A four-month-old baby becomes more attentive, active and cheerful. It changes physically and emotionally, delighting parents with new skills and achievements. What did a baby learn by 4 months and how can you help the development of a toddler of this age?
Physiological changes
- In a 4 month old baby, the muscles of the back are significantly strengthened and their coordination improves, as a result of which the baby learns to roll over. Nevertheless, the baby cannot sit yet, therefore, it is not recommended to seat him with support in the form of pillows.
- Many reflexes characteristic of a newborn have already disappeared or have begun to fade, such as crawling and Moro reflexes. The hypertonicity of the arms has already completely disappeared, but still remains in the legs.
- The baby's lacrimal glands begin to work, so when the baby cries, tears already appear.
- The baby's vision begins to perceive more and more colors. The little one likes the pure tones of yellow, red, blue and green. If the baby has strabismus after childbirth due to weakness of the eye muscles, it should go away by 4 months, as the eye muscles become stronger.
- The child's hearing is also actively developing. Hearing sounds, the baby turns in their direction. The kid already knows how to distinguish the voices of loved ones from those of strangers. Hearing the music, the little one begins to shake his head in time. The little one likes rhythmic melodies with low tones more than high tones.
- The work of the baby's digestive system has already improved and has become more stable, the colic in most children has already passed.
- In some babies, the formation of saliva increases, but this is not associated with the appearance of the first teeth, but with the constant presence of hands and various objects in the baby's mouth, which he studies in this way.
- The hair and nails of a 4 month old baby grow very quickly.
Emotionally, a baby of this age becomes more developed and is in great need of communication with adults. Among all people, the baby especially distinguishes the mother and reacts to her mood. If mom is sad, the baby will feel it, and he will certainly respond to his mother's smile with his own charming smile.
Physical development
Since the physical activity of a 4-month-old baby is still low, the weight gain at this age is quite large and is about 750 grams. The growth of the crumbs becomes 2.5 cm larger, and the circumferences of the head and chest at this age become the same (by the fifth month, the chest becomes larger than the circumference of the head).
Although all babies develop differently, the averages for most babies of this age and the limits of the norm help to determine whether the infant is growing normally and whether the pediatrician should be drawn to the excess or decrease of any of the parameters of physical development. We presented the norms for 4-month-old babies in the table:
You can use the calculator to calculate norms for your child... The calculator is based on the World Health Organization (WHO) height and weight standards.
What can the kid do?
- Lying on its stomach, the baby confidently holds its head and examines everything around. Moreover, the baby can already raise the entire upper body with his head and lean on his palms.
- By the age of four months, the baby has mastered tummy flips from a supine position. Some babies have even learned to roll over and try to crawl on their stomachs, helping themselves with their legs.
- Lying on its back, the baby learned to raise its head along with the shoulder girdle. These are the first attempts of an infant to sit down.
- The baby is already good at managing her own hands. During feedings, the baby's arms often hug the mother's chest or wrap around the bottle. While in the crib, the baby already confidently grasps the objects that hang over it (mobile toys) with his hands.
- During play, the child smiles and laughs often. A child at the age of 4 months is very emotional, he can be both happy and upset or offended.
- The humming of a four-month-old baby is quite long. You will hear the sounds "a", "o", "b", "p" and "m" from the baby. Some kids even learned how to connect them into syllables.
Note that each baby develops at its own pace and some skills may appear earlier in a toddler, and others a little later than in peers. Nevertheless, there are skills, the absence of which at 4 months of age should alert parents. Contact your pediatrician if your baby:
- Missing items and not holding them in the handle for a while.
- Does not rise with support on hands when lying on stomach.
- I didn't learn to roll over on my stomach.
- In an upright position (when the parent supports under the armpits) does not rest his feet on the surface.
- When pulled by both handles, the baby's head tilts back.
- Does not show any emotions and does not respond to communication with people.
For information on whether to worry if there are deviations from the norms, see the video of Dr. Komarovsky.
About what, according to the norms, a child should be able to at 4 months, see the next video by Larisa Sviridova.
Development activities
- Hang bright toys over the child so that the baby can grab them with handles. It's great if these toys have different textures or make sounds.
- Place rattles of different sizes and shapes in your baby's hands. Offer your baby to touch not only the rattles, but also a soft toy, a small doll, a musical toy with buttons, a rubber squeaker and other items.
- Play hide and seek with your baby. Hide your face behind a handkerchief, then open your face and say "cuckoo". You can also close your eyes with your own hands, and then close your baby's eyes with your own hands. The crumb will certainly like all the options for the game.
