Your baby is halfway to a year already and first to discover that there's a fascinating globe out there just waiting to be explored.

And that ways the days of being able to plop your baby down in the centre of the floor, secure that he will stay there, are numbered.

This is the month you'll commencement your baby on solids if you haven't already, and also when your baby can first sitting upward better. It may also have baby's offset tooth in store!

Hither'south what else your 6-month-old is doing.

Your vi-month-old babe's evolution

At a Glance

Sleeping basics

At this age, babies typically sleep about xi hours at night (many straight through) and take around ii daily naps that add upwardly to three to 4 hours, though it tin vary.

Feeding basics

At present'due south the time to first solids! Innovate 1 to ii tablespoons to 3 to ix tablespoons of cereal, fruit and vegetables, plus around 24 to 30 ounces (up to 32 to 36 ounces at most) of chest milk or formula a day.

Did y'all know?

Babies typically sit down unsupported somewhere around the historic period of six to 6½ months one-time. But at that place's a wide range of normal when it comes to when babies master the skill.

What'due south keeping baby busy these days in the milestone and development department? Plenty!

If he'due south like half of all babies, he'll likely be able to sit down upwards without support. The "average" babe sits unsupported somewhere effectually six½ months.

Some very normal babies start sitting at 4 months and others wait until as late as the nine-calendar month-marker. Just he'll almost definitely be able to sit well in a high chair, which is perfect timing since he'll be eating solids in earnest at present.

Your babe will probably exist able to bear weight on his legs when held upright and may even be ready to hit the road at a clamber (though babies who spend fiddling time on their tummies during playtime may reach this milestone subsequently — or skip straight to cruising — and that's not cause for concern).

Some piddling acrobats tin can pull themselves into a standing position or get into a sitting position when placed on their tummies.

Stimulating your at present-older baby requires new activities and toys that will assistance boost big and minor motor skills as well every bit social, intellectual and linguistic communication skills.

Think stacking toys and games (ones with unlike-size rings or multi-colored cubes), toys that encourage crawling (cars, trains and balls that roll, light up and make music) roly-poly toys (they right themselves when rolled over), toys that encourage pulling upward to standing (make sure they're sturdy!) and of grade, colorful lath books that volition keep your baby entertained.

Your half dozen-month-old baby's growth

Who'southward making smashing strides in the growth department? Your 6-month-sometime baby is!

Cheers to a continuing diet of breast milk or formula (around 24 to 30 ounces a solar day) and solids (ranging from about i to 2 tablespoons to 3 to 9 tablespoons of cereal, proteins, fruit and vegetables each per day), your babe will weigh in somewhere betwixt 13 and 23 pounds and mensurate somewhere between 24 and 29 inches if he's a boy.

If yous have a little daughter, she volition hit the scales somewhere between 12 and 22 pounds and mensurate somewhere betwixt 23 and 28 inches.

When feeding your cutie to fuel all that incredible growth, remember to pay attending to dietary do'south and don'ts, such as introducing new foods one at a fourth dimension and avoiding sure foods altogether (steer clear of honey until later on his first birthday, for case).

Your six-month-erstwhile baby's health

Fourth dimension for infant'due south half dozen-calendar month well-baby visit, and likely, his first flu shot.

The 6-month well-infant visit

Get ready to hear all about what your infant volition do next at the 6-calendar month well-babe visit, where baby will get another round of vaccines and yous'll learn more than about his growth and development, along with which milestones he'south hit and those to come. Read More

Time for a flu shot

Babies should get the influenza shot every twelvemonth (by the end of October, if possible), starting at the age of half dozen months. Baby'due south first vaccine will demand 2 doses: the kickoff ane "primes" the immune system, and the second one provides immune protection. Read More

Should y'all socialize your baby?

