Your little one is moving around on all fours like a rocket, isn’t she?

At 20 weeks, your infant has started to move around all over the house. She is impatient to learn new experiences, see, touch, smell.

• So the best thing to do so as to safeguard her is to remove things within her reach, things that can be harmful or dangerous.
• Get down on all your fours, see what could come into her reach, and remove them from her sight.
•  Tables and chairs, furniture around the house can all have sharp corners. Pad them up with cloth so that she will not get hurt.
•  Electrical outlets can be plugged with protectors. Children have a habit of digging into spaces when you least expect them to!
   

At this point in time, your baby can start learning to sip from a cup. Although it takes time, this is a thrilling pastime for the little one. Attractive sippers can be filled with a little juice or drink and your child can be encouraged to sip from it. If she doesn’t take to it, never mind, she is not ready for it just yet, try again with the sipper after a few weeks. Babies love to hold things in their hands at this stage. Let her play with things of different textures. From stuffed toys to cloth to spoons, or rolling the ball to her- back and forth, let her play with them, hold them, the different feel of each object will keep her captivated!
SHOWING HER TRUE COLORS!

Your baby will slowly start revealing her personality by this time. Is she prattling all the time, or is she relatively quiet? Is she difficult, or easy to handle? Does she usually like playing all by herself, or is she moving around the house like a hurricane? Her behavior at this stage usually gives mothers an idea of how their baby is going to turn up like. An introvert, or an extrovert. A dynamo or an island of calm. But do not get too obsessed with it. Let her personality evolve naturally. Accept your baby for what she is. An individual in her own right.

YOUR BABY AND LANGUAGES

At this time, your baby can be exposed to the different forms of language. If your family members speak an assortment of languages, you can rest assured that if you allow your baby to listen to them speak, she will pick up all of them effortlessly. A friend’s daughter surprised everybody when she started speaking 3 languages along with her mother tongue simultaneously, all at the age of 2! It’s all a matter of how you expose your child to various experiences.

HOW MUCH SHOULD SHE SLEEP?

Your baby should now sleep for a total of 15 hours in the day, 5 hours during the day and 10 hours during the night. As each baby is different, the time span will vary, but this is the general pattern.

WHAT SHOULD SHE EAT?

Before 6 months, if you wish to start your baby onto solid foods, you should be consulting your doctor. Many foods contain gluten, and this is usually found in milk, eggs and grains.