Milestones For Your One Month Old
When your baby is only one month old, it may not seem like a lot is going on with them. They do little but feed, sleep, cry, and fill their diapers. However, there is so much growth and development happening behind the scenes.
By the end of the first month, your baby will be much more alert and aware of their surroundings and able to coordinate their movements better and react to things. Of course, every baby develops at their own pace, but there are some typical milestones you should be looking out for for your baby to reach when they are at this stage.
Movement Milestones
First are the movement milestones, which may appear most obvious to you as a caregiver. At one month old, some babies can move their arms in the range of their mouth and eyes and may begin sucking on their own hands or fingers. When not in their mouths, their hands are kept in tight fists. Babies can move head from side to side while lying on their stomach, but their head flops backward if unsupported. Your baby also may start communicating in a clearer way, smiling or crying if something makes them happy or upset, not just for no reason.
Visual and Hearing Milestones
Next, there are visual and hearing milestones. These include the ability to focus 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.4 cm) away, fully matured hearing, and some sound recognition. Because of this, your baby may turn towards familiar sounds and voices. They prefer black and white or high contrast patterns, and prefer human faces to all other patterns.
Touch and Smell Milestones
Significant touch and smell milestones include preferring sweet smells to bitter or acidic ones, recognizing the scent of their own mother’s breast milk, and preferring soft to rough textures. Touch is the sense that is the most developed at birth. Through touch, your baby learns the softness of your skin and to feel comforted by a cuddle. They have not been out of the womb for too long and are used to being close to you as a caregiver, so make sure to spend a lot of time in contact with your baby.
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Sources:
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/Pages/Developmental-Milestones-1-Month.aspx
https://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/month-1
https://www.pampers.com/en-us/baby/newborn/article/1-month-old-baby
