9 months

There seems to be no stopping them now. They are so active at 9 months as there is so much to see and do.

With the introduction of crawling, commando crawling, shuffling along on their bottom, scampering across the floor on their tummy or however they move about.

It starts the beginning of a much more active stage. Some babies at this age may attempt to crawl up stairs.

This is the stage where feeding can become much more messy as they may be eager to attempt to self feed, whilst it is messy it is an important skill for them to learn.

Allowing them to pick from a variety finger foods including a variety of textures, colours and tastes.

Sleep may reduce to 2 from 3 sleeps per day and by now they will most likely sleep 8+ hours in the night.

Your baby may pull themselves up on things to learn how to stand and balance.

Teething will be in full swing.

Now is a god time if you haven’t already to child proof your home as their need to be on the move is here to stay.

Separation has started and will be evident for the next few months as their bond has increased.

• Stand momentarily holding onto furniture.
• Sit well without support.
• Attempts, or starts to crawl.
• Can lean forward without loosing balance.
• Can imitate clapping hands.
• Holds, bites and chews finger food and will feed self using hands.
• Can hold a spoon.
• Can pick up small objects with the base of their thumb and forefinger.
• Enjoys musical games and repetition.
• Has developed a strong attachment to primary caregiver.
• Shows anxiety to strangers.
• Understand ‘no’ and ‘goodbye’.
• Babbles to self using long repetitive strings of syllables.
• Shouts to attract attention.
• Is attentive.
• Search for a toy where it was first hidden.
• Look in the direction that a toy has been dropped.
• They can put objects in a container and remove them.
• They will beginning to understand the word “no”.