Before the age of 3, babies get most of the social date they need by being effectually their parents, siblings and caregivers. Early on, you can help your baby's social development past doing skin-to-skin contact, reading him stories and cuddling. Read More than

How to protect infant in the cold

You can take your little one out in the cold, only be enlightened that babies are more susceptible to cold weather than bigger kids. Try dressing your piffling one in a ane-piece sleeper outfit, a long-sleeved shirt and pants and a snow suit (or bunting). Read More

Postpartum & new baby tips

Introducing sippy cups

At about the 6-calendar month mark, you can begin introducing your baby to a sippy cup.

Starting at this time means your baby may take the cup more readily and it volition give him enough of time to master it before y'all demand to completely wean him from the chest or bottle.

At first, he'll practise trivial more than than play with the cup (and sputter and spit as you lot dribble a few drops into his mouth). But soon he'll learn that his fascinating new toy can exist a source of delicious drinks.

To help him make the leap, get-go with a lightweight, unbreakable plastic cup. You may need to try a few different shapes, sizes and styles before you hit on the 1 he likes best.

If you choose a loving cup with a spout, remove the spill-free valve earlier you offer it to your baby. It volition be messier, only he'll become the idea of drinking much more speedily.

Most babies can't yet muster the powerful suck they demand to become liquid through the valve (plus studies show that extended apply of a sippy cup tin lead to tooth decay because of the way the liquid is extracted and and so pools in the oral cavity).

Serve upwardly water first — it's the easiest, least messy option.

Your speaking 6-month-onetime

Your baby'due south linguistic communication skills are soaring. He isn't set up to form words, but he'll happily practise making lots of sounds, imitating what he hears.

And he'll use his growing repertoire of sounds and movements to let you know what'due south on his mind (whether you can understand what he's getting at is another story).

With his burgeoning communication skills ripe for the learning, now's a good time to begin teaching him some simple sign language.

He'll soon connect your hand movements with the wants and needs he's trying to express ("more," "eat," "milk," "all done"), and it won't be long before your baby can make the signals himself.

He besides loves games and finger-plays like itsy bitsy spider and patty-cake — or any silly vocal or sound y'all care to echo (and repeat and echo). Don't be surprised if your infant tries to chime in on the chorus.

When information technology comes to dining, make room for infant considering he'll probably desire to belly upward to the table at present when you're sitting downwards to a repast, and he tin can safely brainstorm eating solid (well, teeny, mushy and/or goopy) food.

He'll proceed to get the vast majority of his nutrients from breast milk or formula, so don't pay as well much attending to whether the tidbits on his plate actually make it into his tummy.

His meals now are more for learning (pocket-size-motor skills, swallowing!) than for calories and nutrition, although you should, of class, offering him nutritious foods.

You might also want to stock upwardly on paper towels as he digs in — and flings every other bite!

Stopping nighttime waking

Has babe been waking up often during the dark?

First, make sure he finishes his last feeding of the evening before dropping off to sleep and that he's getting enough to swallow throughout the day too.

You might even endeavour gently waking him just before y'all go to bed for an extra feeding.

The idea is to maximize the number of calories he takes in during your waking hours, then he doesn't need to interrupt your sleep — and his — for more than nutrient.

If he continues waking, chances are at this stage that he'due south searching for condolement. Then instead of offering the breast or bottle right away, attend to him in other loving means, like patting him or cuddling him.

Another disincentive to those night feedings: Brand those undesired night feedings, well, undesirable, by shortening nursing sessions or cutting back the formula in his bottle.

2d, make it deadening. Don't requite your babe the idea that night is playtime. Dim the lights (or plough them off completely where you tin), and proceed bubbly conversations and sing-songs to a minimum. Soft lullabies are the exception!

And unless his diaper is particularly dingy or sodden (or if he'southward prone to rashes), leave it on until morning time — even a diaper change is just too much action!

Nutrients for infant

Vitamins, minerals and fat acids boost your babe from meridian to bottom, promoting healthy encephalon and nervus development, as well as proper operation and development of his optics, peel, immune function and more.

The secret to getting them into your little one's nutrition: Feed him the rainbow!

