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Every month a newborn baby's life is filled with something new. His skills are developing, his daily routine and diet are changing. He himself is changing, and it is no longer possible to recognize a newborn baby in him. Sometimes you can catch a serious or thoughtful look, which was not previously observed. The reaction to everything that happens around has intensified.
Sleep becomes more manageable. Somewhere at the end of the third month, parents can rest without sleep. Between 3 and 4 months, your baby's sleep pattern begins to establish. Many children can even sleep through the night, although they are still awake from time to time. It is possible, however, that some babies start sleeping all night during the next 3-6 months, so don't be alarmed if the baby still wakes you up at night.
Explicitly acknowledge Mom and Dad. Up to 3 months, and possibly sooner, your baby is already attached to you and recognizes your face. Chances are he still smiles at strangers, especially if they look straight in the eyes and they bite or talk to him. But he is already beginning to find out who is in his life and prefers people to others. The heavy part of the brain that directs coordination between hands and eyes and allows us to recognize objects is developing at a rapid pace. And the temporal lobe, which is responsible for hearing, speech, and smell, is also more receptive and active.
Rapid development occurs due to proper nutrition and a constant daily regimen. The child develops daily during the first years of his life. But it is at 3 and 4 months of age that you should think about changes in your diet.
Pediatrician assistance in introducing complementary foods
During a routine medical examination, young mothers should be interested not only in how the child has grown or gained weight. Parents should be interested in whether they properly observe the feeding regime of the baby and how the child's diet can change at 4 months. Feeding a baby at 3 to 4 months should only be breast milk, unless he is artificially fed. During a routine examination, the pediatrician will tell you what foods can be added to the baby's nutrition at 3 months. Which foods are absorbed quickly, but which ones can cause allergies or diathesis. Each baby is already a personality, individuality, his body can react sharply to changes in the diet.
So, when your child hears your voice, he can now look directly at you and start joking or trying to answer you. Start reading. Efforts to read a child, regardless of age, will be rewarded. It helps your child learn to perceive differences in tone and rhythm of language by actually changing the pitch of your voice using accents, singing and vocalization, which will greatly improve the auditory relationship between you and your child. However, don't be alarmed if he reaches out to or loses interest, stimulates her by trying something new, or giving her time to relax.
Children on artificial nutrition, with improper introduction of complementary foods, a sharp change in the amount of food and stress, may develop colic, cramps in the tummy, and even rickets may develop. With such dire consequences, a long inpatient treatment will be necessary. Therefore, it is not for nothing that young mothers are advised to seek help and advice from pediatricians when introducing a child of 3 and 4 months into the diet.
Coordinate your actions according to their reactions and interest. There are many good books you can read about your child. Choose cardboard books with large, bright illustrations and simple text, you can even pick up hard-edged books and draw picture stories. Currently, you do not need to strictly adhere to the age restrictions. Books made for older children with vibrant vivid images and vibrant colors can captivate a child. You can even read poetry written for adults to him.
Baby food at 3 and 4 months
A baby who is breastfed at the age of 3 months eats about 16 times a day. Lations on the breast are short, the time from one to the next feeding at night can be 2.5-3 hours. Night feeding of a child at 4 months differs only in that the time interval increases from 3 hours to 4.
What your child does not understand is still admiring him for his melody. Early language development This is an important period during which verbal stimuli are of paramount importance to your child. Capture the moment and grab your attention with tons of words and sounds. Recent research has linked intelligence to the number of words a child hears during the first year of their life. Now is the time to build a good foundation. Even shopping can be an opportunity to encourage your child to walk between the counters, pointing to different products and revealing their names.
Complementary foods should not be driven earlier than 4 months of age. The intestines of a 3-month-old baby have not yet been formed, the stomach is not ready to digest new, harder and more aggressive food for him. The kid, although he got stronger by the 4th month of his life, but not enough to radically change his diet.
Your child still cannot repeat words, but retains information in a rapidly growing memory. A child raised in a bilingual family will receive dual education if he or she hears both languages \u200b\u200bregularly. If you want your child to learn more than one language, try repeating each phrase in two languages, or have each parent speak a different language.
Develops a sense of touch. Stimulate your child's senses to a variety of materials such as leather, tissue, sponge, bathrobe, or looking for books that make the sensory part of reading. Touching, hugging, and massaging your baby, and feeling the air passing through when you wear it, are great ways to calm them down and even increase their receptivity and concentration.
