WHAT SHOULD SHE EAT?

By now you must be treating your baby to a whole lot of vegetables and leafy green veggies like spinach. Leafy veggies are full of iron, and along with calcium, which is found in milk, your baby needs to eat leaves too. But many babies cringe at the taste of these leafy greens. A suggestion is that you mix and blend it up in the mixer, and whip them up into a nice, tasty smoothie. You could try giving spinach or even broccoli pureed nicely, mixed with some yoghurt to make it tasty.

WHAT WILL SHE DO AT THIS TIME?

In this age of everything hi-tech, it will seem strange if you are told that your baby’s needs are really simple, after all, our world is full of gizmos, gadgets, games and more……but you will be surprised to see your baby perfectly contented with empty boxes, vessels, pots and pans. Sorting, comparing and categorizing, all this will be done by your little genius with toys that allow her to do this. Boxes of different sizes will keep her fascinated for hours, as she will soon discover how they all fit into another. Cups and mugs in the bath tub, while she is having a bath, will keep her engaged in the water. You could even attach a long piece of string to a light box and she will keep moving with it from one room to the other. All this will help to improve her hand and eye coordination, develop her gross motor skills and also help her to get an understanding of size, shape and other physical perceptions of matter.
 
WHAT YOU COULD HELP HER DO!

As your baby’s prowess is improving daily, so is her verbosity, she will be having a good vocabulary by now, and there are a few things that you should keep in mind so that she learns even faster. Remember to spell out the words slowly to your baby, and make sure to label every word as you speak. Keep calling out slowly and clearly the names- for instance, dog, cat, toy, train, biscuit; any of the things that your baby sees, touches and handles every day. 
Now is the time she can learn concepts such as ‘cold’, ‘hot’, ‘in’, ’out’, ‘dry’,’wet’ etc. The concept of color can be taught by pointing them out to her wherever you go. While she may not be able to say them herself, the repetition of the words will start helping her associations to form. Keep asking her questions in order to get her to answer you.

WHAT ABOUT HER SLEEP?

The best way to make your baby go to sleep everyday without much trouble is to get her to sleep on her own. You will have a tough time if you have by now habituated her to sleeping with you singing to her or holding her or rocking her. She should be allowed to sleep on her own, most babies gently coo themselves to sleep. The starting days are the toughest, when she will cry if you gently put her down in her bed. But you need to be firm, its best for you and her if she learns to sleep independently.

WHAT SHE WILL WEIGH

Now that your baby is eating almost all foods, she will be rapidly gaining weight. How fat or chubby she is not of importance. What is important is that she should be steadily gaining weight. If she looks listless or not her usual self, or not very energetic, you should be consulting your doctor.