4 months baby will now try to turn slowly during this period and will eventually succeed! During this period, most babies have the strength to lift their head and arms off the ground when they lie face down. They can usually raise their heads 90o and enjoy getting up and looking around. At this stage, you can put a toy next to your baby (in his field of vision) and encourage him to pick it up. To support the development of your baby’s muscles, you can dangle a toy from above and encourage him to reach for it. In this month, you can start exercises that will gradually affect the rotation positively. You can find such exercises in our Kidokit application.
The great importance of the ready environment…
Your baby’s turn will make the landscaping much more important. As a matter of fact, being able to turn also means being able to fall or reach harmful objects after a while. Therefore, taking into account your baby’s range of motion, necessary precautions must be taken in advance. (Click on the link to learn what you can do for a “Child-Friendly and Safe Home”.) For example, you should keep in mind that your baby may move suddenly while changing diapers.
One of the best environmental arrangements you can do for your baby is to leave him on a not too hard floor, to provide a space for him to move, and if possible, to place a mirror next to this movement area. (If you haven’t read our article on “Montessori Room Arrangements” for the necessary tips when arranging these areas, we recommend that you read it as soon as possible. For example, the mobiles you will hang will help the eye muscles to develop on the one hand, and encourage him to lie down on the other. During this period, your baby can now follow rotating objects. Therefore, mobiles or mobiles are still enjoyable toys for them. Usually 15 cm from their face. They can track a distant object 180o. Again, balls that you can hang on the ceiling can support the development of gross motor muscles by supporting reaching and hitting efforts. (If you haven’t done anything yet for mobiles and balls that you can do at home, click the mobile link.) He can’t fully grasp or grasp the balls yet, but tries to reach out.
Colors are starting to make sense…
Now your baby has started to perceive the differences between colors. Therefore, using different colors in toys (especially using the basic colors red, yellow and blue in the first stage) is beneficial to support the development of the sense of sight. In addition, different materials that you can put next to him in the movement area and allow him to reach by reaching out will open the way for new discoveries, on the one hand, and on the one hand, they will develop motor muscles and hand-eye coordination.
Although your baby does not yet understand that the person in the mirror is his own reflection (he will not understand this until the age of two), looking at this moving baby in the mirror is a very pleasant experience for him. It will linger thanks to the person in the mirror; will follow certain movements and the presence of the mirror will contribute to the analysis of cause-effect relationships after a while.
Your baby’s emotional development
Your baby’s emotional development is also progressing rapidly. Now he begins to know his environment and to trust his environment. Your baby’s crying decreases and he starts to recognize his relatives. He will slowly start using his memory, waiting for rewards from his actions. Approving your baby’s actions with smiles, communicating with your baby eye to eye and ensuring a certain order in the environment, supporting the sense of trust, singing songs to your baby; In short, showing that you love and stand by your baby is the most natural and easy way to support his emotional development. The beautiful moments you spent with him, the “firsts” you witnessed and the small responses from him will open an incredibly pleasant window in your emotional world.
Your baby usually doesn’t like to be alone. When your guests arrive, place your baby where they can see and hear you. In this way, he will continue to observe in his own world or he will be happy to feel your voice close to him. If you absolutely have to leave him, you can do this by turning on nice music for your baby.
Preparations for the healthy transition of your baby’s weaning from breast milk in the future, and little introductions with new tastes…
Before we leave you this week, we would like to talk about some preparations you need to make before your baby is weaned in the future. If you still have milk, when we say conscious weaning, it actually coincides with when your baby is one or even one and a half years old. However, there is a reason why we are opening this issue from these days. As we have said before, conscious motherhood is about being ready. The efficiency of the weaning process also includes a long and planned preparation process. The purpose of weaning preparation is both to help our baby eat healthily and to prepare him for new sensory experiences (eg certain tastes, smells, etc.).
Let’s take a look at what you can do at the age of 3-4 months in this process:
During this period, we can start giving the baby a taste of fruit juice. But please pay attention to the meaning of our words. We don’t say we start drinking, we just make them taste it. This is mainly for sensory experiences. Juice;
– once a day,
– one hour before feeding,
– with a small dessert spoon, put a little fruit juice into the spoon and let our baby taste it by touching it to his lips,
– by looking at our baby’s face and making eye contact with him.
You can give organic apple juice for the first time. You can just rub a few drops on your lips to taste it. After doing these exercises for a few days, you can give a teaspoon of apple juice once a day. After a week, you can switch to fruit juices such as peach juice, carrot juice. (We should avoid acidic juices such as orange juice.) It is a good idea to give the same juice for several days to see if the baby develops an allergy to the given juice. These tiny tasting sessions will encourage your baby to be more receptive to different tastes and smells and more inclined to experiment in the future.