MONTH 7
(28–31 weeks)
Baby’s weight: 13½ to 20½ pounds (average for girls);
15½ to 23 pounds (average for boys)
Baby’s height: 24 to 27½ inches (average for girls);
25½ to 29 inches (average for boys)
YOUR BABY
Having mastered many skills by now, your baby is starting to gain control of his environment. He wants to be involved in everything, including feeding himself, even if it’s the delectable dust bunny under the couch or the small pebble he finds in the grass. You’re learning to swoop down in a nanosecond to scoop your finger through his moist little mouth, while commanding “spit it out” (or something to that effect, in mother-baby babble).
You may have thought you had the all-night sleeping thing figured out, but your baby’s excitement at exploring the world, his teething, or an oncoming cold may start rousing him again at ridiculous hours. It’s definitely hard to turn back the hands of time when you’ve (finally!) grown used to the luxury of a semidecent night’s sleep.
Seven-month-old baby
Your baby can support his entire weight on his legs, and he likes lap bouncing. He may be able to push himself up into a sitting position using his arms, and he can temporarily sit by himself while holding his head steady with something supporting his back; otherwise, he may topple over backward. When sitting, he can pivot from side to side to reach for toys, and he may be able to squirm around to reach for a toy.
Enter pre-crawling. On his hands and knees, your baby’s body may sway forward and backward, supported by his arms and legs, but he may not be strong enough to balance the weight of his heavy head using one arm at a time. He will finally figure out that by digging in his knees and pushing the front part of his body off, he can propel himself forward.
If your baby does attempt to crawl, he first may go backward instead of forward. If he’s not trying to crawl yet, though, don’t worry that there’s something’s wrong with him.
FLASH FACT: Crawling and Walking
Premature, chubby, and loose-jointed babies tend to be slower in developing motor skills, and one in three babies never crawl. Almost all babies will have walked by the time they reach the year-and-a-half mark. Don’t be dismayed if your baby isn’t performing the same tricks as your friend’s baby. Every baby follows his own unique schedule, and nearly all babies will share identical skills by the latter part of next year.
Your baby may like playing hiding games with a hand puppet or toys, and although a jack-in-the-box may startle him to begin with, he’ll want the disappearing and reappearing to happen again and again.
By now, your baby is actively babbling and trying out consonant sounds, like “da-da-da” and “ba-ba-ba”; then come sound combinations, like “da-ya” and “da-ba.” Halfway through this month your baby will listen more intently when he hears familiar words, and he’ll be able to tell the difference between words like cut and cup. He may babble to his own image in the mirror and pat his reflection in the glass.
YOU
Saving your back
As your baby grows larger, take care to protect your back as you lift him. Carrying a child around on your front multiplies the stress on your back. The “danger zone” for back injuries is roughly when your baby reaches a quarter of your own body weight. An ever-moving, always-wriggling baby could cause your body to twist in unexpected ways— and that could result in a painful back injury. Here are some tips for protecting your back from injury:
• Bend at the knees. Don’t stoop over to pick up your baby from the floor; squat and lift him using your strong thigh muscles. When lifting your baby from the crib, plant your feet shoulder-width apart, lower the crib railing as far as it will go, and bend your knees; then when you pick him up, bring your baby as close to you as you can.
• Get close. Don’t reach out for your baby, or twist to the side to lift him (even if you’re seated); instead, get close to your baby and lift from the front.
• Shift sides. Instead of carrying him only on one hip, get into the practice of switching your baby from one side to the other.
• Use a carrier. For places a stroller won’t go, tuck your baby into a soft-front carrier or framed backpack that distributes his weight more evenly on both shoulders and to your pelvic bones. Choose one with thick shoulder pads and a padded below-the-waist belt. (For more about carriers, see in 4. Gear Guide.)
Tip
With his newfound pincer skills, your baby will be attracted to anything tiny, including needles, straight pins, loose pills, broken pieces of glass, and dead bugs on the floor. Regular sweeping and vacuuming are essential.
