Maternity & Kid's Care

Archive for the ‘Stages Of Baby’ Category

Visual ability appears and develops somewhat in according with the following sequences during the first two years. Shortly after birth the baby have awareness of a moving light. He can able to follow the light with his eyes. He can able to make the eyes work together so that the focus on the mother’s face or hands or some near objects. Preference for certain colors shown by his reaching for bright colored objects. Eye and hand co ordination, which makes it possible to pick up small objects and the ability to follow a more distant object such as bird or animal.

Bone development is very rapid during the first year of life. At birth the infants skeletal system has 270 bones. They consists of cartilages, development of these cartilages is called ossification or hardening. They become firmer and grow in length and width. The skull of the newborn has six bone plates. Spaces appear between the junctions of these bones are called soft spots. The bone plates ossify gradually and close the soft spots.

The first tooth is likely to appear during the seventh month. Occasionally the baby is born with one or more teeth. The remaining front, upper and lower teeth usually appear two to three months after the first teeth. When the baby is one and a half year old, he usually has one molar on each side of his jaws and a total of eight teeth. At two years he may be the proud possessor of sixteen teeth. The entire period of teething lasts about two years. There are 20 baby teeth and they are called milk teeth. These temporary teeth start falling by about 7^th year and in their place permanent teeth erupt.

Social development is the ability to behave in accordance with social expectation. During babyhood, the baby begins communicating with others by gestures and works and develops close relationship with significant care givers like mother, father etc. the baby’s social development begins by watching his mother’s face. By third week, some babies begin to attend to human voice in preference to other sounds. At about five weeks of age, the baby smiles in response to adults patting. By second month, he recognizes his mother. Usually by the third month, the infant will turn his head in response to human voice. From six month onwards, he shows enjoyment in being with others and he shows a social interest in both children and adult.

Until language begins, it is the emotions that make adults know the needs of the babies. At birth the baby, show only a kind of general excitement. At three months, delight and distress are noticed. At six months, he shows fear, disgust, anger, distress, excitement and delight. At twelve months, he also expresses elation and affection. After completion of one year, the baby starts taking single words and by the end of two years, the baby can make sentences and can able to express his feeling with language.

According to psychologists, the baby is in the sensory motor stage between birth and two years. The sensory motor stage has six sub stages. First stage is between 0 and 1 month. A large number of reflexes are present in the infant at the time of birth. These include responses like breathing, swallowing, digestion etc and the first month of life of the baby is a time for exercising these reflex activities.

Self-investigation starts from 1 to 4 month. Between the first and the fourth month the baby indulges in investigating his parts of the body. This investigation includes sucking his own thumb and grasping his foot. These activities are done in a repetitive way and it is called as circular reactions because they are repeated to become habitual behavior. These are also referred to as primary circular reactions.

During 4 to 8 months, the baby reaches out for objects other than his own body. This reaching out involves a number of co ordination like eye hand co ordination and co ordination between large muscles abnd finer muscles of the body. These reaching out responses are called secondary circular reactions. A phenomenon called object permanence begins to appear in this stage. For example, when a baby searches for a toy when it is hidden it shows that he has object permanence. The toy remains in his mind even when it is not present before his eyes.

During 8 to 12 months, the child exhibits purposeful behavior. For example, the child may remove things for the purpose of obtaining another or may open something to get what is inside; the child tries to open the box to get his favorite cookies.  Goal directed behavior is clearly observed in this period.

From 12 to 18 months, the child begins to experiment actively with things to discover how various actions will affect an object. The child closely watches the actions and the reactions to see the difference. Breaking a toy to see what is inside. Inserting foreign objects into his nostrils, ears etc are happening in this time. These kinds of actions are called tertiary circular reactions.

Problem solving and mental combination is happening between 18 to 24 months. The child is able to solve problems by mental combination of signs, symbols or images between 18 to 24 months. During this stage object permanence is fully developed. The child is able to remember objects for a brief while when they are removed from sight. He can solve simple problems like how to wake up his sleeping parents. He imitates others and engages in make believe plays. Elementary is logic is found in child’s response.

The most common accident is the baby might roll from the cot so they should be protected by keeping pillows on both sides. It is better not to allow them alone on the cot. Some mothers hold the baby with one hand and try to do their activities where both hands are involved. Under such conditions, there are chances for the babies to slip and fell down.

Babies should not be carried neat he oven while cooking. The steam or smoke may harm the baby’s lungs and eyes. Babies have the tendency to put the small objects into their nose and try to swallow the small objects. So it is good to see that the floor is clean when the baby is allow to play on the floor. Objects over which a child may slip must not be kept on the floor. Anything spilt on the floor must be wiped at once because children may slip and fall.

During the crawling stage and the walking stage babies have a tendency to pull down things. Heavy and sharp objects may fall on the baby so care must be taken to keep those things away from the baby. Knives, scissors, tools, needles, pins, broken glass, razor blades, sharp edged objects  or anything which may hurt children must be kept away from them.