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That little bundle of energy is almost a toddler now, and they’re starting to realize there’s a big world out there to explore. Life is so much fun with a 10-month-old baby!
Let's find out in this article the 10-month old milestones you can expect as your baby turns into an independent little person who gets around, plays, and communicates like a pro.
As a parent, ensuring that your baby is reaching the 10-month old developmental milestones can often seem daunting. Knowing that you're not alone in this journey can help you ease up.
A baby at this age are often on the move. They like nothing more than to drop a spoon from the highchair over and over again. If you aren't saying "No!" now, chances are you've said it in the last few hours.
Welcome to life with a 10-month-old. At this age, infant development is rapid.
10-month old developmental milestones
You’re likely thinking in your head about things like 10-month old developmental milestones and whether your baby is missing any big ones that you’ve overlooked.
So, to put your mind at ease, here’s some of what you can expect from your baby at this age.
List of developmental milestones for 10-month-old babies
- Gross motor skills using the body's large muscles like sitting, standing, walking, running, keeping balance, holding on to furniture.
- Fine motor skills using the small muscles like using hands for eating, drawing, dressing, playing, waving bye bye.
- Language skills like speaking, using body language and gestures.
- Social skills like connecting and having relationships with others, cooperating, and responding to others' feelings.
- Cognitive skills like learning, understanding, problem-solving, reasoning, and remembering.
10-Month-Old Baby Food
You can continue to expand your baby’s palate from breast milk or formula, by offering a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, yogurt, and meats.
Be sure to avoid choking hazards such as popcorn, raisins, nuts, hard candy, whole grapes, and hot dogs cut into circles.
While you can feed your 10-month old baby solid foods, it is advisable to feed them soft foods, or introduce thicker consistencies and more table foods cut up into small pieces that you serve as finger foods.
Letting them feed themselves these finger foods allows them to practice their pincer grasp, and it helps them practice their coordination skills by picking the food up and putting it in their mouth.
How to introduce your baby to self-feeding
- Try giving your baby a spoon and letting them feed themselves. Choose a utensil with a large, easy-to-grasp handle. The first few times your baby feeds themselves will be messy, but every mess can be cleaned, and eating independently is an important skill to learn.
- Place a mat under their chair for easier clean-up and to protect your floors from any potential mess.
- Keep their meals varied, so they don't get bored.
- Help him or her to use a spoon, but do not overwhelm your baby, allow your baby to try to do it alone - enjoy as your baby takes baby steps into several important 10 month old developmental milestones with this single task.
10-Month-Old Baby Sleep
With all that activity, it’s not surprising that their afternoon nap is losing its appeal or that they’d rather stay up the hours at night.
However, some holistic sleep practices you can follow for your baby's development include:
- Minimizing stimulation or activity as bedtime nears
- Sticking to a bedtime routine like giving a bath and reading a book
- Putting your baby down for sleep when they’re drowsy rather than asleep
- Encouraging self-soothing
Sleep duration of a 10-month old baby
Babies this age sleep for a total of about 12 to 16 hours per day, with roughly 9 to 12 hours of sleep at night and the rest in daytime naps.
By 10 months, your baby may usually be down to a single one-hour nap during the day. but there's nothing to worry about if they are still taking 2 naps.
If you’re going to skip a nap, it’s better to skip the morning one. An after-lunch nap will help your baby stay awake through the afternoon and avoid pre-bedtime crankiness.
Your baby should make up for the lost nap by sleeping for an extra hour or two at night, and sleeping through the night.
10-Month-Old Schedule
Reading
Set aside time for reading every day even if it's only a few minutes. At this age, your baby might love books with flaps, textures or activities. Make your reading more interesting by adding facial expressions, sound effects and voices for characters.
Reading picture books to your baby at this age can be an excellent engaging activity, also pushing several developmental milestones. You can look at picture books with your baby and talk about the pictures.
Play
Hide toys and help your little one look for them to practice object permanence - the idea that things continue to exist, even when they can’t see them.
Speech
Talk to your baby whenever you can and give your child a chance to reply. Using adult speech, not baby talk, teaches your baby to imitate words correctly.
Aiding your baby speech related developmental milestones
You can aid your baby's language and speech skills in the following ways:
- Identify the objects your baby notices in his everyday environment or in the house and name them. This will help with their linguistic and communication development.
- Using all the languages your family speaks helps your child learn them at the same time.
- Engage your baby in real conversations. For instance, respond to their babbles with “Really?” or “That’s so interesting!” Or carry on a conversation using a stuffed animal or puppet.
- Turn on the tunes. Any type of music will work, whether it’s pop, country, or show tunes. Your baby will love bopping and bouncing along to the rhythm.
- Use actions with words, such as waving bye-bye.
A 10-month-old baby loves conversation, so talk to them constantly. They won't be able to say proper words yet, but you can teach them language by repeating the correct words back to them.
10-Month-Old Baby Health and Safety
Move anything out of reach that could be poisonous, pose a choking hazard or break into small pieces. Cover electrical outlets and use stairway gates.
Gates between rooms can help keep your fast-moving baby in safe areas too. Install child locks on doors and cabinets. If you have furniture with sharp edges, pad the corners or remove it from areas where your baby plays.
The same goes for lightweight objects your baby might use to pull up to a standing position, such as plant stands and small tables. Anchor bookcases, televisions and their stands to the wall.
Steer your baby away from unsafe situations. Use a calm no if your baby hurts others. Explain calmly why the action isn't OK, and then redirect your baby's attention.
10-Month-Old Baby Care Basics
A 10-month old baby growing up healthy should ideally show progress in the discussed developmental milestones. Your baby might reach some developmental milestones ahead of schedule and lag behind a bit on others.
It's a good idea, however, to be aware of the signs or symptoms of a problem. You would want to get help if your baby:
- Does not crawl or consistently drags one side of the body while crawling.
- Cannot stand with help.
- Does not use gestures at all, such as waving bye bye or shaking the head.
- Does not babble or attempt words such as "mama" or "dada."
- Does not search for objects that are hidden while your baby watches.
- Does not point to objects or pictures.
- Can’t sit without assistance.
- Won’t respond to her own name.
- Doesn’t put weight on her legs.
- Doesn’t play any games involving back-and-forth play.
- Doesn’t recognize adults she knows.
- Doesn’t look where you point.
- Can’t transfer toys between her hands.
Conclusion
Remember, all children are different and develop skills at different times. It is normal for a child to be behind in some areas and ahead in others. Raising Superstars' Prodigy Challengers program designed for young babies. It acts like a building block for early years development like memory, crawling and creating a base for your child to widening their potential to learn.
For babies born prematurely, milestones are based on their corrected age (your baby's actual age minus the number of weeks or months they were born early).
Trust your instincts. The earlier a problem is found, the earlier it can be treated. Then you can look forward to the delights and challenges that lie ahead.