- Play magpie-crow with the baby. Since there are centers on the palm that stimulate the work of the intestines, such a game will be useful not only for the muscles of the arm, but also for digestion.
- Blow bubbles and let the baby watch their slow flight.
- Put a bright-colored sock on one of the baby's legs so that the little one wants to grab it. You can also tie a bell to the baby's leg. Be sure to praise the baby when the child takes out the sock or bell.
- For better physical development and coordination training, take the baby by the arms, lift them up, and then lower them down along the body. After that, cross your arms over your chest and spread them to the sides.
- During gymnastics, massage and any other activities, with your child, sing songs and recite nursery rhymes, and when putting the baby to bed, hum a lullaby or tell a fairy tale.
- Build "dialogues" with your baby so that the baby learns to imitate your speech. Speak different words so that the baby can see your facial expressions. It is also important to repeat after the baby the sounds that the child makes.
Try to teach your child the lesson "Worm", which is shown by Tatyana Lazareva in the next video.
Care
The morning of a four-month-old child, as before, begins with hygiene procedures. Wash the baby's face and wipe the eyes, clean the ears and nose if necessary. Toenails at this age have to be trimmed quite often, since they grow quickly, and the baby constantly puts his hands in his mouth.
You should walk with a 4-month-old toddler twice a day, focusing on the weather conditions. In summer, the duration of walks can be up to 6 hours. In winter, it is advised to go for a walk for 1-2 hours. You should refrain from it only in severe frost, rainstorm or gusty wind.
Gymnastics and light massage are recommended for the child twice a day. First, lay the crumb on the back, take the handles and make them in a circular motion. Then turn the baby on one side and on the other, then take the toddler's legs and move them. Next, the baby needs to be turned on its stomach, and in this position, bend and straighten its legs.
During the massage, you should use nursery rhymes.
The massage technique at 4 months is shown in detail by Nikolai Nikonov, the leading doctor and massage therapist in Russia, in the next video.
To improve falling asleep, a specific ritual should be created that will tune the baby to a night's sleep. This ritual may include bathing, stroking the baby's body, feeding, lullaby, or a fairy tale. Repeat this ritual daily, without skipping its elements.
Remember the safety rules and do not leave the crumbs alone, because many babies at 4 months have already learned to roll over, and those who have not yet succeeded can please with a new skill at any time.
What a baby needs at 4 months first of all, see the video by Larisa Sviridova.
Daily regime
The child can already be awake for more than 2 hours in a row and during these periods is very active.
A four-month-old child sleeps up to 15 hours a day. Night sleep at this age lasts about 10 hours. Daytime dreams in many children 4 months become three, and their total duration is about 5 hours. The optimal bedtime for a night's sleep is called 19-21 hours. If you start lying down later, it may be difficult due to overwork of the infant.
The breastfed baby continues to receive exclusively breast milk. At the same time, the baby began to attach to the chest less often. This usually happens while falling asleep, during sleep, and immediately after waking up. As a result, the baby already has a fairly accurate feeding schedule.
A bottle-fed child has a stricter diet. It provides for a certain amount of mixture and 6 feeds per day at intervals of approximately 3.5 hours. The amount of the mixture that the artificial baby needs per day is determined by dividing the baby's weight by 7. This total amount is distributed equally over 6 feedings.
On average, babies 4 months old eat 900-1000 ml of the adapted formula per day. For one feeding, the baby receives an average of 150-170 ml of the mixture. Also at this age, children receiving the mixture begin to introduce complementary foods. The first course of complementary foods is vegetables or porridge. The new product is given in the second feeding, increasing its amount to 100 g.
Do not forget to diversify the day of the crumbs with various nursery rhymes. One of them is presented by Tatyana Lazareva in the next video.
Typical day
Communication with a 4 month old baby becomes more interesting day by day. The daily routine of each toddler is individual and depends on various factors, but in order to understand what to focus on, we will tell you how a normal day with a child of this age might look like:
The exercises shown in the following video will also help the development of the baby, according to the methodology of O. N. Teplyakova, an expert on intellectual development.
Frequent problems
- Biting mom's breast while feeding. With this action, the baby begins its separation from the mother and checks her reaction. If at this moment the mother screams, the child will understand that he is not an inseparable part of the mother.
- Frequent distractions during feedings. It is not uncommon for four-month-old babies to check on their mother and are distracted or turned away from her breast during feeding. It is not necessary to take the breast in such cases. The correct behavior of the mother is to calmly wait until the baby returns to feeding.
