4 to 6 Months

Your child enjoys being with you. After all, you’re his first and most important teacher.

Tips for Managing the Changes in Your Life

• Stay organized with a “to do” list.
• Arrange time to meet or talk with friends.
• Make a date with your partner.
• Relax and unwind whenever possible.

Childcare

When you plan to go back to work, school, or your other daily routines, you may need childcare services. Waiting lists can often be long. Here are some tips to help make the transition:

• Research your childcare options. Are you interested in a daycare or a home care setting?
• Find out which services are available in your community.
• Talk to family, friends and neighbours to share their childcare experiences.
• Discuss the new routine with your childcare provider.
• Create a back-up plan in case of an emergency. If someone gets sick or if the car breaks down, who else can help?
• Revise your phone lists to include the childcare provider, your school or employer.

Understanding Your Baby

Your baby may now:

• Follow objects with his eyes
• Turn toward sounds and your voice
• Imitate speech sounds
• Babble and seem to understand words such as “bye-bye”
• Hold his head up and rest on his forearms when he’s on his tummy
• Roll over
• Hold his head up when pulled from a lying to sitting position
• Sit with support
• Hold his head steady when in a sitting position
• Look at his hands and begin to grasp a rattle or small toy
• Use his hands to reach, bang and splash
• Move around to try to get a toy
• Bear weight on his legs

Helping Your Baby Grow and Discover

Playing together

Offer toys with a variety of textures, shapes, colours and sounds, including:

• Cradle gyms
• Squeeze and plush toys that are simple, washable and soft
• Sturdy books with simple pictures
• Rattles

You can also try these fun interactive activities:

• Finger play games and rhymes
• “Peek-a-boo” or “I’m going to get you” games
• Rocking and gentle bouncing
• Touching different textures like rugs, towels and velvet

Reading together

• Read large, colourful picture books.
• Start your baby’s bedtime routine with a story. Read slowly and calmly.
• Visit the local library or parent resource centre.
• Start your own family library.

Activity and sleep

• Your baby should be active several times a day in a variety of ways, particularly through interactive floor-based play – more is better (this includes at least 30 minutes of tummy time spread throughout the day while awake).
• Your baby should not be restrained for more than 1 hour at a time (for example, in a stroller or high chair).
• Developing healthy sleep habits in the early years is important. This includes having a calming bedtime routine with consistent bedtimes and wake-up times. Your baby should have 12 to 16 hours of good-quality sleep, including naps.

Introducing Solid Foods

Once your baby is around 6 months old, it’s recommended that you continue breastfeeding, along with beginning to introduce some solid foods (also known as “complementary foods”). Breastfed babies should also continue to be given a daily vitamin D supplement of 400 IU.

Your baby is ready when he has:

• Better head control
• The ability to sit up and lean forward
• The ability to pick up food and try to put it in his mouth
• The ability to let you know when he’s full

Start with iron-rich foods like iron-fortified cereals, eggs, beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, fish, pork, tofu or legumes. Vegetables, fruit, and milk products such as cheese and yogurt can be introduced along with a variety of iron-rich foods.

Offer your baby foods with a variety of soft textures such as lumpy, tender-cooked, finely minced, pureed, mashed or ground. You can also offer finger foods to encourage self-feeding. Examples include soft-cooked vegetables and fruits; soft, ripe fruit such as bananas; finely minced, ground or mashed cooked meat, poultry and deboned fish; grated cheese; and bread crusts or toasts.

Don’t give your baby honey (even if it’s pasteurized or cooked) before 1 year of age, because it can cause a serious illness called botulism.

Food allergies

Food allergens are foods that sometimes cause allergies. You can introduce some common food allergens (eggs, milk, mustard, seafood, sesame, soy, sulphites, wheat, and foods containing peanuts or tree nuts) as part of your baby’s first foods.

When you’re introducing a common allergen for the first time, only offer one allergen at a time to watch if your baby has an allergic reaction, without unnecessary delay between each new food. Signs of allergic reaction include rash, vomiting, diarrhea, or breathing problems. Continue to offer common allergenic foods that are tolerated a few times a week to maintain your baby’s tolerance.

For more information on the introduction of common food allergens, visit Food Allergy Canada.

Beverages (drinks)

• Continue breastfeeding on demand, along with giving your baby a daily vitamin D supplement of 400 IU.
• Cow’s milk isn’t recommended for babies before 9 to 12 months of age.

Helpful tips

• Respect your baby’s appetite. Let him decide whether he wants to eat and how much.
• Bring your baby to the table to join in at family mealtimes.
• Warm foods gradually by placing the dish in a bowl of warm water. Microwaves heat food unevenly in spots and could burn your baby.
• Serve food from a dish. Do not feed your baby directly from a jar of baby food.
• Refrigerate leftover jarred vegetables or fruit, and feed them to your baby within 72 hours (3 days). Jarred meat leftovers should be refrigerated and eaten within 48 hours (2 days).

For more information about how to feed your baby, consult Feeding Your Baby: A guide to help you introduce solid foods. You can also visit one of the Eastern Ontario Health Unit’s Watch Me Grow Drop-In centres, call 8-1-1 to speak to a registered dietitian for free, or visit Health811.

Some EarlyON Child and Family Centres also offer workshops led by Registered Dietitians on how to feed your infant. Contact or visit your local EarlyON Child and Family Centre to learn more.