You and Your Baby - Month 3
Baby's Safety & Health
By month three, your baby should have had the first immunizations to prevent disease. Keep your medical records up-to-date and make a doctor or clinic appointment for next month.
Your baby may enjoy the change of view that an infant seat provides. By using the infant seat, the baby can be included in more activities of daily life. Choose one that is sturdy and doesn't have fluffy padding. Be careful to prevent falls ...never put the carrier on a counter or table! Caution: Do not overuse the infant seat! Babies also need to be held and carried in your loving arms.
Bath time is becoming fun with your baby as she learns to splash and enjoy the feeling of warm water. Use special gentle soaps to wash baby so that eyes won't be irritated. This is a good time to check the temperature on your hot water heater. You will need to make sure it stays below 120 ¡F. to prevent burns in infants and children. Don't rely on your less sensitive skin to determine if the water is too hot. Serious burns can occur!
Fresh air and a small amount of sunshine are good for you and baby, especially if baby is breastfed. Five to ten minutes of exposure to early morning or afternoon sun several times each week will produce enough Vitamin D to build strong bones. Doctors often recommend the same mild exposure to sunshine to the diaper area for treatment of diaper rash. Prevent longer exposures of baby skin to direct sunlight!
Anything that goes in an infant's mouth -- and so much does -- needs to be clean. Bottles, toys, your hands, food preparation utensils, and pacifiers can carry tummy-upsetting bacteria if not kept clean.
If you are bottle feeding, don't prop the bottle and leave your baby alone or put her to bed with a bottle. There is a small opening or tube between your baby's throat and his ear. If your baby is lying down and sucking on his bottle, a small amount of formula can travel from the throat to the ear and cause infection. Also, the formula (and later on, juice) in his mouth when she falls asleep with a bottle can cause tooth decay.
At 3 months, many parents are interested in feeding baby something besides formula or breast milk. Resist hurrying your baby into foods; his digestive track is just not ready yet. Allergies to basic foods such as vegetables, fruits, and cereals can develop when the immature intestine leaks these food proteins into baby's bloodstream. Your baby needs easily-digested breast milk or formula meals right now. Solid foods can wait for several more months.
CAUTION: Never feed honey or cow's milk to an infant less than 1 year old!
Food is just one of the physical comforts. Your baby also needs to be clean, dry, and pain-free. Just as important are the emotional and social comforts, which include cuddling, a soothing voice, and interesting things to experience. Make every time your baby cries an opportunity to meet some of these needs before you offer food. Even if baby is hungry, she will be more likely to eat well and nap after attention to other needs.
Family Focus
All babies grow and develop at different rates. In your quiet time, you may want to read Dr. T. Brazelton's book, Infants and Mothers: Differences in Development. It is a sensitive portrayal of the first year of life. He describes an "average" baby, a "quiet" baby, and an "active" baby in each month's development. It is available in paperback.
Your three month old will spend less time crying and sleeping as she continues to grow. This leaves babies time to find out about themselves and the world. This is the perfect chance for you to spend more active time with your child. Babies are particularly fascinated by their own hands and feet.
Propping baby up in your lap gives a whole new perspective to life. This allows her to respond more actively to people who care. The more you respond, the more your baby will vocalize and smile. Watch out! Those chuckles can captivate you. Your baby is beginning to realize that her actions get results and you can be counted on for comfort and for fun.
You are one of the main influences in your child's life. As you begin to raise your family, give some thought about what you really want your family to be like. It may be easier now to establish some patterns of family life than to try to change them as you and your children grow older.
Baby's Development
Physical
Your baby can:
- hold her head and back pretty straight when you support her body
- lift her head, lean on elbows, arch her back and rock when she is on her stomach
- move her legs and arms a lot
- push with her arms and legs when she is held
- touch her face with her hands
- grab at objects but sometimes misses
- coo simple sounds, like ooh, ah, ae
- answer sounds she hears by gurgling, cooing, squealing
- cries less often
- follow sounds
Mental
Your baby's eyes are busy learning and taking in information. Also, her eye color is becoming more permanent this month. Play some games with your baby and find out how she is discovering to pay attention to life around her.
"Place Holding" - This activity will actually help the child's attention span later in life. While you are nursing or bottle feeding, put an object close to your baby to look at. Then, slowly move it away. The movement is likely to make your child stop sucking and "place hold" until you put it back. This "place-holding" during feeding lets your baby learn something about the object she finds so fascinating. She "takes in" information from the object and then uses her "will" to determine the appropriate time to go back to nursing.
Stimulate! Put up pictures of your family or magazine pictures for your baby to see. Tape them securely in places she is likely to look often. You might put some near her crib or changing table. Keep several on hand to change them when she seems to lose interest in them. Remember, bright colors, contrasts, and human faces are big favorites with babies.
One of the first ways your baby learns is by looking. At first, she stares at objects. If the object is just 7 or 8 inches away, she can focus on it pretty well. Later, she begins to watch and follow objects with her eyes and can "concentrate" on some things -- your face is one of them. A lot of time will be spent watching your face, especially when you talk, sing, make happy faces, blink your eyes, and/or make funny sounds. Since she learns by looking, give her something to see! Suggestions include the following:
- Brightly colored pictures -- Hang some on the wall near her crib. You can use pictures from magazines. Also, pictures of faces are good.
- Mobiles -- Hang a mobile over the crib. If necessary, raise the mobile so your baby will not be able to chew on or break off any parts. If you place the mobile near the window, she can watch the mobile move when there is a breeze.
- Bright-colored crib toys and sheets
Yes, babies need to look at themselves. Hold baby up to a mirror. Help baby learn who she is by pointing out the ears, nose, mouth, fingers, toes. You might like a safe mirror made just for babies to hold. Some toys have mirrors on them.
Babies like to look at other people, especially their faces and especially faces of other babies and young children. Provide opportunities to see other babies and young children.
A change of scenery helps prevent boredom. Let her see new places by moving her crib around in the room or by carrying her from room to room as you work.
Social/Emotional
By this time, your three month old responds socially and emotionally in several ways:
- reacts with her whole body to familiar faces
- gets excited when she sees people he knows or when she sees his bottle
- likes listening -- talk to her in simple sentences
- loves being cuddled and held
- doesn't care about being left alone
- may be able to laugh and can probably respond to your laugh
- saying "thank you" baby style by smiling and wriggling all over
This information sheet is one in a series titled You and Your Baby. Contact your county Extension office for more information on you and your baby. Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics provides educational reading material: American Academy of Pediatrics, P.O. Box 747, Elk Grove Village, IL 60009-0747 OR www.aap.org
Revised by Louise E. Davis, Ph.D., Extension Child and Family Development Specialist and Linda S. Patterson, R.N., M.S.N., Extension Health Education Specialist
Mississippi State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status.
Information Sheet
1373
Extension Service of Mississippi State University, cooperating with U.S.
Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress,
May 8 and June 30, 1914. Ronald A. Brown, Director
Copyright by Mississippi
State University. All rights reserved.
This document may be copied and distributed for nonprofit educational
purposes provided that credit is given to the Mississippi State University
Extension Service.
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