• Carry carefully. When lugging your baby’s car seat, don’t try to carry it on one arm like a pocketbook; instead, carry the seat in the front of you, using both hands to distribute the weight evenly.
• Sit right. Instead of slumping over when you feed your baby, sit up straight, use a footrest, and prop a firm pillow behind you to support your back and position your baby.
• Get help. Make an appointment for a soothing massage or a chiropractic adjustment if you begin to develop “carrying” pains.
Sharing dinner
Your baby may feel left out at the dinner table and complain that you’re not willing to share your food with him. If you can, adjust the height of his high chair so that you can pull him closer to the table and include him in family meals. (For more on solids and baby foods, see in this chapter.)
Diaper rash
Once your baby starts consuming other foods besides breastmilk or formula, he will be much more vulnerable to diaper rash. Diaper rash is redness and irritation in your baby’s diaper area, especially in the folds of your baby’s thighs and buttocks.
Changing your baby’s diaper whenever it’s damp or soiled can help diaper rash to heal. That’s because urine and bowel movements chemically react together and can break down the natural oil barriers that would ordinarily protect your baby’s skin.
It also helps to coat your baby’s diaper area with a thick, protective layer of a zinc oxide–based diaper cream. Exposing your baby’s bottom to fresh air can also help diaper rash to heal, and some parents recommend blowing the baby’s diaper area dry from a safe distance using a hair dryer on warm (not hot) to help it heal.
Usually, mild cases of diaper rash will clear up on their own within a few days, and your baby’s skin will return to normal (at least for a while). However, sometimes, what starts as a simple rash and irritation can turn into something more severe, such as acne-looking bumps, or oozing sores.
WARNING! Foods to Avoid
Do not feed your baby:
• Bagels and big pretzels.
• Raw carrots and apple pieces.
• Hot dogs, sausages, and meat chunks.
• Whole nuts, popcorn, grapes, raisins, and round candies.
• Honey. It contains spore that could make you baby ill.
If this is the case, a yeast infection may be to blame. Tiny red spots will multiply and mass into raised, patchy areas that are bright or dark red and may be tender or painful. Some babies also get strep infections in their diaper areas after others have been sick with strep-related sore throats. It may show up as a bright red ring around your baby’s anus.
Contact your baby’s pediatrician if the rash worsens or persists. Your baby may need special treatment to help his skin heal.
Hand control
If you bang on a tabletop with your hand, your baby may try to imitate you. Over the months to come, you will be able to watch how your baby’s hand skills unfold in a rather predictable way. Just as with crawling and walking, babies differ in how dexterous they are at any given time during the first year, but here are the general guidelines:
“My seven-month-old loves blowing raspberries when I try to feed him. This is SO frustrating! Most of the food ends up all over his high chair and me. I’m hoping this phase won’t last long.”
• Raking. At around month five, your baby will reach out his open hand with his thumb tucked underneath to try to pull in a toy or small object.
• Cupping. At month seven, your baby will cup his fingers with his thumb tucked toward his palm, or he may partially extend the two fingers nearest his thumb to rake a toy or object toward himself. He may use just one hand to reach for things and be able to freely rotate his wrist.
• Grasping. By month nine, your baby will close his hand in a fist and will use this thumb to hold onto a small object by pressing it into the side of his index finger.
• Finger squeezing. By month 10, your baby will hold a small object by pressing it between his thumb and the middle of the inside of his index finger.
• Pincer grasp. By age one, your baby will be able to pick up and hold a tiny object—a small piece of string, dust, or a small crumb— between his index finger or fingernail and thumb with his other fingers partially bent.
The drive to explore
If your seven-month-old is mobile, it only takes a minute or two for him to get into trouble. He’ll attack your favorite plant and pull the leaves off one by one, or grab fistfuls of potting soil and dump them onto the carpet. He’ll also be fascinated by buttons on the television and DVD player, and may even succeed in turning things on and off or changing the volume.
