At 8 months old, your baby is busy exploring, learning, moving around, and engaging in more sophisticated interactions and play. Here are some things your 8-month-old baby may be doing:
- Crawling: Crawling is on the horizon if your baby isnt already scooting around on all fours.
- Communicating: Your babys ability to communicate is expanding daily, and youll notice them attempting to use sounds, gestures, and facial expressions to get your attention and let you know what they want.
- Playing: Your baby especially enjoys playing with you and copying what you do. Playing together also helps your baby feel loved and secure. You can sing songs, play peekaboo, ring bells, hide toys, and make funny sounds or animal noises together.
- Eating: Your baby may be practicing their eating skills by holding, biting, and chewing food and starting to feed themselves with their fingers or a small spoon.
- Exploring: Your baby might explore everything around them, for example, they might ring bells, bang blocks, and find hidden objects.
- Improved motor skills: By this age, most babies can roll over in both directions, even in their sleep, and they may be strong enough to pull themselves up to a standing position while holding onto a chair or sofa.
- Improved hand-eye coordination: Most babies this age have improved hand-eye coordination.
- Understanding daily routines: Eight-month-olds understand the idea of object permanence and are starting to anticipate daily routines.
Its important to remember that every baby develops at their own pace, and there is a wide range of what is considered normal. If you have any concerns about your babys development, talk to your pediatrician.
