Nine Month Visit
Milestones Matter
How your child plays, learns, speaks, acts, and moves offers important clues about his or her development. Check the milestones your child has reached by 9 months.
What Most Children Do By This Age
Socal / Emotional
- May be afraid of strangers
- May be clingy with familiar adults
- Has favorite toys
Language / Communication
- Understands “no”
- Makes a lot of different sounds like “mama mama” and “bababababa”
- Copies sounds and gestures of others
- Uses fingers to point at things
Cognitive
Learning, Thinking, Problem-solving
- Watches the path of something as it falls
- Looks for things she sees you hide
- Plays peek-a-boo
- Puts things in his mouth
- Moves things smoothly from one hand to the other
- Picks up things like cereal o’s between thumb and index finger
Movement / Physical Developement
- Stands, holding on
- Can get into sitting position
- Sits without support
- Pulls to stand
- Crawls
Feeding & Elimination
- Your child is likely on a schedule by now eating 3 to 4 meals a day. At this point our child is taking less breast milk/formula.
- Provide regular mealtimes and begin to offer more finger foods. Babies at this age are mastering the “pincer grasp” and can pick up finger foods.
- Introduce a sippy cup and encourage baby to drink water as well as breast milk or formula.
- Breast fed infants can continue to nurse and need not transition to whole milk at age 12 months.
- You can offer all fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs fish and nut containing foods (waffles, pieces of toast, peanut butter. Continue to avoid honey.
- Stool patterns will vary based on diet. Let us know if your child consistently has hard stools. Applesauce and bananas tend to constipate. Prunes, plums, and apricots tend to act as laxatives
Your Child Knows Best
Act Early
If you have concerns about the way your child plays, learns, speaks, acts, or moves, or if your child:
- Does not bear weight on legs with support
- Does not sit with help
- Does not babble (“mama”, “baba”, “dada”)
- Does not play any games involving back-and-forth play
- Does not respond to own name
- Does not seem to recognize familiar people
- Does not look where you point
- Does not transfer toys from one hand to the other
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be screened for general development using standardized, validated tools at 9, 18, and 30 months and for autism at 18 months or whenever a parent or provider has a concern. Ask your Provider about your child’s developmental screening.