infants growth

Infants come into the world not knowing how to do anything. All needs need to be taken care of by the parents and other significant adults in the child's life. As the child grows the child meets certain milestones and slowly starts to learn to do things on their own. For example an infant learns to roll over from their back to their stomach. The first few times this is done it's done by mistake and usually the infant has pushed up against a toy or furniture to help them roll over. This may scare an infant the first few times they do it, but then they learn to do it on purpose and they learn it's a natural thing to do.

The first year of a child's life is about learning how their body works and how to move it. The parents roll in the first year is to make sure the child's basic needs are met and that they're safe. Making sure a child's basic needs are met means feeding, changing diapers, cuddling and playing with them etc. Making sure they're safe means having a car seat that meets regulations, outlets are covered and that they have a safe environment for them to move around in that will help them meet the milestones they need to meet during the first year.

A milestone infants reach is babbling. Babbling and making sounds is the beginning of vocabulary and speaking. It starts with an infants cries. Infants have four cries that help them express what they want. The first one is the basic cry that has intervals of silence such as a child stops when they see the bottle, but if the parent doesn't give it to them right away they start crying again. The second cry is the angry cry that occurs when an infant is angry about something. The third cry is the pain cry that is usually a long wail followed by the infant not breathing because they're holding their breathe. The fourth cry is the hungry cry and it has an urgency to it.

A lot of times as children are taking the initiative to meet a milestone parents freak out because the child is still dependent on them. Where children come into the world not knowing how to do anything parents forget that children need to learn to do things for themselves and often it takes a doctor, caregiver or extended family member to ask if the child is doing something for the parent to realize that the child should be doing the task themselves. Don't feel guilty it's a pattern all parents fall into because parent's are so used to doing everything for the child. Therefore, we forget that the child should be learning to feed themselves, pull themselves to a standing position, walk around a table holding onto for it support etc.

When my child was three I was folding the laundry and started to put her clothes away like I always had since she was born when I realized she was old enough to start doing this for herself. I stopped putting her clothes away and called her into the room and taught her how to put her clothes away. Parents shouldn't be afraid of letting their children do things for themselves. When children learn to do things for themselves such as roll over they learn the beginnings of how to move their bodies. When a child learns how to put their clothes away they learn the basics of organization. All  parents get in the rut of doing everything for their children because in the beginning we have to. As they grow and become capable of doing more themselves let them be the capable human beings they are. Often the tantrums that start around the age one begin and occur because the parents are still trying to do too much for them instead of letting the child do more on their own.