole grains over refined types of grains—for example, red rice, and multigrain bread. 

• Dairy 

Your child should drink about 700-1000 mL of milk every day. Cow’s milk is not suitable until the baby is one year old. 

In a nutshell, here’s what your child needs every day (refer above for what the amounts look like):

• Fruits: 1/4 for boys; 1/4 cups for girls
• Vegetables: 1/4 cups for boys; 1/4 cups for girls
• Grains: 1 ounce for boys and girls
• Proteins: 23.75g for boys and girls 
• Milk: 24-36 ounces of breast milk or 24 ounces of formula for boys and girls
• Water: 800 ml for boys; 800 ml for girls

How to support your 8 month old baby’s nutrition

• Your tiny tot might start to become a picky eater, so it’s important to ensure that you’ve established healthy eating habits to ensure they don’t miss out on nutrition. This is also a good time to introduce new textures, tastes, and flavours to your baby’s diet.
• Some ideas for finger food/snacks are lightly steamed carrot sticks, bread sticks, crackers, and fresh fruit cut into chunks. 
• By now, you should not be pureeing your baby’s food completely. Ensure you give the baby plenty of texture in their food. 
• Avoid adding sugar and salt to your baby’s food. Avoid giving sugary or fizzy drinks. 

Vaccinations and Common Illnesses

By now, your baby should have got the following vaccinations:

• BCG
• Hepatitis​ B (1st, 2nd and 3rd dose)
• DTaP (1st, 2nd and 3rd dose)
• IPV (1st, 2nd and 3rd dose)
• Hib (1st, 2nd and 3rd dose)
• Pneumococcal Conjugate (1st and 2nd dose)

To read more about vaccinations and your baby’s immunisation schedule, click here. 

Your baby’s immune system has strengthened considerably from a few months ago. They might have even caught a cold or two, a common illness that little ones get. Other common illnesses include seasonal influenza and Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.

While you can’t completely prevent your baby from contracting common illnesses,  you could help protect them by following strict hygiene practices such as hand-washing and wearing a mask when you have a cold and cough. If you are still breastfeeding your baby, they will continue to benefit from the antibodies in your breast milk. 

You should always seek a paediatrician’s opinion even for common illnesses in your child. Never attempt to medicate your child yourself. However, you can try simple home remedies such as saline drops for a congested nose or sponging to bring down a fever without a problem. 

If a doctor has prescribed a course of antibiotics for your baby, you must finish the whole course. You should also never over-medicate. That is, you must abide by the exact quantity of medicine for your child that has been prescribed. 

Some reminders:

• Keep your baby’s fingernails trimmed short and clean. Dirt accumulated under long fingernails can harbour germs which can transfer to your baby if they put their fingers in their mouth.
• When you bathe your baby, remember to clean the inside folds of skin, especially on their chubby arms and thighs. 
• Clean your baby’s genitals properly during diaper change time and bathtime. 

Consult a doctor if your baby:

• Is losing percentiles in height or weight.
• Has a fever of 38 degrees Celsius or over. 
• Has unusual lumps or rashes.
• Has discharge from their genitals. 

9 Month Old Sleep Schedule

Image Source: Shutterstock

9 months is the perfect age for a baby to start sleeping through the night, but it can take some time to get there. Here are some tips to help you and your baby get the rest you both need.

First and foremost: Don’t feel bad if your baby doesn’t nap well. Babies this age may still be working on their naps, and that’s okay! It’s important that they have time to practice falling asleep by themselves, so don’t force them into a schedule if they aren’t ready.

If your 9 month old baby isn’t napping well, try moving up his wake-up time by 15 minutes every few days until he gets back on track with his naps. If he’s still struggling after another week or two, consider consulting with a sleep therapist for additional support.

If you’re having trouble getting your baby to sleep at night or during naptime, make sure that she isn’t hungry before bedtime or during nap periods. If this is the case, try feeding them before bedtime or at least an hour before their usual bedtime so that they can go down without being hungry from hunger pains in their tummy!

Activities for 9 Month Old Baby

9 months old is an exciting age! They are starting to walk and are full of energy. They are also starting to communicate more with you as they try to mimic what you’re doing. Here are some fun activities for your 9 month old baby:

• Let them crawl around the house and explore. Your baby might be a little wobbly, but he or she will still be able to see things from a different perspective than before. Just don’t forget to babyproof. It’s actually a good idea to crawl with your bub so you can see things from their line of sight and spot things that they shouldn’t be reaching. 
• Let your child play with water in the bathtub or in their sink. This is a great way for your baby to learn about textures and how things feel when they’re wet!
• Play peek-a-boo with your little one. It’s still super fun at this age! Your baby will laugh when they see you hiding behind something and then reappear again once they find out where you’ve gone.
• Take your child outside on a sunny day and let them feel the sun on his or her skin (if it doesn’t burn them). You can also take them for walks around the neighbourhood so that they can experience different sights and sounds as well as new smells and textures!

*Disclaimer: This is the median length and weight, and head circumference according to WHO standards.

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Updates from Pheona Ilagan

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