Nutrition for a 4 month old baby and its menu
It is better to discuss all the subtleties of feeding the baby with your pediatrician, he will tell you whether it is possible to introduce new products at this age or not. The child's menu at 4 months can be diversified with a small amount of vegetable, fruit or berry juice, in the future - puree. The first and main complementary food can only be an apple. It is given after a main meal, breast milk, or an adapted formula.
Start interacting with your neighbors. Your child is determined to take the wave by drawing conclusions about the outside world. So far, he has probably begun to react with a smile to his image in the mirror and may stop sucking. thumb or a bottle to listen to your voice. By kissing or uttering different sounds, or by describing even the most trivial homework you do, you not only connect with him, but also encourage him to express himself. Even with your neighbor, your child becomes more alive by trying to get their attention by letting smiles, jokes and bonnets.
The juice of this fruit is quickly absorbed and easily absorbed by the body. When an apple is first introduced into the diet, it is worth observing the reaction of the baby's body. Usually, everything goes well, there are no skin rashes, the behavior does not change, the stool is the same, the child is not irritable. If something irritates the child and this happens on the day of feeding the first complementary foods, you should seek help from a qualified specialist.
The entertainment really started. When you are with friends, keep it close so that you can hear the richness of communication between people. Is my baby developing normally? Remember that every child is unique and develops in its own way. The events described above are only indications of what your child can achieve, if not now, very soon. And if your baby is born prematurely, you will likely find that it takes a while before he knows what his peers are doing. Most doctors evaluate the development of a premature baby in relation to the date it was due to be born and, depending on this, assess their skills.
Once your body is used to applesauce, you can start adding vegetables to your diet. But it is worth noting that they are the main food, and breast milk or an adapted formula is an additional one. Thus, milk feeding is replaced. Daily giving the child complementary foods, his dose must be increased. On the first day of changing the diet, you should not give your baby more than 2 teaspoons of the new food. Gradually increasing the rate, you need to come to 150 grams. This dosage will help completely replace breast-feeding or an adapted mixture.
If you have any questions about your child's development, talk to your child's doctor. When the cold season begins, the child rarely manages to avoid colds, viral, bacterial diseases... According to doctors, often parents are too afraid to react to sudden outbreaks of fever, but it is fever that reflects the body's ability to fight the disease and when the child begins to heal. We are talking about this with the clinics of the Vilnius University Children's Clinic, pulmonologist Violeta Rajunine.
Parents who even lower the temperature are a little bear, after all the bacteria, viruses die at 37 degrees or more high temperatures... Otherwise, the body does not have the ability to fight pathogens, then the child may have a longer or more severe illness.
At 4 months, the baby has about the following menu:
- Breakfast: breast milk or formula (about 200 ml.)
- Second breakfast: 150 gr. vegetable puree, 50 gr. fruit puree
- Lunch: breast milk or an adapted formula - 200 ml., 25 gr. fruit juice
- Afternoon snack: breast milk or mixture (about 200 ml.), 25 gr. fruit juice
- Dinner: Breast milk or formula (about 200 ml.)
If you have established the correct feeding regimen and good nutrition for your baby at 4 months, you can be sure that your baby will grow up healthy and strong. You need to take the diet and feeding regimen seriously and, if necessary, seek help from a pediatrician.
What is the normal body temperature of babies and children based on their age? The normal body temperature of a child when measured in the armpit is up to 37 degrees. For babies, the temperature is usually measured in the rectum and is normal if the thermometer shows up to 38 degrees. One of the latest techniques body temperature measurement in Lithuania - in the mouth. In it, the normal temperature reaches 37.4 degrees. However, if a child recently escaped, ate or refreshed a hot drink, the body temperature can rise by one to two tenths of a degree.
This does not mean that the child is feverish. For babies in these conditions, normal temperatures can fluctuate even within one degree. It depends on what he eats, how much he cries, how and when he measures his temperature, etc. it is important to note that the most low temperature is in the early hours of the day, and in the afternoon it is highest in the afternoon. So 37, 1 or 37, 2 is not elevated temperature... The baby will have a fever for up to 3 months if the temperature in the rectum is 38 degrees.
Useful video about feeding a baby from 4 months to a year
Your wonderful baby is 3 months old! This is not the same helpless tiny baby that you brought home from the hospital. During this time, he managed to grow up significantly, gain weight, the movements of small arms and legs have become more purposeful, and his development is simply by leaps and bounds! Despite such obvious changes, parents are very concerned about how correct the development of 3- month old baby and what should be done to help him?
