Your 25 week old baby

Your 25 week old baby spends a lot of her time smiling and chattering to anyone who engages her attention.

As she develops this newfound skill, you’ll begin to recognise sounds she repeats as the beginnings of language – ‘Ba’, ‘Ma’, ‘Da’, ‘Ga’ and ‘Na’. Not coincidentally, these are the sounds many societies have claimed to identify the most important people in a baby’s world.

Although not first words as such, your baby learns that Mama responds best to ‘Ma’ while Daddy gets excited by ‘Da’. Your repetition of these sounds in a call and respond pattern with your baby are the earliest seeds for a lifetime of communication.

As well as working on communication, your 25 week old baby is focused on mobility. Rolling from back to front and front to back, is usually achieved by 7.5 months. If your baby isn’t quite there yet, give her lots of encouragement and tummy time with different toys on the floor so she can practise.

At this age, some infants are already crawling or working hard to reach that goal. For others, shuffling around on their bottom is their way of moving.

Related reading: When Do Babies Roll Over? Tips To Get Rolling!

Feeding your 25 week old baby

You might be wondering how your 25 week old baby can chew food before she has the right teeth for the job. Well, you only need to put your finger in your little one’s mouth to feel the power of those jaws and gums.

With the first molars not due to appear until around 12 months or later, it’s important not to delay offering your baby foods to chew until then. Pureed and mashed foods don’t promote the development of the mouth and jaw, which will be needed in the second year to power those molars and the ones that follow.

Staying with purees for too long can even lead to an aversion to solid foods and you might find yourself spoon-feeding into the toddler years. By 12 months, your baby should eat the same foods as the rest of the family.

Many people are confused about their baby’s iron needs at around six months. Although it is true that naturally stored iron from pregnancy starts to run low, at six months the main source of iron for your baby is still breastmilk or formula. As you introduce into her diet naturally iron-rich foods, which are more readily absorbed and less likely to cause constipation, these will supplement what she gets from milk.

Choose foods, such as red meat, chicken, pork, seafood, leafy green vegetables and beans. Avoid iron-fortified rice cereal, which has little else to offer nutritionally, and look for more nourishing cereals, such as oats. Include foods high in Vitamin C, which helps the body absorb iron from food.

Baby Rice Cereal – 4 Reasons Why It’s Unhealthy.

What finger food can my 6 month old eat?

As your baby slowly adapts to eating more and more solid food, remember her tummy is still quite small, so allow her to go at her own pace. It’s important to choose foods that have a high nutritional value, so that she gets the most from her diet.

Babies start by eating only small amounts at a time, so begin by adding a mixture of fruits, vegetables, proteins and carbohydrates as well as grains and fibre to their meal times.

Colours and textures are important for children, too. A wide variety of colorful foods will not only make mealtimes more fun, but will also provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals to support your baby’s development.

If you’re not sure about how to get started, here are a few ideas on foods you can offer:

Roasted sweet potatoes
Wholegrain pitta dippers with hummus
Steamed carrot sticks and broccoli trees
Smashed avocado on toast
Melon sticks and yogurt
Pasta and sauce
Sauteed green beans with chopped chicken
Banana and nut butter.

You can find more tips on trying different foods by reading our article 10 First Foods To Try When Baby Led Weaning.

Sleep and settling your 25 week old baby

Your 25 week old baby is approaching yet another Wonder Week. If she is currently settling well and sleeping for extended periods, don’t be surprised if this changes again over the next few weeks.

You might be tempted to fill your baby with solids in the evening, to make her settle for longer at night. Her digestive system is working hard right now, though, and adjusting to processing foods other than milk, so it’s important not to overload her, especially at bedtime. Rather than making her sleep longer, she might be more disturbed during the night, due to indigestion.

Night waking is not something you can prevent with food. A rapidly developing baby will wake during the night, regardless, and breastfeeding her back to sleep is a natural way to help put her at ease.

