1 Year In With Your Baby!
Congratulations! It’s time for a party to not only celebrate this major milestone for your baby, but also yourself – you made it through all the sleepless nights, the first tooth, perhaps the first bump on the head or fever and you have a beautiful thriving baby who’s now entering toddlerhood. It’s your baby’s very first birthday and you can bet that baby is going to be a really active participant in the celebrations. After all, he has learnt to get around by himself now and he is one curious little fellow who is not going to let anything get in the way of trying out everything that life has to offer. Don’t be surprised though if he becomes overwhelmed by all the people and stimulation as he’ll likely be ‘go, go, go’ the whole time. The expression on his face listening to his first “happy birthday” song is priceless.
What To Expect From Your Baby 1 Year In!
It’s amazing to look back at the new born pictures of your little one and you will see how much he has grown.
Baby is triple the weight he was at birth and he has grown almost twice the length too. In fact, his brain is over half the size that it will be when he is an adult. If he hasn’t started walking yet, he will in the next few months. Meanwhile he should get around pretty well either by crawling or by holding on to things for support as he moves forward.
What he can do at this stage is eat pretty well on his own, though still expect lots of mess! He can pick up tiny things and hold them pretty well now as his fine motor skills continue to develop. He can also turn the pages of his books, maybe try to put on some of his clothes by himself or at least do so with some help from you.
Baby’s keenness to do things on his own is very evident now but it will still be some time before he’s perfect at combing his hair or brushing his teeth very well because his aim still needs improvement. It’s always important to let baby practice these life skills himself to keep on improving, but you will need to get in there and finish off the job, especially when it comes to brushing teeth!
Many babies are growing out of their day time nap habit though a short afternoon nap or middle of the day nap is probably still on the schedule. At night, he is sleeping longer finally! If not, chat to your family health nurse, doctor or paediatrician about any potential issues causing the disturbed sleep and some possible solutions to help encourage longer, unbroken sleep at night.
Continue to encourage your toddler to speak by talking to him and telling him what different things are. Reading out stories and encouraging him to mimic your words is a great way to speed up his language learning skills.
It’s also time to celebrate with a birthday party, or just a small gathering with close family and cake, of course! 1 year marks some pretty cool transitions with your little ones gross motor skills and bikes, trikes or balance bikes are often on moms birthday gifts lists as a fun present that your child will have loads of fun with. It’s a pretty big milestone! Here’s our top picks for your baby’s first bike, if you’re looking for one: Best toddler bikes
Managing Tantrums
Baby is learning and developing quickly. He knows what he wants, but it’s not always possible to give him what he wants or interpret what he wants. This can result in tantrums and they’ll continue well into toddlerhood as your toddler feels so many emotions but does not have the capacity to manage them well yet (this gets better around age 3). At this age, the best thing to do is to distract and ignore as your toddler does not have the ability to be reasoned with at this point. Staying calm and knowing it will pass and that your toddler is not deliberately trying to make you upset in the way that it may seem, will help you both navigate through tantrums a whole lot easier.
What To Expect From Yourself 1 Year In
Your little youngster is becoming ever increasingly mobile and clever, but still with no regard for consequences or danger. This becomes a tricky time where you constantly need eyes in the back of your heard. Around 2 years old is the most common age where accidents and injuries occur so it pays to become prepared now and think about a children’s first aid course which would cover how to effectively perform CPR, deal with a chocking incident, burns or head injury’s. Touch wood you’ll never have to use this knowledge but it’s better to know it and not have to use it, then to need to use it and not know it. Encourage your toddler to walk on his own and resist the urge to wear shoes unless absolutely necessary until around six weeks after he’s properly started walking as it’s better for his development. In the case of injuy;s, prevention is better than cure so you’ll find you’ll need to re-asses what is safe around the house as your child can start to reach different heights, or becomes curious in items that weren’t once of interest. Here’s a list of things to improve safety in your home:
Toddler-Proofing Your Home
- Put child locks on your doors which contain medicines, breakable items or cleaning products (leave a Tupperware drawer free for playing with and exploring, this will help when you want to get dinner cooked!)
- Keep hot drinks and sharp objects away from the edges of benches
- Keep chairs or light furniture away from benches and cupboards (its amazing how quickly a child can push furniture and climb up onto something)
- Keep covers on your power point sockets
- Keep remote controls out of reach and cover the back with a few strips of tape to secure the back from prying fingers (as batteries look oh so tasty to a toddler)
- Keep a rule in your house “baby out, plug out’ during bath time – never leave any reservoirs of water around the house or yard, like buckets of water.
Weaning Advice
Many moms decide they would like to start weaning from breastfeeding at 12 months of age. From 12 months of age it is no longer nutritionally necessary as your toddler can now eat a wide variety of food and you can now start to introduce full fat cows milk as sole source of milk drink. However, there is no medical reason to stop if you or your baby are not ready (and it does offer extra immunity), for example, some moms continue feeds before bed as it’s a comfort for baby and a sleep cue. You can simply continue your feeds if they are in addition to your baby’s diet and cows milk or formula milk. If baby still has a bottle before bed, that’s also fine just be sure to introduce cups as well so he feels comfortable with this skill at meal times.
” When it came time to wean my toddler, the only feeds he was having were just before his night time sleep, so I had my husband put him to bed for 4 nights to break the routine. After a 19 month journey, I was a little sad, but also happy to get my body back and move on to the next phase. ” Lisa
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