Baby Development - What to expect from your baby

Also, your baby will have learned new ways to express his feelings and affection for you as a parent. While baby's affection for mom and dad has always been there, it's more evident after about two years, since they are physically more capable of moving around and showing their pleasure.

Usually by around 14 months, a baby will be able to take a few steps without assistance, and stand up alone. They may be able to learn a few words, as well as make use of "baby talk" sounds to communicate.

Once they take those first few steps, it won't be long before they are walking around. Two months later, by the 16th month, they will be walking quite well, and will be able to communicate much better, show affection, and drink from a cup. This is about when they will be able to comprehend limits. By a year and a half, the child is likely to be able to not only walk, but also run and climb. You can start teaching your child to feed herself, and will start to become more verbal. Also, by this time, you're probably pretty tired of changing diapers, and you'll notice that they will start to have some control over their toilet behavior.

By 20 months, your baby will be able to climb stairs, so make sure you have a baby gate in place, and by two years, they will be able to jump, run, play, and use word combinations. By the time a baby is two years old, they have improved their physical coordination, and will be able to partake in more activities, such as coloring, and playing with blocks and simple puzzles.

Parenting > Baby > Eating

Baby's first nutrition is directly from the mother, and despite the trend to push the bottle onto the baby at the earliest possible moment, breast milk is still the best source of nutrition. Nonetheless, it may occasionally happen that a baby becomes sensitive to breast milk, and it's likely that there's something in your diet that's causing the reaction. That's not cause to immediately switch to the bottle, what it means is that you should take a look at your diet, and experiment a bit to see your baby's reaction. A common problem is dairy products, as many infants have a lactose intolerance problem. If you eat a lot of milk and cheese, try eliminating these items from your diet for a week, and see what happens.

Once you've moved your baby to baby food, you will no doubt notice many guidelines about precisely how much baby should eat, and how often. Keep in mind that these are merely guidelines. No two babies are the same, and each baby has different needs. Rigid rules about feeding become counterproductive very quickly, and often lead to an unhappy baby. The amount of food a baby needs depends on their activity level, their phase of development, and dozens of other factors, including the weather and their general state of health. For the most part, babies know very well how much food they need, and they will let you know very clearly when they've had enough, or when they need more. Learn to pay attention. When baby shuts his mouth tight and turns to the side, he's probably feeling full and satisfied; don't try too hard to push more food at baby unnecessarily. "Demand feeding" is the best option, which is simply feeding baby when hungry. A newborn may require feeding every two hours or so.

For a newborn, nursing for ten to fifteen minutes at each breast is usually adequate, or for bottle babies, two or three ounces at a feeding. While a few young babies will need to be woken up at night for a feeding, most will take the initiative and let you know when they need to be fed in the middle of the night.

In general, you can tell if your baby is getting enough to eat just by taking note of whether they are gaining weight at the appropriate rate, and whether they are producing an adequate amount of dirty diapers.