Fashion and your Child, do they mix?

This article looks at the first stages of your baby’s development, the perfect time for baby modelling if they’re a smiley little cherub! So what can you expect to see from your baby in terms of changes in the first year and a half? Well, from three months of age you may notice your baby using their tongue and mouth to explore toys, and by about four months he/she will hold and look carefully at objects.

At around nine months, your baby will start to pick up objects with their thumb and finger. Pointing at objects can begin by nine months, but most toddlers will do this by 14 months to show what they want, such as food they know they like. Grouping objects such as foods into visual categories begins at around nine months. From one year of age, toddlers can recognise food by sight, smell and taste, and can begin to recognise that a different-shaped biscuit might taste like a biscuit they have had before. About one-third of babies can sit alone without support between four to six months, and by nine to eleven months almost all babies can do this.

First words can happen anywhere between nine and 18 months. Between three and five months babies start to be able to recognise adults’ different facial expressions but they don’t understand them until around seven months. They can’t link them to different emotions. They will likely make different facial expressions when eating depending on if they like the food or not. They’ll have that cute grimace when given something they don’t like the taste of. After ten months your baby can link facial expressions and emotions. They will likely have taken an interest in people’s faces since birth but you might notice that by four months they understand and watch facial interactions with others, mimicking expressions and such. This is a great time for baby modelling because they love replicating smiles!

By age two they will start imitating other kids and by three or four they will choose to eat the same foods as the other children are eating. Eating with your child makes mealtimes relaxed and happy parts of the day. It gives the child an opportunity to learn by copying you and those around them. Set a good example by eating things you want them to also eat because they are far more likely to want to try something they see you enjoying, even if it is just broccoli!