Congrats! It might seem hard to believe, but here you are now to tick off the twelve-month-old developmental milestones.
This simply means that your baby is finally moving on to his toddler years. While celebrating his first birthday, be ready in anticipation for more exciting and hopefully not-too-tiring years when he turns two, three and beyond.
So, here are what you can expect from your 12-month-old baby who is entering the world of toddlerhood.
Twelve-Month-Old Developmental Milestones
12-month-old Sleep
Your little one is going to sleep for 14 hours per day. While sleeping for 11 to12 hours at night, he is going to have one to two naps during day time for around 3 hours.
To help your 12-month-old baby to sleep more tightly, you can follow these tips:
- Stick to the bedtime routines through a bath, a bedtime or a lullaby.
- Let your baby try to fall back asleep by himself if he wakes at night.
- Pat his back or offer some comforting words if he is upset at night.
- Avoid switching on the lights or picking him up when he’s upset.
12-Month-Old Feeding
You might be aware that your 12-month-old baby is less interested in eating baby food. Instead, he likes to observe what is happening and what is served on the dining table. With this, you can start to offer him a variety of food with different flavours and textures to get him excited over new foods.
On the other hand, you may start to introduce cow’s milk gradually into the diet of your 12-month-old baby. Whether it’s whole milk or reduced fat (2 percent) milk, your baby can benefit from the extra Vitamin D and calcium for his growing needs.
While you can be rest assured that your baby’s digestive system is now ready for cow’s milk, do contact the paediatrician to test for milk allergy, if necessary. This is applicable if you notice symptoms such as hives, wheezing, vomiting, or diarrhoea within hours or days of your baby consuming cow’s milk.
Here’s how much a twelve-month-old baby should eat:
- If you are feeding your baby with formula and whole milk, he should have six to eight ounces, two to three times a day.
- If you are breastfeeding your baby, he should be breastfed for three to five times a day with the combination of whole milk.
- If you are trying to feed your baby with solid food, you can start with three meals with two snack times a day.
Additionally, here’s a summary on what you can feed your baby throughout his infant year:
You can equally head for more delicious and healthy recipes for a 12-month-old baby here.
Key Milestones In Growth
An interesting fact about your 12-month-old baby: His brain has doubled in size in his twelfth month!
Around this time, your baby is still growing about a half inch and gaining around 1.5 kg to 2.3 kg each week. Here’s the average weight and height that you can expect from your twelve-month-old baby.
- Weight: Around 9.66 kg for a 12-month-old baby girl and 9.93 kg for a 12-month-old baby boy
- Height: Around 73.90 cm for a 12-month-old baby girl and 75.5 cm for a 12-month-old baby boy
Key Milestones in Skill Development and Senses
Key Milestones in Movement
- can get to a sitting position without help
- can crawl with left-right alternation
- can pull up to stand and walk holding onto furniture (cruising)
- can take a few independent steps
- explores things with shaking, banging and throwing
- start to use things correctly (drinking from a cup)
- puts things in and out of containers
- can let things go without any assistance
- can poke with index (pointer) finger
As your 12-month-old baby is getting better with his hand-eye coordination and movement, you may now pay attention to his dressing skills. At his twelfth month, your baby will start having some interest in helping you with his dressing. He is even capable of:
- removing socks and shoes
- putting on and taking off a loose fitting hat
- pushing arms through sleeves and legs through pants
To ensure both of you struggle less and enjoy more during the training of his dressing skills, you may try these tips along the way:
Key Milestones in Five Senses
- may hand you a book when he wants to listen to a story
- repeats sounds or actions to get your attention
- responds to simple spoken requests
- uses simple gestures such as shaking his head to say ‘no’
- can babble 2-3 words and make sounds with changes in tone
- tries to say words you say
- uses exclamations such as ‘Uh-Oh!‘
- looks and points at the right picture or object when it’s named
- can find hidden things easily
- can copy gestures
- can follow simple directions such as ‘put one leg up’
- meaningfully uses ‘Mama‘ and ‘Dada‘
- can see as clearly as adults
If you look into your interaction with your 12-month-old baby, you would realise that he starts to use his index finger to point to things. Especially when he wants a toy or item during his playtime. As trivial as it might seem, pointing is actually an important social milestones that you should not ignore.
Whenever your baby is pointing to something, he is trying to communicate his interests or desires with you and your loved ones. Thus, do acknowledge and respond to his pointing. With this, you will also be able to talk about the objects that your baby finds interesting and help him learn more words at the same time.
Here’s why.
The more a child points early in his development, the better his language ability is in the future.
Read on to find out more about different types of pointing and how you can encourage pointing:
12-Month-Old Baby Activities
As you continue to stimulate your 12-month-old baby’s curiosity and development, don’t forget to stick to his routines established for bedtime, mealtime and playtime.
For instance, if your baby loves dancing to songs and music during the day time, make sure you include the activity as part of his daily schedule.
While having fun during the playtime, you can equally provide your baby an opportunity to work on some important skills through play. Here are some suggested activities to enhance his skills:
Moving Beyond The Twelve-Month-Old Developmental Milestones With Your Toddler
As you are ticking off the twelve-month-old developmental milestones, don’t forget to celebrate with your loved ones and your baby for the past one year.
While taking some time to reflect on your baby’s journey, you can equally prepare yourself for raising a toddler. For now, just be more flexible and give your baby some freedom to do things independently under your supervision. This way, you can help him to boost his self-confidence while ensuring his safety.
For more interesting stories and fun recipes, stay tuned to Motherhood Story!