Your baby in the 7th month no longer wants to lie on a blanket or be carried all the time. They want to explore the world and get an overview of their surroundings for themselves. All signs point to crawling, sitting, and movement. The increased energy requires quite a few calories, which is why it makes sense that nature has placed the start of complementary feeding in this period of development. Your 7-month-old baby will reach many milestones this month. A challenging time, not only for the baby, but you parents will also be quite challenged, because the development that is now progressing so rapidly can quickly overwhelm such a small baby. They will then presumably demand the necessary security and comfort from you – vehemently and loudly. But the joy and pride in your baby's eyes in the 7th month when a new skill has been unlocked compensates for the sleepless nights and intensive support. In the following article, we have researched the most important steps of development that the 7th month brings for you.
New Skills and Milestones – Baby's 7th Month
The last few months have probably clearly shown you that your baby finally wants to start crawling. They have probably mastered rolling over even in their sleep, and moving from their stomach to their back is also working quite well. In the prone position, your baby will now start to push themselves up with their arms and pull their legs towards their body to get into the quadruped position, which forms the basis for crawling and sitting. Perhaps they have also already discovered that they can scoot forward with their arms and thus significantly increase their range – now a sporty time begins for you parents, because the little ones are faster than you would give them credit for. Now at the latest, the time has come to baby-proof your home, because your seven-month-old baby will let absolutely everything they get their hands on disappear directly into their mouth.
The Sensory Development of Babies at 7 Months
In your baby's seventh month, everything revolves around seeing and grasping. They now perceive colors better and better and also recognize different levels of brightness more clearly. Every time they try to find the source of a sound or follow your movements attentively, their sense of sight is being trained. Have you observed how your baby looks at an object with fascination and turns and twists it? This is because they are making great progress in their perception and now recognize subtleties in objects and experience their environment much more intensely.
But it's not just the senses of sight and touch that improve in the seventh month: your baby's sense of taste blossoms just in time for the start of complementary feeding. Interest in food has probably increased in recent months and now your baby can hardly be stopped. They explore new foods with all their senses and will quickly let you know what they like and what you can eat yourself. Whether you offer BLW and finger food or puree is entirely up to you.
Baby in the 7th Month: Motor Development
Movement comes into play – and quite a lot of it. Your baby wants to get going, become mobile, explore the world. They have mastered rolling onto their stomach perfectly and getting back also probably works quite well. More and more often they now want to get onto their knees and will start practicing sitting towards the end of the 7th month. Caution is now required, because your baby cannot yet assess dangers posed by objects, the edges of the sofa, or even heights, and avoidable accidents can happen faster than you can look. Some babies take a little longer before they start wanting to crawl or sit; development in children is individual and cannot be planned, so don't worry if your baby takes a little longer than others. Surely the focus of their development is simply in another area right now.
The Language Development of Babies in the 7th Month
Your little newborn has become a baby with personality. They babble for all they're worth and want to talk to you more and more. They are also beginning to understand the meaning of dialogues and even if the sounds they make don't make any real sense yet, it is great fun when you have little conversations. Your seven-month-old baby will now start to string individual syllables together and thus train the muscles of their vocal apparatus. They also now understand individual words and can assign them to objects. So they might even be able to show you Mama or Papa when you ask for them. Do you sing a lot with your child? Babies in the 7th month love music and move rhythmically to the sounds. It gets particularly cute when they try to sing along.
What a Baby Should Be Able to Do at 7 Months
Every child develops at their own pace and learns new skills exactly when they are ready and the corresponding brain maturity has set in. This is earlier for some babies, while others need a little longer. As long as your pediatrician is satisfied during the corresponding check-ups, there is no reason for concern. If the U5 check-up has not yet taken place, now is a good time to make an appointment. In this month of life, so many skills are added to your baby that you can lose track, which is why we have a practical list of all the things you can observe in your baby in the 7th month:
- Your baby can now follow you with their eyes and observes you and your movements
- The first attempts at sitting up are approaching. Initially hesitant and with a little support, but soon your baby will be able to sit steadily. Be careful not to help too much and only place a baby who cannot yet sit independently on your lap in a leaning position. This avoids putting too much strain on your baby's back.
- Your baby should now have perfectly mastered rolling from their back to their stomach and back again. Perhaps they are even already rolling from room to room and constantly changing their position. This doesn't just look funny; it is also great training for the muscles and should therefore by no means be prevented.
- Exploring objects is now increasingly done with the hands and not just exclusively with the mouth. But be careful! Toys and the like still find their way into the mouth and should therefore not contain any small parts.
- The early childhood reflexes have now almost completely disappeared, and the grasping reflex has also gone. Your baby now has great fun passing toys and other objects from the left to the right hand and also dropping them. This is how your baby discovers gravity at just 7 months old.
- Hand-eye coordination is steadily improving. They are now also trying to grab moving objects out of the air, and the success rate is improving.
Sleep, nutrition, and development at 7 months
How much sleep does a baby actually need in the 7th month? Which diet is the best, and do you actually have to stop breastfeeding now? How much encouragement is okay, and when does it become overwhelming? And what about the little teeth? You have surely asked yourself at least one of these questions about your 7-month-old baby. To help you feel more at ease when dealing with your child, we have taken a closer look at some of these questions and found the right answers for you.
Sleep at 7 months
No topic takes up as much space in the lives of parents as the subject of sleep. When is it enough, how much sleep is too much, and should you wake babies or not? If you are seriously worried about your baby's sleep in the 7th month, it is best to seek help from your pediatrician. On average, a baby at 7 months needs about 11 hours of night sleep. Very few children sleep through the night or in their own bed; if your baby prefers to be with you during the night, that is completely normal and no cause for concern. Daytime sleep at 7 months usually consists of two naps lasting about an hour. During the day, your baby probably prefers to be near you; some babies do not sleep well during the day if it is too quiet. So feel free to put your baby in a wrap and let them sleep with you, close to your body, or use an automatic baby hammock like the swing2sleep, for example, in which your baby is gently transported to dreamland in a hammock.
How do you feed a seven-month-old baby?
Interest in food is high now. Time to familiarize your baby with a wide variety of tastes. The more choice and variety they get in the first year of life, the more diverse your baby's palate will be later on. You are therefore laying the foundation for a balanced and healthy diet for your baby in the 7th month. However, the main food for babies of this age is and remains milk. It doesn't matter whether it's breast milk or formula – both can and may be fed absolutely on demand and should remain on your baby's menu at least until their first birthday. If you are afraid of choking, a first aid course for babies can give you peace of mind.
Encouraging a 7-month-old baby
Crawling groups, parent meet-ups, and Pekip – the appointment calendar of a baby in the 7th month can be quite full. But don't let it stress you out. It is just as sufficient for your baby to play finger games with you at home and practice sitting. Healthy babies are much more modest than you might think and do not need extra stimulation to develop appropriately. A few toys, exciting objects from your everyday life, and your undivided attention are all your baby needs.
In this new month of life, many new skills are gained, and it's not just your daily routine that seems to be constantly changing; your house and surroundings also adapt more and more to your new life with a baby. Decoration disappears and is replaced by socket protectors, toys, and all sorts of gadgets designed to make life with a baby easier. In conversations, your main topic is probably your baby and how they sleep, whether they are eating yet, and what new skill they will achieve next. Between wakeful nights because of teething and little sleep, you are surely exhausted at times. That is normal and will get better again. Enjoy the beautiful moments and ideally create some time for yourself to recharge your batteries and not lose yourself after the birth. And soon it's on to the 8th month.
