Your baby is picking up the pace much faster than you expected. Babbling, trying to repeatedly communicate, recognizing mom and dad and caretakers and searching for them are all the 9 month old baby milestones that you will observe.
You will also see that your baby is able to play on their own for longer stretches of time without bothering you. But since they re exploring more, chances of hurting themselves during play such as choking on toys, getting cuts, etc can increase. Monitored playtime and activity time become all the more important from now.
In This Article
- Important Milestones You Can Expect From a 9 Month Old Baby
- How Can You Help a Baby Reach Their 9 Month Milestone?
- Milestones You Can Expect at the End of 9th Month
- When Should You Consider Seeing the Doctor?
Important Milestones You Can Expect From a 9 Month Old Baby
Here are the different milestones your baby must reach at around 9 months
1. Hearing Development
Babies can identify familiar sounds and music. They will react to familiar voices (dad’s or mom’s), and you can see them responding to their favorite tracks too.
2. Vision Development
Babies love to see moving things. They will track the movement of people around them, toys with lights and music, etc. Babies will even show interest in just sitting and observing the traffic or people passing by.
3. Development of Smell
Babies can recognize smells. You might find your little one moving towards some inviting smell of food items.
4. Development of Taste
As the palate improves, your baby will be eager to try new items. They will be keen to taste different textures of food.
5. Development of Touch
Babies will love to touch and explore new textures. They will try to understand new toys, food items, and everything lying around them.
6. Fine Motor Skill Development
Your baby can bend and use their fingers better. Apart from a better pincer grip, you may notice your baby take objects and place them in a different spot. Babies will love to hold things and throw or shove them into gaps.
7. Gross Motor Skill Development
Limbs and back start getting stronger. Your baby can sit up longer without support. They can even transfer items from one hand to another with ease.
8. Social Emotional Development
Babies will prefer and cling to adults they are familiar with. They may develop stranger anxiety and become restless in crowds.
9. Physical Development
Your baby can sit up, move, hold items, and shift them from one hand to another or from hand to a certain spot.
10. Movement Milestone
Most babies will start crawling in some manner at this stage. They will find ways and means to move from one place to another without any help.
11. Language Development
Some babies can start telling monosyllable words like ma, pa, tha, va, etc. Most of them can understand simple words and may even respond to them.
12. Cognitive Skill Development
Babies start understanding size, shape, colors, and distance. You may catch your baby dropping things and watch how they fall and what happens.
How Can You Help a Baby Reach Their 9 Month Milestone?
Here is what you can do, to help them develop on various fronts
- Give them crayons or paint and let them safely explore colors using their hands.
- Help them eat with a spoon. Use silicon spoons to avoid any accidents.
- Hold their hands and let them walk with support.
Milestones You Can Expect at the End of 9th Month
At the end of their 9th month, babies must be able to
- Express various emotions around you and strangers.
- Babble and use small words to communicate.
- Shake and bang things as a form of exploration.
- Bring food to the mouth successfully.
When Should You Consider Seeing the Doctor?
You should consider meeting a doctor of you baby
- Does not sit up without support.
- Does not say words or make sounds as a mode of communication.
- Has sudden outbursts that are not easily manageable.
Babies show a lot of improvement in various aspects. Your baby’s development need not match another baby’s. Unless you see a big delay or a big drop in weight, there is nothing to worry about.
Read Also: 10 Month Old Baby Milestones – What Are They and How You Can Help