If your baby is no longer breastfed, giving formula during the night is also okay; your baby is just not yet ready to go through the night without feeds.

If your baby is still breastfed, you might find our article Nighttime Breastfeeding – 7 Reasons Why It’s So Important an interesting read.

It might be harder to get your 25 week old baby down for naps during the day. Now she is mobile, play time offers her lots to see and do, as she rolls around on the floor. She might need some quiet time to wind down before being ready to take a nap.

Many babies find a feed–play–feed–sleep pattern works best for them. Feeding – especially at the breast – relaxes them and prepares their mind for sleep. Other babies at this age have no trouble going off to the land of nod, and can fall asleep wherever and whenever they need to.

The baby you left happily playing on the floor five minutes ago might be fast asleep when you check again. Some people worry that sleeping outside the baby’s cot doesn’t count; some even call it ‘junk sleep’, implying it’s as bad as junk food. Relax. Sleep is sleep, no matter where it happens, and if your baby is content enough to fall asleep wherever she is, it’s obviously sleep she needs and will benefit from.

Read more about this in our article Does Your Baby Junk Sleep? 4 Surprising Facts About Baby Sleep.

Why do babies sleep with their arms up?

Have you ever wondered why most babies adopt this adorable pose when they sleep? The good news is, it’s a sign your baby is comfortable and relaxed while asleep. Paediatricians agree that sleeping in the arms up or ‘Superman’ position – as long as you’re practising safe sleep methods – is perfectly safe for your baby.

Too warm

There might be a number of reasons your little one sleeps in this way. Sleeping with arms up allows the fresh air to circulate around their body. If your baby is too warm during sleep, raising the arms in this way is an effective way too cool down.

Comfortable

The ‘back to sleep’ recommendation still applies until your baby is 1 year old. At 25 weeks, it’s still important to lay your baby down on her back for naps. If she’s able to roll back and forth easily on her own, that’s ok. You don’t need to roll her onto her back while she’s sleeping.

When babies sleep on their backs they are limited as to which positions they can move their arms and legs into during sleep. The raised arm position is a natural and comfortable position for them and is nothing you need worry about.

Safe and secure

Many babies will feel secure falling asleep with their arms resting on a firm surface and it is thought to be a way to prevent younger babies startling themselves awake as a result of their moro reflex. When they have the sensation they are falling, they will suddenly fling their arms up in the air, palms up and fingers splayed. This is known as the moro reflex and it is completely normal.The moro reflex is present from birth and usually disappears between 4 and 6 months of age.

25 week old baby development – what should my baby be doing?

Your 25 week old baby loves to play and you are her favourite playmate. It can be frustrating to find you can’t leave your baby at this age to play happily while you go about your work. After just 5 or 10 minutes alone, having tummy time on her play mat, she starts to look for you and becomes distressed without you by her side.

It’s normal for your baby to need your company. She enjoys interacting with you and her toys for most of her play time. This often means you need to let go of all but the most essential household tasks or do them while you wear her in a baby carrier, rather than expect her to entertain herself.

As your baby becomes more mobile, it’s important to give her as much space as she needs to explore and develop these new skills. You also need to keep her – and your belongings – safe, so you might consider a playpen or other safety measures for your home.

A too-small playpen won’t allow your baby much space to roll and begin to crawl and, once she is crawling well, it will be too restrictive for her. Even a large playpen is really only suitable for short periods of time – perhaps while you shower, prepare dinner or mop the floors.

You might find it easier to secure a whole room for your baby to explore safely. You might need baby gates on the doors to limit her range to this space. If you clear the room of small furniture that might topple when she tries to pull herself up to stand and make sure to secure larger units to the wall, this will create a safe space where you can confidently let her move around freely.

If you’re feeling pressure from others to sleep train your little one, you might have concerns about how this could affect your baby’s development.

BellyBelly’s article Sleep Training – 6 Risks to Consider First is great reading for all parents.