Carrots and sugariness potatoes are loaded with vitamin A; green veggies, bananas and beans are packed with B vitamins.

Turn to tomatoes, strawberries and cantaloupe for C; and cereal and grains for Eastward.

If baby drinks bath water

You may cringe if y'all meet your little one chugging bath water that's dirty or (worse) has been peed in.

But don't worry: Dirty bath water (and your babe'south pee) doesn't contain anything his body hasn't already been exposed to and therefore won't make him ill.

A bit more of a business concern is the soap in the water. If yous're using products fabricated for infants and kids, you have nothing to fret about. Simply if y'all used an adult shampoo, bubble bath or essential oil, you might want to give the Poison Control Eye a call (800-222-1222) to see if yous should expect any diarrhea or an upset breadbasket, depending on how much your little mischief gulped downwardly.

Still, your footling bather would need to guzzle a whole lot of bath water to become really sick. If it's merely a sip or two, there's no need to disrupt the routine.

Practice with babe

Here are 2 fun ways to exercise with your little i.

1) Trip the light fantastic with your darling to some favorite tunes (you won't even notice you're getting in a workout!). And non simply volition your footling ane love the movement, y'all'll also foster a passion for music. (No head-banging, Mommy, no matter how radical the song might exist … and don't pump up the book too much — tiny ears are extra sensitive.)

ii) Stream a video. There are enough of postnatal videos for moms to choose from these days but even a Barney movie has plenty singing and dancing to do the trick. (But because that big, lovable dinosaur is purple and sappy doesn't mean the kids' Television star can't inspire some calorie-burning movement!)

Look what your 6-month-quondam tin do!

It's halftime in your babe's offset yr (wow, already?), and your little i may exist sitting on his ain, eating solid foods and possibly fifty-fifty sporting his first tiny tooth.

He'll be working harder than ever at communicating with y'all — and commanding your attending (so put down your cellphone and start giving infant his due).

Physically, your 6-calendar month-erstwhile baby is moving closer to moving around (if he isn't already). He can probably curlicue over from both forepart to back and back to forepart, and he may surprise you past wriggling all over the room this way.

Before long, your baby may begin to crawl, or to prepare for all-fours forays past hoisting himself up on hands and knees and rocking backward and frontward (or oftentimes, just hilariously dorsum — diaper-first into the nearest corner).

He probably enjoys beingness held in a standing position then he can bounce up and downwards (this mini-conditioning is strengthening those leg muscles to prepare them for the real thing: walking).

If you place baby in a sitting position, he may be able to concord himself upright. From here, he'll love grabbing annihilation he can go his paws on — and stuffing it directly into his rima oris.

Make sure he has plenty of safety toys to chew on, because mouthing objects is 1 of the wacky yet wonderful ways he learns about the globe around him.

From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author ofWhat to Expect When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, bookish research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we go along our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

  • What to Expect the First Yr, 3rd edition, Heidi Murkoff.
  • WhatToExpect.com, The 6-Month Well-Baby Visit, February 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Influenza Vaccine (The Flu Shot) for Babies and Children, December 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, When Practise Babies Sit down Up?, March 2019.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Babe Teeth Chart, Types and Order of Advent, December 2018.
  • WhatToExpect.com, When Do Babies Start Teething?, April 2018.
  • WhatToExpect.com, When Exercise Babies Crawl?, November 2018.
  • WhatToExpect.com, How to Promote a Baby's Social and Emotional Evolution, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, How to Protect Babies and Toddlers From Extreme Cold, Apr 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, When Is Your Child Also Ill for 24-hour interval Care?, October 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, How Much Should My Baby Eat?, April 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Hither'southward How Much Slumber Babies Need, June 2020.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Emotional and Social Development: 4 to seven Months, August 2009.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Language Evolution: four to 7 Months, August 2009.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Movement: 4 to 7 Months, August 2009.
  • American Dental Association, Baby Teeth, 2020.

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