WHAT SHOULD SHE EAT?

One of the important learning areas in your baby’s first year is to learn tongue control, and how to push the food forward and backwards in her mouth with her tongue. She has to learn to progress through the different textures of food- from strained to pureed to coarser to lumpy. Even the size of the ‘bits of food’ that she is eating will have to be increased as she grows.
Feeding time is probably getting a little messy for your baby. Lay a sheet on the floor, below her dining chair, fasten a  bib under her neck, and be prepared for a nice little mess each time she eats!
Are you still offering your baby mashed or pureed food to your baby? While it is important that she continues to eat such food, it is also important that you give her food with coarser or rougher textures. Are you afraid that she might choke on such foods? Some parents are afraid to give their babies such foods, but not giving her lumpier foods now can interfere with her eating skills later.

WHAT WILL SHE DO AT THIS TIME?

At 46 weeks, if you have not been reading to her all this time, then it is time for the skies to fall! Bring out all the books? Colorful hardbound board books are the best bet, the ones that carry a whole lot of illustrations and bold texts. It will keep her enthralled for hours! It is better to give her thick board books at this time, because she will tend to chew, tear or just rip apart anything that comes her way! Interactive books that use sound or touch-feel pages will also prove to make her reading times interesting! Try keeping a couple of books in her bed when she sleeps in the night. She might get up in the morning and without disturbing you, quietly lie down reading! Keep some books within easy reach, on the coffee table or a low lying bed. She might just sit down to read them!

WHAT YOU COULD HELP HER DO!

Do you think that your baby is too active! For a toddler who has discovered a whole range of activities, right from crawling to walking to sitting up and even standing, nothing is too much! Many parents begin to worry about their infants becoming too active and whether all that activity will lead to hyperactivity in the future. But there is no such thing as a baby being too active. Just remember that every day is a new day for your baby, and what you feel is being overactive is just an exciting, new activity for your little one. Right from the time she was born, your baby was stuck- without being able to walk or move around. Now that she has discovered this new-found freedom, she will want to make the most of it! So allow her to do as she pleases!

WHAT ABOUT HER SLEEP?

There are good times to sleep-train your baby and there are times when she will just not follow your instructions. This is because babies’ mental growth happens in spurts, so there will be times when she will be absolutely obedient, following your orders like a gem, and there will be times when she will be demandingly fussy and obstinate. She might stay clinging to you and refuse to follow the sleeping schedule set by you. But this will pass, and she will get back to the sleep routine again.

WHAT SHE WILL WEIGH

Every baby is an individual in his or her own right. Some babies grow faster and gain more weight than the others. Some take their own sweet time in exploring what life has to offer them! As long as your baby is growing in spurts and in a steady fashion, she is perfectly normal! A baby at 46 weeks usually weighs above the 11 ½ kg mark. Always consult your doctor if you feel something is amiss.