Your baby now enters into an 'age of exploration'. Months of practice since birth bear fruit now as baby has perfected her skills in eye-hand coordination, grasping skills and arm skills. Most important achievement however is her ability to sit all by herself. Her hands are free for play, and to grab things within reach. These new skills however mean new potential dangers. Now is the right time to consider baby proofing. You will also notice social and emotional development skills, when most babies this age begin making sounds like ma, ba, da, and pa. Your baby also demonstrates her closeness to parents in a different way; seeks comfort and solace from Mom, excitement and stimulation from Dad.

The first consonants babies pronounce, such as m, b and p, originate in the front of the mouth. These sounds are largely made with the lips. The second sets of sounds like d and t originate midway along the upper palate. Later consonants such as g and k originate in the rear of the mouth and require partial closing of the throat.

• It has been found that babies often use ma and na sounds when they are in a fussy mood. Mothers have been the ones who comfort babies and attend to their needs most of the time. So, it naturally follows for babies to utter mama for mothers and nana for grandmas.

• Babies often use pa sounds when in a playful mood. Fathers tend to be more playful than mothers are. Following the above reasoning, this may the logic behind papa as a name for fathers in dictionaries.

By the time your baby reaches this age, her brain has reached 50% of its weight at maturity! Development is going at an incredible rate. From a newborn who was unable to do much to an active baby who rolls over, probably sits up and plays actively, your baby has come a long way. Her visual development begins at birth and continues for many years. Her understanding of speech and syntax was developing in the utero. This will also continue for years to come. Her emotional & social attachments develop the most during her first 18 months. Her motor development begins at birth and grows in stages for years. Now is a good time to expose baby to another language - she absorbs experiences readily and easily now. Allow baby freedom to explore and experiment safely within her environment; this is the time baby is able to embrace new skills and accomplish more.

Decay and Baby's TEETH
Baby's teeth are susceptible to tooth decay, just like everyone else. Decay happens when plaque and sugar mix forming an acid, which can attack the tooth enamel. Sweetened drinks such as juices or formula and milk are potential acid makers. The longer the liquid remains in the mouth, the greater the chance for decay. If your baby sucks from the bottle for longer periods or uses the bottle as a pacifier, her teeth will be exposed to lots of acid. During the day, saliva helps to wash some of the liquid out of the mouth. At bedtime however, saliva flow decreases, allowing sugary liquid to remain around the teeth. Teeth are thus constantly attacked by acids.

Preventive measures
• Avoid giving baby soft drinks, powdered drinks, sugar water between regular feedings; fill it with plain water instead. If your pediatrician has recommended, other bottle feedings, you should follow that advice.
• Never allow baby to fall asleep with a bottle in her mouth. Feed her in your arms until she is ready for bed.
• Avoid using the bottle as a pacifier if possible. Find an alternative soother.
• Once baby's teeth start coming in, clean them regularly.

BABY facts

Furniture HAZARDS
You may have already taken steps to prevent baby from harming herself around the house. Now that baby is mobile, her vulnerability to dangers caused by furniture and household equipment increases. You may have to bar baby from entering certain zones or rooms of the house such as the prayer room or storage room. When baby starts to pull herself up, she will practice on anything. Be alert to situations where she can tip furniture onto herself when pulling up such as cabinets or coffee tables or bookcases. Store them away for the time being. Units with drawers such as dressers can be hazardous especially when they start to open and shut them. Put TV high enough. Exercise gears can be dangerous too; free weights can roll onto little hands and feet. Baby could be tangled in a jump rope.

LAUNDRY DETERGENTS and Baby's Skin
When baby develops a rash, many parents wonder if their laundry is the cause. Detergents are however not the reason for the rash. You do not have to specially buy hypoallergenic soap to wash baby's clothes if your baby's skin is normal. To protect her skin, make sure you rinse her clothes twice for the first few months. A liquid fabric softener added to the wash cycle leaves less residue, and that means less chance for irritation as compared to fabric softener sheets. If on the other hand your baby has sensitive skin, take the necessary steps to protect it. Choose a gentle fragrance free soap or detergent to wash her clothes. Rinse clothes twice to be sure you rinse out all soap residues.

FOODS to AVOID with Baby

GOOD NIGHT, little Baby

Many parents would like their baby to fall asleep on their own. This is a tough demand on babies and an equally hard undertaking for the parents. Parents usually rock their babies to sleep or put up with their fussy child until she falls asleep. This gets very tiring and irritating. Ferberize, a program developed by Dr Richard Ferber, advocates that poor sleep habits are learned and they can be unlearned especially when baby is older than 6 months. According to this program, baby learns to soothe herself on her own. Below is a description of the steps involved. You may want to try this.

• Put baby down in her crib while she is still awake. Tell her its time to go to sleep. Leave the room. If she does not start to cry, you can leave her on her own. If she does start crying, let her cry for 5 minutes before attending to her.

• Do not turn on the lights and keep physical contact to a minimum. Speak softly to her; tell her she is a big girl now and that she can go to sleep on her own. Leave the room again.

• If she continues to cry, this time wait for 10 minutes before going to her room. Speak to her again and leave the room within a minute or two.

• If crying continues, wait 15 minutes between each visit to her room, until she falls asleep.

• On the second night, let baby cry for 10 minutes before you first enter her room.

• Gradually increase the time from there. If you find it too difficult to leave your baby crying for 5 minutes the first night, wait 2 or 3 minutes before going in. Do what is comfortable for you.

• The results: Parents have reported that after a few nights of using this system, baby fell asleep on her own.

