Sweet and new excitements await you in 4-6 months. Because in these months, your baby will start reacting actively to the person who is interested in him. This is also the time when your baby will start to sleep and eat more regularly. This will give you an opportunity to put your life in order a little bit. In these 3 months, you will start to learn what your baby likes, what he doesn’t like, and his preferences of sleeping, eating and playing.
In the second 3 months of his life, your baby is now communicating, responding to your speech and behaviours, and gradually gaining skills in his movements.
At the end of the 4th month, your baby,
- can laugh loudly.
- can lift his head 90 degrees when lying on his stomach.
- can follow an object with his head at a distance of a hand span from his face 180 degrees from one side to the other side.
At the end of the 5th month, your baby can,
- raise his arms and lift his chest while he is lying on his stomach.
- hold his head straight when he is held upright.
- focus on very small objects and reach to an object.
- roll to one side.
- smile spontaneously and laugh by screaming.
- grab a toy touching his fingers.
At the end of the 6th month, your baby can,
- hold his head on the same level with his body when he is pulled into a sitting position by holding both arms.
- make some sounds like „aguu“ consisting of some vowels and consonants.
These are the development targets that every baby is expected to reach in the months 4-6. It is correct to consult your doctor if you observe deficiency in your baby at these stages.
As from these months you can expect your baby to experience another important development: The first tooth. On average, babies sprout their first tooth in the 7th month, although some babies experience it in the 3rd month and some in the 12th month. Some babies sprout their first tooth very comfortably and without pain while others have their first tooth in a long and painful process. Sometimes, for a few weeks, a rib appears in the gums and then the tooth appears, sometimes the first tooth suddenly appears without any symptoms. The first signs of teething sometimes begin to appear months before the first tooth. The symptoms that give clue that the tooth is coming vary greatly from child to child. But usually one or more of the following symptoms occur: increase in drooling, chin or facial redness, mild cough, biting everything in his hand, pain, restlessness, insomnia, food rejection, diarrhea, fever, ear pulling, cheek scratching. Talk to your doctor about how to relax your baby during this period and get suggestions.
The process of teething of the majority of babies is as follows:
- 2 lower incisors appear in 6-8. months
- 2 upper incisors appear in 7-9. months
- 2 upper lateral incisors appear in 8-10 months
- 2 lower lateral incisors appear in 10-12 months.
At the end of the 6th month, your baby may be doing other things besides the expected development goals. Some babies can give little weight to their legs when they are grasped from their chest and hold straight or can sit without help. Some babies even can hold an item or someone at the end of the sixth month, eat a solid food like a cracker, protest if a toy is taken from their hands, try to reach a toy that is standing far away, move a toy from one hand to another, search for a toy he has dropped from one hand, it can turn toward human voice. However, these are not necessarily features to be seen at the end of the 6th month of every baby, only some babies can achieve these features. For example, a baby can roll in the 4th month, while another one can roll in the 6th month. These are normal developmental characteristics of babies in their developmental line.