Your 9-Month-Old

At nine months, you can already tell a lot about your baby's temperament — shy, bold, cautious, talkative, and so on. Of course, their experience — how they’re nurtured, if they’re encouraged, made to feel safe, given lots of room to master new skills — has a lot to do with how their personality unfolds. But their general orientation to the world is probably pretty clear by now. That's so neat, because as a parent you get to know this human being and help them grow into the unique little person they are.

Your 9-Month-Old’s Milestones

At nine months, your baby should start having joint attention — when you're looking at something, chances are they're interested in what you are paying attention to as well. Encourage this behavior by pointing and saying, "Oh, look at that!" This helps your child learn what is appropriate to be curious about and to explore their environment safely.

Your 9-month-old might be quite the mover now, knowing how to get into and out of a crawl position, and even return to a sitting position from here. Your baby may even pull to a standing position and cruise on the furniture! Their fine motor skills are improving, so your baby can pick up a small object and manipulate it. Plus, their babbling language is getting more complex — you could soon hear "mama" or "dada."

Your little one will now have a good grasp on object permanence and can recognize familiar faces, objects, and sounds. They will look for toys they see you hide, they'll love peekaboo, and will use their fingers to point at things. Your baby is very active — either crawling, scooting, or cruising, and maybe some very ambitious ones will have started to walk.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some other 9-month-old milestones include:

• Understands the word “no.”
• Copies sounds and gestures of other people.
• May be wary of strangers and be clingy.
• Command of the pincer grasp and can pick up small objects between their thumb and index finger.
• Can get into a sitting position and sit without support.

Your 9-Month-Old’s Development

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the average baby weight and height for a 9-month-old is 18.1 pounds and 27.6 inches for girls and 19.6 pounds and 28.3 inches for boys. Your baby may gain about 0.75 to 1.25 pounds and grow another half inch longer in the next month. Don’t worry if your baby is on the smaller or larger size — humans come in a wide range of normal, and that definitely holds true for babies. The most important thing is that your baby is growing and developing.

Please check with your baby’s health-care professional if your 9-month-old shows signs of developmental delay at nine months such as:

• Doesn’t babble.
• Doesn’t play back and forth.
• Doesn’t recognize familiar people.
• Doesn’t switch objects from hand to hand.
• Doesn’t follow where you point.
• Doesn’t bear weight on their legs.
• Doesn’t sit up with assistance.
• Doesn’t respond to their name.

Note: If you are visiting a medical professional during COVID, make sure to ask about the facility's safety measures and confirm that they are following COVID protocols as indicated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A General Schedule for Your 9-Month-Old

Your 9-month-old is now awake for about 10 hours a day and more curious than ever! It can be overwhelming to entertain a baby all day, but hopefully, you’re getting the hang of things. Ultimately, as long as your baby is safe and cared for, you don’t have to do anything special.

Go online and search for fun activities you can do at home. See if there are local playgroups or Mommy and Me classes you can join online, or check out the neighborhood park and walk around your area. (Please wear a mask and practice proper social distancing.) Go to the local library and borrow a bunch of books to read together throughout the day. Sing songs together. You can even safely leave your baby on the floor for them to explore (make sure your home is properly baby-proofed), and let them entertain themselves!

Here is one suggested routine:

• Morning: feed, play, snack, nap
• Afternoon: feed, play, nap, feed, play
• Evening: feed, play, bath (not necessarily daily), story or lullaby
• Night: feed, sleep, feed, sleep

Feeding and Eating Guidelines

Babies and little kids are naturally cautious of new things, so try not to take your baby's rumpled nose or the rejection of food as a sign of anything other than this simple fact. Parents are too quick to declare their baby doesn't like a certain food, but with repetition this usually turns around. Don't stop exposing your baby to squash, peas, or any other food because they don't initially eat it. Wait a few days and try again — without a big emotional reaction one way or the other. If it still doesn't work, shelve that food and try again in a few weeks. Acquiring food tastes is an evolution, and your job is to keep exposing your baby to a wide variety of flavors and textures. It's their job to decide how much of it to partake of at any given feeding.

In month 8, we listed a host of foods your baby might be nibbling. Here are more to try:

• Plums
• Peaches
• Nectarines
• Apricots
• Papaya
• Pineapple
• Mango

Again, if you are exposing your child to new foods, remember to wait three to five days between introducing another new food so that you can easily identify any food allergies.

For bottle-fed babies, they should be eating about 24 to 32 ounces of formula or breastmilk every 24 hours (approximately 4 to 6 ounces each feeding, six times a day for formula, and 3 to 4 ounces of breastmilk, eight times a day). Breastfed babies are likely still feeding every three to four hours until they are satiated. If you're worried about hydration, your 9-month-old should have four to five wet diapers a day.

Play: Toys, Games and Activities

If your 9-month-old seems shy with new people or in groups, think of it as a good thing. It's natural (and advantageous) to be cautious around new people, sudden sounds, or different stimuli in the environment. Seeing these responses in your baby means they have a healthy awareness of what they know and what's unfamiliar. Respect their slow-to-warm process, and think of your job as simply being there to expand their comfort zone a bit at a time. That means if they’re uncomfortable at a playgroup or music class, sit on the ground yourself and let your baby sit in your lap for as long as they'd like. Help them find an interesting toy. You might notice your child will crawl away on their own once they’re comfortable.

Some fun activities you can try:

• Roll a ball to your baby, and encourage them to roll the ball back.
• Encourage your baby to clap and sing along to familiar nursery songs.
• Give your baby messy foods like Jell-O or flour, and let them have at it.
• Play tug-of-war with your baby to work on grip strength.

Sleep and Nap Guidelines

Your baby is probably down to two naps a day, each about one to two hours, while they get between 10 to 12 hours of nightly sleep. Good sleep is an important part of overall health and development. When babies sleep, the information they learned in waking hours is processed, memories are strengthened, and emotions are balanced, says sleep book author and consultant Heather Turgeon. If your baby can't self-soothe to sleep at bedtime, is waking many times a night, their sleep has regressed, or you're still feeling as though the family is exhausted, it's a good time to get a sleep consultation or find a sleep book whose methods sound right to you.

*A sample sleep schedule for a 9-month-old:

• Wake time: 6:30 a.m.
• Nap 1: 9:00 a.m.
• Nap 2: 2:00 p.m.
• Bedtime: 7:00 p.m.

Common 9-Month-Old Health Conditions

Since COVID-19 and the flu have similar symptoms and can help conserve potentially scarce medical resources, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC recommend everyone 6 months or older (without medical contraindications) get the current age-appropriate influenza vaccine. While the flu vaccine will not protect your 9-month-old from COVID-19, it can reduce their risk of contracting the flu, hospitalization, or possible death. Please consult your child’s pediatrician to see whether your baby needs two doses of vaccine or only one dose.

When your baby is nine months, there is usually a 9-month-old checkup appointment with your child’s pediatrician. Depending on the dosing schedule and type of vaccination, they may receive the AAP– and CDC-recommended third doses of the following immunizations:

• Hepatitis B (HepB)
• Poliovirus (IPV)

Coming Soon: Your 10-Month-Old

Self-feeding, babbling, and lots of personality!