What should I pay attention to when caring for an eight-month-old baby?

For a family, the birth of a baby not only adds joy and happiness to the family, but also brings certain exercise to the parents. Learning to take care of a baby is definitely not an easy task. Babies not only change a lot at different ages, but also need different things. Physical development cannot be separated from attention to diet and more importantly, correct guidance. Now we will introduce to you how to care for eight-month-old babies.

1. Living environment

The baby can already walk at this time, so fragile and dangerous items should be placed high up or where the baby cannot find them. Appropriate protective measures should be taken at table corners, bed feet, stools, balconies, windows, etc. to prevent accidents. Some medicines and small items should not be given to the baby to play with to prevent accidental ingestion and poisoning or suffocation.

2. Prevent Disease

Bathe your baby frequently to prevent prickly heat or rashes; insist on outdoor sports and adapting to the cold air to improve your baby's ability to resist the cold and prevent colds; autumn diarrhea is easy to occur in autumn. Once diarrhea occurs, you should consider whether it is a viral infection and replenish water and electrolytes in time. In addition, zinc deficiency, anemia, lack of vitamin D and calcium can all make you more susceptible to colds, so you need to ensure your baby's nutrition is balanced.

3.Baby bath

The water temperature for an 8-month-old baby's sponge bath can start at 34-35 degrees Celsius, and then decrease by 1 degree Celsius every 2-3 days, gradually decreasing to 25-26 degrees. The person taking a sponge bath uses water to rub the left and right upper and lower limbs, chest, abdomen, back and other parts in turn, with a total time of about 6 minutes. After scrubbing twice, the baby can be placed in water for a bath for 10-20 minutes.

4. Baby sleep

This month, babies need to sleep once in the morning and once in the afternoon, each time for about 2 hours, and the total sleep time per day is guaranteed to be 14 to 16 hours. If the baby's daytime sleep time is relatively short, less than an hour each time, as long as he sleeps well and enough at night and is energetic when playing during the day, the mother does not need to worry too much. However, in order to make the baby's sleep rhythm regular and to go to bed early and get up early, it is best to let the baby sleep 1 to 2 times at fixed times during the day, each time for 1 to 2 hours, and there will be no problem if the baby sleeps more than 10 hours at night.

Babies at this stage are very curious, and because they play a lot during the day, many babies don’t want to sleep at night. If your baby is not sleepy at bedtime, you should try to reduce the time he/she spends playing before going to bed, and stay quietly by his/her side, gently humming a lullaby until he/she falls asleep. After many such trainings, the problem of baby not sleeping at night can be solved. In addition, the reason why some babies don’t sleep at night may be that they get up too late in the morning. In this case, you should arrange a fixed time for the baby to wake up. When the time comes, open the curtains to let the sunlight in and wake the baby up. Of course, this requires a gradual process.

5. Toilet training

Babies aged 8 months can slowly develop the habit of regular bowel movements. For example, you can use a toilet when your baby is urinating or defecating, and if it is peeing, you can make a "shush shush" sound. If the baby has a bowel movement, he can make a "hmmmm" sound. After a few times, the baby will develop a conditioned reflex. As long as you put him on the potty and hear your voice, he will urinate and defecate. Generally, babies will defecate once in the morning or evening, urinate after waking up, and urinate once every 20 minutes after being fed water or milk. Cultivating the habit of regular urination and defecation for your baby will also help to regularize the baby's digestive and excretion functions.

6. Drink from a cup

Frequent and long-term use of bottles in children can cause tooth decay. Pediatricians recommend that it is best to start letting your child drink water from a cup when he is 6 months old. By 8 months, your child will be able to drink from a cup on his own.

7. Get more sun

Taking your baby out to bask in the sun often not only allows him to enjoy fresh air, but also supplements his vitamin D to promote calcium absorption. The time for sun exposure should be controlled within 30 minutes. After sun exposure, the baby should be given plenty of water and some baby-specific moisturizer should be applied.

8. Don’t throw or shake your baby

Some adults like to hold their babies, rock them vigorously, or throw them in the air. To lull your baby to sleep, rock him or her on his or her back between your legs or rock him or her vigorously in a cradle. Sometimes I hold my baby and walk while jumping. But these methods of getting babies to sleep well and stop them from crying are wrong. Because the baby's brain develops relatively early, the head is relatively heavy, but the neck muscles are relatively soft. When thrown, the baby's head is easily subjected to strong vibrations, causing brain damage, which is very detrimental to the baby's intellectual development. It may also cause accidents.

9. What should I do if my baby’s teeth come out late?

Some babies start to grow teeth very early, at 4 months old, while some babies still have no teeth. If the baby is in good condition, parents don't need to worry, as teething within 1 year old is normal.

10. What should I do if my baby can’t crawl?

Crawling can promote the coordination and balance of children's limbs and torso and exercise muscles throughout the body; crawling can also promote the development of children's perception (such as depth perception) and help enhance three-dimensional understanding and judgment, such as being careful to prevent falls. Children should be encouraged to crawl at this age. Placing some tempting objects within their reach can effectively encourage them to do this. Do not always hold your child in your arms, depriving him of the opportunity to play and crawl on the floor.

But there are some children who never use their upper and lower limbs to crawl. They will use methods such as keeping their buttocks on the ground, moving forward with their elbows, or moving their abdomen on the ground. As long as children learn to coordinate both sides of the body and use their upper and lower limbs equally, there is no need to worry. Some children can walk without crawling. At this time, there is no need to force the child to learn crawling skills. However, if a child has abnormal posture, asymmetry, uncoordinated movements, and significantly delayed motor skills, further evaluation for medical and developmental problems is necessary.

The above article is our introduction to the care of eight-month-old babies. If you have a baby of this age at home, you may wish to refer to the above methods for care. I hope these suggestions can be helpful to friends who have babies at home.