Up to three years - if more than 38, 1 degree. And from the age of three, the child has a fever when his body temperature is above 38.4 degrees. What symptoms do you need to worry about body temperature? One can react more quickly to a fever, others will be restless, start eating, a third will be sleepy, a fourth smile on the back, other legs, a handkerchief may cool down, and the body will be very hot.
What body temperature is dangerous for a child and when should measures be taken to reduce it? If the temperature is below 38, 5 degrees, then in fact you do not need to "knock down" it. Sometimes it even exceeds 38.5 degrees, and if the child is feeling well enough, this is also not worth doing.
- A 3-month-old baby is actively trying to learn about the world around him.
- He can already hold his gaze on a bright object and examine it intently.
- For a long time he watches the slow movement of interesting toys or plays with his pens.
- Distinguishes the voices of relatives and determines their intonation.
- He understands the mood of the adult who is next to him, and when communicating, he immediately picks up a positive wave of the mood of mom or dad and smiles in response. If the parents are irritated or quarreling, then the little one worries and cries.
- The baby's sound-pronunciation skills are actively developing - he walks and tries to babble.
- Distinguishes spoken language from other extraneous sounds.
- He smiles intelligently at his family and even laughs for a long time.
- He knows how to change the intonation of his own cry, and his mother can already determine the reason for his dissatisfaction.
- The infant can lift the head and the upper part of the sternum, resting the arms on the surface. He does this when he wants to better see the object that interests him, but he does not stay in this position for a very long time.
- A child requires much more attention from his parents at this age, so he starts crying or being capricious if they do not communicate with him for a long time. The crumb pulls his hands to his mother, and if they take him, he pulls up.
- The tone of his muscles relaxed somewhat, so his small fists sometimes unclench at will. The grasping reflex replaces similar movements, but they are conscious. Now he can even touch with his fingers to nearby objects, and if you give him a small rattle in the handle, he will grab it and will not hold it for long.
- The baby is trying to study his own face with his fingers - he touches the nose and the eye.
Physical development of children at 3 months
The weight parameters of boys and girls of this age are slightly different. The body weight of boys is from 4.8 kg at the lower limit of the norm to 6.9 kg at the top, and girls weigh from 4.6 kg to 6.4 kg.
The height of boys is usually within the framework of 57-63 cm, and the height of girls is 56.4-62 cm.
Usually, the measurement of weight and height parameters takes place in a children's clinic at a local doctor, and monitoring of monthly changes should be recorded in the baby's medical card.
These indicators are important enough to assess the normal development of a child, and if the weight of the baby suddenly begins to decrease sharply, then this is a signal that a pediatrician consultation is needed.
Within 3 months of life, the body weight of the toddler should increase by about 0.850 kg, and its height by almost 4 cm.
Approximate daily routine
By this age, the daily routine of the baby has already been formed. The baby sleeps about 17 hours a day, and the daytime sleep occurs in 4 doses for 1.5-2 hours. The baby eats 6-7 times a day with intervals between each meal of 3-3.5 hours.
6-00 - 7-00 Morning feeding, changing diapers, continuing sleep.
8-00 - 9-00 2nd feeding, air baths, changing clothes.
9-00 - 10-00 Morning toilet: eye hygiene, treatment of the umbilical cord and skin folds on the body. Gymnastics with massage elements.
10-00 - 11-00 3rd feeding, sleep.
12-00 - 14-00 Afternoon walk in the fresh air.
14-00 - 15-00 4th feeding.
15-00 - 16-00 Sleep in the afternoon.
18-00 - 19-00 5th feeding, communication with the baby, educational games.
19-00 - 20-00 Evening sleep.
20-00 - 21-00 Air baths, light massage, evening swimming.
22-00 - 23-00 6th feeding, night sleep.
24-00 - 6-00 7th night feeding.
Baby food at 3 months
The main food of the baby at 3 months is mother's breast milk, and if the doctor has not prescribed supplementary feeding with milk formula, then this type of nutrition remains the main one for the next 2-3 months. Pediatricians do not recommend introducing complementary foods at this age, since the little man's digestive system is still in the formation stage, so the likelihood of food allergies is quite high, as well as a serious upset of the gastrointestinal tract.
The little man should eat about 6-7 times a day, including feeding while sleeping at night.
Compared to children of 2 months of age, at 3 months the volume of breast milk consumed increases to about 70 ml, and each feeding accounts for about 120 ml of milk or a special mixture, and in just a day the baby eats about 870 ml.