• Setbacks: When baby is sick, she is often sleepless. While she is sick, you may have to get up with her in the middle of the night and this may cause a setback in the progress you have made so far. But again, this is a necessary setback. Once she is better, you can start all over again if you need to. If you had success the first time, there is no reason why you won't succeed again.

Baby MEALS - now

After getting used to baby cereal, it is a good idea to introduce fruits and vegetables to baby's diet. Buy strained fruits and vegetables first; they are easy to swallow and digest. Offer baby only one new strained fruit or vegetable each week. You will be able to assess any problems such as allergic reactions or digestive problems to any particular foods. If your baby doesn't like the food you offer, wait a few days before trying again. At this stage baby will take about 2-3 tablespoons at each meal.

Juice choices:
When selecting juice for baby, buy vitamin C-fortified apple, pear or grape juice. Avoid orange juice for now. They are too acidic for baby at this point. Dilute any juice with water that you give baby. Add an equal proportion of water to the juice quantity. For instance if you want to give baby 2 ounces of fluid, mix 1 oz of water with 1 oz of juice. Preferably, offer baby juice in a cup.

Vegetables over fruits:
Vegetables are more nutritious than fruits. However to get your baby started you should start with fruits to entice your baby as they taste better. An important point to remember is that right now your baby's main nutritional needs still comes from formula or breast milk. The goal right now is to teach baby to swallow foods from the spoon, to introduce baby to different textures and tastes, you will probably have success at this by feeding her fruits first. When you introduce vegetables, try the sweeter varieties first such as sweet potato or carrots. With some persistence, baby will learn to like vegetables.

Nourishment:
Babies this age need about 800 calories a day - from a combination of breast or formula milk and solid foods. Baby is probably getting enough nourishment and calories. The best indicators are his growth and well-being. If he is growing well, putting on weight, and is energetic, then he is getting the required nourishment.

Developing Taste Buds:
Your baby has 100s more taste buds for sweets than you do, and that is why his preference for sweet things. He is more inclined towards sweet-tasting foods such as applesauce, mashed bananas. Do not offer foods sweetened with sugar. He does not need them. The fruits and vegetable taste sweet naturally and that will satisfy him for a long time.

Giving Baby Sweets:
Sweets contain calories with little nutritional value. It may not be possible to exclude all sweets from baby' diet but it is important to set limitations. A little sweet food may be acceptable as an occasional treat. All baby really needs is to taste it. Offering sweets is not a problem, if it is given infrequently and in small amounts. Note: Don't offer baby ice cream or chocolate until after baby turns one year old. She can't digest the milk protein it contains.

It is time to start thinking about baby proofing your home if you have not already. You may have missed out on some points below, if you have already started on the house safety precautions. Now is a good time especially since your baby is already on the road to mobility.

• Put appliance cords up so that they cannot be pulled down by an exploring baby

• Push heavy kitchen appliances to the back of your kitchen counters

• Store knives, glasses, forks, toothpicks and other kitchen hazards where your child cannot reach

• Keep lighters and matches out of reach

• Put away table clothes. A baby can easily pull a tablecloth and all the table contents onto himself

• Store collectables such as coins, shells in a safe place

• Move furniture away from any window baby could fall out of

• Keep sewing supplies out of reach

• Store office supplies out of reach

• Keep jewellery, any small objects out or reach

• Check floors or baseboards for loose nails and splinters

These may help keep your home poison-safe for mobile babies
• Keep telephone numbers of the poison control center and local hospital near your home handy

• Store household products such as cleaners, bleach and other toxic substances in a locked cabinet

• Install latches on cabinet doors and drawers

• Lock up all alcoholic beverages

• Ensure products such as gasoline, kerosene, insecticides, plant food, weed killers are locked in containers

• Keep toiletries, perfumes, aftershave and cosmetics out of your baby's reach

• Lock medicines and vitamins away

• Empty ashtrays often. Dispose of any cigarette or cigar butts from your yard.

Holds bottle:
He may hold his own bottle now. He may use his fingers to pick up something. He passes items from hand to hand and lifts, shakes, pushes, and tosses things close to him.

Chews and bites objects:
In addition to mouthing his toys and stuffs around him, baby may chew or bite them - yet another way of learning more about his environment. Just be sure the objects around him are safe to bite or chew on.

Ability to Sit:
His strength is increasing, so he can sit briefly without any support. When he starts to tip over, he may place one hand on the floor to keep himself erect for a short while. This action displays his sense of balance and strength recently acquired.

Baby Vision:
At present, her vision is about 20/50. Things she sees now are only mildly fuzzy. She can see details fairly well now such as patterns on fabrics or details on a face. She is able to distinguish colors quite well now.

Peek-a-Boo, I see you:
Peekaboo will probably be baby's favorite game from now to some months to come. One reason is that your baby loves the surprise of seeing you reappear after you her sight. Secondly, this game teaches her that you can go away and come back - an important concept for her to learn. Perhaps by experiencing your brief coming and going in a game atmosphere, she becomes better equipped to deal with the real situations. The versions are many but the structure is the same: a person 'disappears' then reappears accompanied by a jolly cry 'Peekaboo, I see you!'

The toy explorer
Here are some shopping guidelines to toys.
• The best toys are still toys that respond with sounds and movements to skills like waving, shaking or pulling. Transparent toys with things that move inside when shaken are often favorites.

• A toy should be easy for baby to pick once she drops it. Babies love to throw or drop toys so look for toys that are raised off the floor and have a handle of some sort for an easy grasp. Toys that lie flat on the floor are not a good idea.

• Toys should be washable since babies still mouth them. Plastic versions are better than, say wooden ones because the latter are heavier and can splinter. Plastic or fabric toys are colorful, light, durable and easy to clean.