Child development: what does a three-month-old baby do?

Baby continues to grow. His weight, her size and his head circumference are measured at each visit monthly at the pediatrician or the doctor and the figures scrupulously recorded in his health book. In general, according to the reference growth curves, at three months, your little girl weighs between 4.6 and 7 kg and is on average 60 centimeters tall. While your little boy weighs between 5 and 7.3 kg for the heaviest and measures between 55.7 and 65 cm. The head circumference is about 40 cm.

The doctor will also take advantage of this monthly visit to check the Muscle tone of your child, his motor developmenthis hearing (hearing) and its vision.

On the food side, at the age of three monthsyour baby is drinking five bottles per day. Prepare them from 150ml water (weakly mineralized) and 5 measures of infant milk. It is usually from 3rd month that digestive disorders, common in infants, come to an end. “Crying attributed to colic is generally the expression of a proximity request. Toddlers need to be in contact with the warmth of their mother’s body or to be carried in the reassuring arms of their father, as often as possible,” says Valeria Lumbroso.

If you breastfeed your babythe rate is about 5 feedings per day. It happens that from the third month, when returning to work, some mothers choose to wean their babies out of necessity to return to work. While the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusively breastfeed babiesfor at least six months, it is sometimes difficult to continue breastfeeding beyond the first three months. “Some mothers choose to continue breastfeeding for a long time, others will do partial weaning when they return to work, others will prefer to wean their baby completely because they cannot imagine the association between work and breastfeeding, confirm the authors of the My Child’s Big Book. Everyone has to decide what suits them. »

And Valeria Lumbroso adds: “More and more mothers are trying to continue breastfeeding despite returning to work. During my shoots, many women explained that it was easier for them to continue breastfeeding by expressing their milk than to wean their babies, when they didn’t want to, and give them bottles. »

For a successful transition, it is advisable to:

• if you want wean your baby : start with eliminate mid-day feedings. Then you will delete the midday one, then the evening one and finally the morning one.
• if you don’t want not yet completely wean your childyou can maintain a breastfeed in the morning and evening. At other meals, you will give him a artificial milk bottle. “Some mothers find it difficult to maintain good lactation with only two daily feedings, warn the authors of the My Child’s Big Book. If this is your case, try to express your milk during the day. Alternatively, you may be able to arrange to have three feedings: for example, the first in the morning, the second in the late afternoon and the third in the evening. On weekends and on your days off, you can only breastfeed your baby to restart lactation. »

Finally, if you want to continue exclusive breastfeeding: express your milk in the evening and on weekends to bring bottles of breast milk to the crèche or to the maternal assistant. ” The law grants you a break time per day for express your milk to the office or to go feed your baby, says Valeria Lumbroso. For more efficiency, it is recommended to invest in a double pump breast pump. On weekends and during holidays, continue to breastfeed your baby on demand to stimulate lactation. »

“So your baby sleeps through the night?” You are probably regularly asked this question which can be slightly – let’s face it – annoying when you are regularly woken up by your little one! Don’t panic though. Each child has their own rhythm. “Around 3 months, the majority of babies can sleep at night for 4 to 5 hours straight without waking up,” says Valeria Lumbroso. But some babies don’t get there until they are 4 or 5 months old. The babies born prematurely, for example, or those who are underweight put no more time to find that long sleep. There is a form of pressure on the parents and on their baby so that it “sleeps out”. Admittedly, it is tiring to get up at night to give the breast or prepare the bottle, especially if you then have to get up early to drop off your children before going to work. In trusting her baby and by recognizing his specific needs, we can help him find his own strategies for falling asleep and staying asleep. But it may take a while…”

Normally, if you followed the vaccination schedule, your child has already received at the age of two months vaccines against the whooping coughthe diphtheriathe tetanusthe poliomyelitis, hepatitis B and I’haemophilus influenzae b(meningitis). If this is not the case, speak to your doctor during the monthly consultation. Since January 1, 2018, eleven vaccines are mandatory and protect your baby against various serious infectious diseases, sometimes even fatal for the little ones. The vaccines and the date of their reminder are recorded in your child’s health record.

“Arheuuu, agheeeuu! » : around the age of two to three months, baby starts to stay awake longer and to “discuss”. chirps when you look at it and it produces even more sounds if you answer it in a cheerful and encouraging voice, confirms Valeria Lumbroso. Moreover, the alternation between words, onomatopoeias and “areuh” surprisingly resembles conversations, as one can have among friends! The first dialogues are established. » Do not hesitate to explain to him the gestures you are making when changing or bathing. In effect, baby is more and more interested in his environment and is very curious about what surrounds him!

It was long believed that the toddler simply needed to be nourished and protected. However, we now know that a baby has great learning abilitiesthat he knows how to make himself understood and that he enjoys communicating!

You don’t dare read a story to your baby on the pretext that he is still too small? Know that even the newborns are attentive when reading aloud. “Reading with toddlers is an activity that promotes language awareness and culture, explains Valeria Lumbroso. The words associated with the images facilitate the recognition of words. But it is also the force of the story itself that sustains the child’s attention. By animating his imagination, it makes him want to express himself and share his feelings through gestures, movements and vocalizations. »

Around 3 or 4 monthsBabies begin to show curiosity and keen interest in objects. “In the first few months, they spend a lot of time observing whatever the adults do with the objects, then they will try to grab them – a bottle on the table, a glass, etc. – to manipulate them in turn, explains Valeria Lumbroso. They put everything in their mouths because it is a way for them to explore and learn about their environment. Be careful not to leave too small objects lying around that they could swallow Where dangerous with which they could hurt themselves. »

The toddlers love nursery rhymes. Even if they don’t understand the lyrics, they appreciate the rhythm, the rhymes and the repetitions which help them locate the syllables.

Around the age of 3 to 4 months, baby gradually becomes aware of the object permanence. “Children quickly understand that objects continue to exist even if they are not visible,” confirms Valeria Lumbroso. The game of “hidden cuckoo” helps him learn that objects and people exist independently of him. To play, all you have to do is hide your face behind a towel when bathing and then say “hello”! Don’t be afraid to bore him: baby loves repetitive games.

Your child’s sight is developing. Around three months, the moments when babies’ eyesare aligned are more and more frequent. And for good reason : his brain is starting to learn how to make his two eyes work together. These are the beginnings of binocular vision and with her the appearance of relief vision ! “This visual progress does not happen by chance, the visual tool must be ready for the great adventure that awaits baby for its 4 months: the discovery of its hands, and the ability to grasp a toy, explain the authors from My Child’s Big Book. However, it is still normal at this stage for baby’s eyes to change from convergence to divergence, intermittently. So don’t panic,Intermittent cross-eyedness at 3 months is still considered “tuning”. The vision of colors also continues to refine: after red, seen very early, it is now green, then yellow that are now perceived. »