Tip
Take the batteries out of toys that make irritating noises. The old “bait and switch” ploy works very well for both dogs and babies: Quietly remove the offending toy while presenting another, more interesting object or activity.
It’s tempting to race over to grab his hand or pull him away from his object of fascination, evoking screams of protest. It’s a lot easier, though, to remain calm, and to redirect your baby’s attention to something else, or to remove forbidden objects so that he can’t get to them.
Remember: Your baby’s got a huge drive to learn and explore, and he’s not doing things just to annoy you. His brain is simply not developed enough to enable him to follow directions.
Baby sign language
Although your seven-to eight-month-old baby may lack the fine motor skills necessary to communicate very skillfully in the speech department, he, like some six-and seven-month-olds, may be able to master basic hand signals. (Even younger babies, who have deaf parents and are exposed to a constant stream of animated hand conversations, are able to sign.)
Hand-eye coordination is much easier for babies to manage than speech, which requires coordinating the lips, tongue, breath, and vocal chords simultaneously. By using simple signs for common words such as eat, sleep, Mommy, Daddy, bottle, dog, more, your baby can learn to express herself to you before she is able to produce understandable speech, and more mature babies even begin to combine signs into simple sentences. Some parents have discovered that giving their babies this way of communicating appears to lower their baby’s sense of frustration since the baby knows what she wants to say but isn’t able to articulate it.
Some parents are concerned that their babies may not learn to speak as well or as quickly if they come to rely on hand signals instead of learning words, but research appears to show that children who signed as infants go on to develop particularly rich spoken vocabularies, as well as a tendency to solve problems through communication rather than tantrums. They may also teach signing to younger siblings after they themselves have switched to speaking with their parents.
Tip
Babies taking certain medications, including antibiotics, are more susceptible to diaper rash and yeast infections. If your baby’s on medication, change her more frequently.
Like mastering self-toileting in the next few years, signing is a skill that takes lots of time and repetition to “stick.” But, there are numerous Internet sites, software, and multimedia kits available on the topic if you want to explore doing it. Most sites are commercial and want you to invest in books or kits, but a few noncommercial sites are available online that demonstrate basic signs for no charge. One place to begin is the “Baby Sign” section of www.handspeak.com, which focuses on American Sign Language (ASL) and offers a picture dictionary of about 125 signs.
Signs of developmental problems
Every baby develops at his or her own pace, but at month seven there are a few signs that are worth noting because they may signal developmental problems. Babies less than seven months old may exhibit similar signs, too, but be perfectly normal.
Bring the following symptoms to your pediatrician’s attention on your next well-baby exam. Early intervention with babies who have developmental or physical deficits can make a huge difference to later progress, and most states have free intervention programs that may include home teaching.
• Unusual body tone. Your baby’s body seems excessively floppy and relaxed, like a rag doll, or extremely stiff and rigid as though his muscles are frozen or tight. He can’t roll himself over and flops forward with no back strength when trying to sit up.
• Floppy head. His head flops backward when you pull him up to a sitting position, or he arches his head and body backward and cries, especially after feeding.
• Eye problems. One or both eyes consistently turn inward or outward, eyes make nonpurposeful movements, have white dots or a filmy coating, are excessively sensitive to light, or have persistent drainage and tearing.
• Poor hand coordination. Your baby has difficulty getting toys to his mouth, or uses only one hand to reach and manipulate toys.
• Extreme fussiness. Your baby still cries inconsolably day and night.
• Nonresponsive to sounds. Your baby doesn’t turn toward you or respond to you when you call his name or talk to him when his back is turned to you. He doesn’t react to loud noises from outside, such as a car backfiring.
• Antisocial. Your baby doesn’t appear to like being around people; hates to cuddle; shows no affection; doesn’t smile, coo, laugh, or make squealing sounds.