Your 10-Month-Old

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Cruising, crawling … maybe even walking? In your 10-month-old, you can already see elements of toddlerhood popping up. Your baby might be emulating your behaviors, babbling with great purpose, and showing big thoughts and feelings about what you do or don’t do — all signs of their budding personality.

Your 10-Month-Old’s Milestones

At 10 months, your baby can pull from a seated position to a standing position. They may get stuck there, but you can gently guide them back down and they will learn the motor pattern soon enough. Watch your baby as they cruise around, walking and shuffling while holding onto furniture.

Some babies are starting to walk. Others don’t walk until closer to 15 months — don’t worry, all are in the normal range. Learning size and shapes, your baby can put small objects into larger ones. Your baby understands one-step commands, such as “wave bye-bye,” and points at objects a lot in order to communicate with you.

Some other 10-month-old milestones, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), include:

Comprehension of what you’re saying.
Mimicking your sounds into a noticeable babbling “language.”
Separation anxiety.
Understands “no.”
Standing, crawling, scooting, cruising, or walking.
Self-awareness (e.g., realizing that their reflection in the mirror is them).

Your 10-Month-Old’s Development

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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the average baby weight and height for a 10-month-old is 18.7 pounds and 28.1 inches for girls and 20.3 pounds and 28.9 inches for boys. Your baby may gain about half a pound to 1 pound and gain another half inch in length for the next month. Remember that babies and humans come in a wide range of normal. As long as your baby is growing and developing, they’re fine.

According to Dr. Steph Lee, one sign of developmental delay is “if your child doesn’t look directly in your eyes or babble and smile at you when you’re playing with them.” The pediatrician advised talking to your child’s medical professional.

Much like with previous months, please check with your baby’s health-care professional if your 10-month-old shows signs of developmental delay, such as:

Doesn’t babble.
Doesn’t play back and forth.
Doesn’t recognize familiar people or objects.
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 10-Month-Old

Your 10-month-old is a busy bee nowadays. Between cruising, crawling, scooting, and climbing, you likely spend the majority of your day chasing after your curious and mobile baby, trying to keep them out of trouble. With their separation anxiety likely peaking, it might seem as if your baby alternately won’t let you leave and then tries to leave you to explore a new corner of the house. Don’t worry — it’s totally normal.

Other than letting your 10-month-old tear your house apart, see if there are local playgroups meeting online at the moment. Check out fun activities you can do at home or in your neighborhood. Walk around your neighborhood, or take your baby out on errands. (Please wear a mask and practice proper social distancing.) Visit the library, attend their online events, and borrow a bunch of books to go through together. Sing songs and dance. Then when they’re napping, see if you can sneak in a nap of your own.

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

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Even if your baby is eating solid food like a champ, it’s a good idea to anticipate what board-certified infant feeding specialist Cynthia Epps calls the eventual “food wars.” Between 10 months old and 2 years old, says Epps, kids experience a developmental surge in independence. When it comes to mealtime, that can mean your baby wants to be in charge. “You’ll be feeding a sweet, compliant baby one day, and the next morning, he refuses everything you offer and instead lunges for the spoon and tries to self-feed.”

If your baby seems to want more control and is gravitating toward self-feeding, set a healthy stage by putting them in a high chair to begin a meal, with three pieces of soft food to explore, suggests Epps. For example:

Small, soft pieces of cooked vegetables
Tofu squares
Ripe fruit with the skins removed

This will occupy their interest while you are preparing the family meal. At first, your child might be so focused on the challenge of articulating food from fingers to mouth that you’ll have the opportunity to slip in spoonfuls of other mashed foods. But as self-feeding progresses, sooner or later you will have to respect your child’s wishes to do it themselves.

For babies taking a bottle, they should still be eating about 24 to 32 ounces of formula or breastmilk every 24 hours. For formula-fed babies, it comes to approximately 4 to 6 ounces each feeding, six times a day. For breastmilk, it should be about 3 to 4 ounces of breastmilk, eight times a day. Breastfed babies are likely still feeding every three to four hours until they are full. If you’re worried about your baby getting enough milk, check that they have four to five wet diapers a day.

Play: Toys, Games, and Activities

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Pause, watch, and be curious about your baby’s interests. What are they noticing and working on? If you can follow your baby’s lead and let them direct the play, paradoxically, your baby will learn more from you. Learning experiences usually stem from an emotional connection or a genuine “passion” (even in the baby sense); what you teach your baby will mean so much more to them if you watch their interests and then build on them. Instead of labeling objects you want your child to know the words for, watch what they’re looking at (a blade of grass, a passing dog), label it, and expand on that.

Playing with a 10-month-old can be as simple as just sitting on the floor and letting your baby crawl to a box of tissue paper they can rip to pieces while you watch. Believe it or not, that’s valuable play for their brain.

Also make sure to have plenty of music and dancing in your house. Music is good for everyone’s mood, and dancing can turn even the most stressful day into a fun one. You don’t need to listen to children’s music. Any good beat — whether it’s hip-hop, jazz, or rock — is great.

Some additional fun activities you can try:

Chase after your baby.
Stack anything — boxes, blocks, toys, blankets — whatever they want.
Swing your baby at the park.
Splash in water — either at the park, a local stream, a kiddie pool in the backyard, or the bathtub.

Sleep and Nap Guidelines

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Your 10-month-old is most likely napping two times a day, about one to two hours at a time, and sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night. Most babies do well with two naps until the age of about 15 to 18 months, says sleep consultant Heather Turgeon.

A sample sleep schedule for a 10-month-old:

Wake time: 6:45 a.m.
Nap 1: 9:30 a.m.
Nap 2: 2:30 p.m.
Bedtime: 7 p.m.

Is your baby pulling to a stand in the crib? When babies learn a new motor skill, they usually have a period of wild excitement to practice it, even at night. It’s not uncommon for babies to take longer to fall asleep or wake up in the night to rehearse their new crawling and cruising abilities, says Turgeon. If you hang in there and keep to your normal sleep routines and schedule, the novelty of the new skill will eventually wear off and smoother sleep will return.

Common 10-Month-Old Health Conditions

Due to COVID-19 and the flu having similar symptoms, the AAP and the CDC recommend everyone 6 months or older (without medical contraindications) get the current age-appropriate influenza vaccine to help conserve potentially scarce medical resources. The flu vaccine will not protect your 10-month-old from COVID-19.

However, the vaccine can reduce their risk of: