Baby Development Guide for Baby's Sixth Month (weeks 23-26)

Your baby is now officially half a year old- can you believe it? Her personality is showing through more and more and she is taking leaps forward in her development.

Your pediatrician should be scheduling a six month check up with you around now and the percentile marks will be discussed with you. Remember, don't worry about the actual percentile- it is the curve that is important. Your baby will also be in pre crawling mode (crawling usually happens around months seven, eight or nine) although it is possible for young learners to start crawling in this month too.

Most children take naps twice a day now with a total of thirteen hours of sleep per day. They will need all that sleep as the next six months of their lives will be the busiest yet!

Your son or daughter will now love peek a boo time. She really loves the game now because she has a great short-term memory and feels okay with a short separation time from mom or dad. She also has a greater interest in siblings and the older kids benefit from this too, so why not make them play peek a boo together?

You have to remember that their learning at this stage might not seem like the "right" or the "best" way for them to learn. Try to not correct their way of learning at this age; allow them to have repetitive experiments and encourage learning in general.

Six month olds also understand more language. They might not babble or attempt to speak that often, but they are absorbing everything and talking will come before you know it.

It is important to also note that although the first six months of development have been easier to measure and recognize, developments beyond the first six months are significantly harder to determine because the differences in each child at these stages are harder to determine.

To inspire developmental improvement in your little one, consider creating a soothing, predictable routine at bed time. This will help make sleep easier and boost his sleep experience. Try to also frequently change his positions to stimulate additional muscle growth. Don't let him sit in his favorite or preferred position- this will develop muscle growth in different areas of his body and make crawling and walking easier later on in life.

Finally, you should phase out of baby talk around now. Your son or daughter has heard you use baby talk for a while now and has learned the foundations of speaking, but it is important for him or her to start hearing you speak clearly and with a wide vocabulary whenever possible. This will allow your child to mentally grow and adopt good speaking habits.

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