If the little one eats only formula milk, and full breastfeeding is completely stopped, then, with the permission of the pediatrician,.
The very transition from the usual liquid food to a thicker one should be done quite gradually. It is usually recommended to start complementary foods with a small amount of sweet and sour juice diluted 1: 1 with boiled water. You need to start with a few drops, and then increase the amount of complementary foods over 3 weeks to 5 full teaspoons.
Do you think your 3-month-old is crying too much?
This can happen for the following reasons:
- He's hungry. It's just that it's time to feed the baby, he is hungry, so the mother can hear first his sobbing, and then a loud, piercing cry.
- He is tired and wants to sleep. If the time has come for the next rest, then the baby sometimes starts to turn his head, rub his eyes, make other “speaking” movements, and in the case when the mother is a little late in laying down, the child will start to be capricious, and then cry a lot.
- It hurts him. Pain can be caused by colic or bloating in the small tummy, and headacheif the baby has a fever. Such problems are signaled by sudden, very loud crying.
Is it worth worrying if the crumbs are drooling profusely?
At this age, the salivary glands are actively functioning in children, therefore, "drooling with ropes" for children of 3 months is a normal phenomenon, which is an indicator that their development is proceeding in accordance with the norm, and this is not at all a reason for unnecessary concern.
Also, a growing baby begins to take an active interest in nearby objects and try everything "to the teeth". In addition, drool is released when the baby pulls his hands into his mouth and tries to shove his little fingers deeper.
In isolated cases, in children of this age, the first teeth can be cut, and this process is also accompanied by increased salivation.
The situations described above are absolutely normal and physiological, and white "circles" found in the child's mouth or plaque on the inner surface of the cheeks may serve as a reason for excitement. Perhaps this is a thrush, if you see similar symptoms in a baby, but do not know at all what to do, then you just need a doctor's consultation on how to treat this trouble.
What actions of a 3-month-old baby indicate its correct development
A child at this age should be able to:
- Stand, leaning on the legs with the support of an adult, while the toes are straight and not tucked in.
- Keep an eye on a slowly moving object and follow it with your eyes.
- Turn your head towards a loud sound.
- Listen carefully to the speech of adults, addressed to him, and "answer" - walk in response.
- Keep your own head and torso in good shape when he is raised in his arms.
- Suck on a breast or bottle, holding them with your palms.
- Roll over onto the side and then onto the tummy.
- Push off from the support - the sofa or the side of the crib, where mom put it. This means that already from 3 months it is impossible to leave him alone.
It is very important for parents to know what a 3-month-old baby should be able to do - this way they can track whether it is developing correctly, and if they find any inconsistencies with the generally accepted scheme, they will know in which direction they should act. Maybe you need to increase the time of some classes, or perhaps take a course of special massage. If there are too many deviations, then this is a serious reason to consult with your pediatrician.
If the deviations are minor, then you just need to realize that your baby is a non-standard child, and a special personality that can develop a little differently.
When to start worrying
If by the end of 3 months the toddler is not able to:
- react to any loud sounds;
- hold the head at least for a short time;
- does not reach with a handle to a bright object or toy in front of it;
- does not respond to the gentle intonation and smile of an adult;
- does not look at his hands;
- does not follow a slowly moving object.
How can a mother help her child?
- Show him bright toys and slowly move them in front of his eyes - this exercise helps to develop vision. So the baby will learn to focus his gaze on the subject.
- Playing with melodic rattles develops your baby's hearing and attention. A similar role is played by a music mobile located above the crib. The toddler will not only listen to pleasant sounds, keep an eye on the carousel with toys, but also try to reach them - this will be an excellent workout for the muscles of his arms.
- Develop the baby's tactile sensations. This can be done by putting objects in his palms, different in shape, texture and size. Better yet, if he touches them himself.
- Talk to the little one, comment on all your actions, tell him rhymes, short fairy tales and nursery rhymes, sing children's songs. Involve all members of your family in this important activity, let the child communicate with them as much as possible.
- Carry the baby in your arms, swing him to the beat of the music, dance with him - this perfectly develops the ability to distinguish sounds and contributes to the formation of a sense of rhythm.
The healthy and correct development of a baby at 3 months is a special value, and you cannot afford to treat this irresponsibly and negligently. Time should not be wasted, work with your little one, develop his abilities, contact the specialists if you cannot do it yourself. Only loving parents can help the baby get to know this complex world, meet its requirements and difficult requests, and let communication with your treasure bring you only joy!