For the first year of life, the baby goes a long way in development - from a helpless newborn to an active strong man who has already begun to walk and uttered the first words. At 3 months, the baby has already passed the stage of adaptation to the world. Now everything becomes interesting to him, and he shows curiosity. The child is already available much more movements, sensations.
Perception
The child shows more and more interest in the people around him. How is it shown? What should a child at 3 months be able to do in terms of communication? He recognizes Mom and Dad's voice. When an adult speaks with the baby, he can notice his focused look. The child listens to speech. He distinguishes speech from everyday noises or music, and the conversation of people is of particular interest to him. On this ever-growing interest, independent speech of the child will also develop. He will feel that his mouth can make the same sounds.
The development of a child at 3 months leads to the fact that perception begins to differ in objectivity. This means that the baby’s gaze grabs individual objects from the surrounding reality. Each object is distinguished by several properties that can be perceived not only visually, like color, shape, size, but also tactile and by ear. In addition, children are very actively trying to lick, bite, suck all objects - they taste and feel with their tongue, where there are more nerve endings than on the fingers. The child likes to study the world - he touches different objects, feels fabrics of different textures, considers pictures and faces of people.
Communication and prerequisites for speech
The cries of the child acquire a variety of intonations. From the volume and tone of the cry and the behavior of the child at this moment, you can understand what he needs. It was at this time that the children began to walk. Walking resembles a combination of vowels - aa, ae, ya, which sometimes alternate with back-lingual consonants - k, d, x, which are pronounced by the root of the tongue. Such a sound is very convenient to pronounce while lying on the back, and it is in this position that the child is most of the time.
But the baby communicates with the help of facial expressions. It is 3 months - the time of the appearance of a smile in response to the appeal of the parents. The kid distinguishes the intonation of adult speech. All this is reflected in the sounds that he makes.
What should a child be able to do at 3 months? It should respond to adult communication with a complex of animation. So they call walking, waving arms and legs and a smile. This is an expression of positive emotions, as opposed to screaming. The kid shows that he is satisfied when he is paid attention. A child of 3 months already knows how to laugh.
Height and weight in 3 months
The baby continues to accumulate fatty tissue. It rounds, acquires puffy cheeks and dressings on the body. For normal height and weight in three-month-old children there is a fairly large scatter. Height can vary from 54 to 64 cm, and the weight of a child at 3 months can be from 3 to 6 kg. The size of the baby also depends on its height and birth weight. How much does an average child weigh at 3 months? Boys weigh 5.250 kg and have a height of 59 cm, and girls a little less: weight - 4800 g and height - 58 cm. With breastfeeding, the differences in height and weight in different children are quite large.
By the way, if the baby eats breast milk, then doctors treat excess of weight more favorably than with artificial feeding. The fact is that breastfeeding is almost impossible to overfeed, and if the baby is large, this can be considered a personal norm. And on artificial feeding, the baby’s health may be threatened by the composition of the mixture, richer in fats and sugars, and the liquid from the bottle comes in so easily that some children may not calculate how much they need. Deviations from the average weight of the child at 3 months are considered normal if the child feels well. This means that he is active and full of interest in the world around him, eats and sleeps normally, writes at least 12 times a day, and defecates 6-8 times. Another criterion for adequate nutrition is the growth of nails and hair.
Fading reflexes
A baby's development at 3 months suggests that most newborn reflexes disappear. For example, a search reflex, when in response to stroking the corner of the lips, the child opens his mouth and turns his head toward stroking. Proboscis reflex: if you touch the upper lip, the baby will stretch out the lips with a tube. Babkin's reflex: in response to a light pressure on the palm of the hand, the baby opens his mouth and puts his head forward.
Active reflexes
Some reflexes may still persist, for example, the Moro reflex. And some must be active, for example, the sucking reflex, the crawl reflex. The neonatal grasping reflex at 3 months goes away. But the unconditioned reflex is replaced by the conditioned. The child grabs the item consciously, not because his hands themselves are compressed.
The palms of the baby often become open, and not clenched into fists - the tone of the flexors, which at birth was increased and supported the embryo's pose, gradually decreases. The child explores not only the world around him, but also his body. He is interested in the face, hands. The kid palpates his eyes and nose, examines his hands with curiosity, holding them in front of him.
Motor development
What should a child be able to do at 3 months? Firstly, the baby can hold the head lying on his stomach. He can rotate it in all directions. In addition, he is already trying to crouch - he rises on his elbows to see more. But before the actual sitting takes another 2-3 months.
The first movements in space that are accessible to the child are turning over from the back to the stomach. The kid sways, lying on his back to roll over. Sometimes this can be halfway, and the child is lying on his side. And increased activity requires freedom of movement. Do not swaddle and wrap the baby. This will limit it in movements and slow down motor development.
The child begins to swing his whole body, lying on his back. Why is he doing this? He is trying to roll over on his stomach. The baby's legs are also stronger. He knows how to push them off the side of the crib or sofa. Therefore, parents have to be careful and not leave him where he may fall.
Breast-feeding
Nutrition for a three-month-old baby - breast milk for breastfeeding and a mixture for artificial. During the day, the baby should be applied to the chest 6-8 times, and overnight - 2-3 times. This determines the mode of the day of the child at 3 months. At a time, the child drinks 100-150 g of milk.
Artificial Feeding
If the mother does not have milk, then the child at 3 months of age is fed less by artificial feeding. In this case, the number of feedings is reduced to 6 times a day - the mixture requires much more time for assimilation. At night, a 6-hour break is taken.
The mixture is considered to be a thicker food than milk, so children on artificial feeding need additional fluid. It can be a compote of dried apples, a rosehip broth or just water. For 1 kg of weight, 100-120 ml per day is given. This is not enough for some children. If a child is thirsty, there is nothing wrong with giving him more fluid. Some children, on the contrary, refuse to drink. You can try changing the drink. But, of course, it is impossible to make a baby drink.
Sleep and mode
If the newborn sleeps almost round the clock with interruptions in food, then a three-month-old child only needs 10-11 hours of night sleep and 5-7 - day. The baby can sleep much longer at night without waking up. A baby's daytime sleep at 3 months is usually distributed over 4 intervals. It is best if 2 of them fall out for a walk. You need to walk with your child in any weather, except in severe frosts (less than -10) and heat (more than +40). The mode of a child’s day at 3 months is ultimately formed so that his wakeful period is also divided into intervals. Each of them is 1-2 hours.
A baby’s sleep at 3 months usually ranges from 15 to 17 hours — about the same as the waking time of an adult who sleeps about 8 hours. The rest of the time, the baby is active. Right now, developing games, gymnastics, swimming, massage can come in handy. The child’s interest in speech has the potential to read fairy tales and rhymes to him, to speak with him.
Games and toys
What games and toys are suitable for a three month old baby? Those that help to master the world, the movements of your body and objects. For example, regular balloons can be very interesting for a baby. You can tie the ball to the baby’s hand, and then he will follow how the ball moves after his handle, and a relationship will begin to be established in the brain. The child learns to control his body and objects.
The mobile can be fixed at a distance of 15-20 cm from the eyes of the child. It is better to hang 2-3 toys on it - the baby's attention so far cannot reach more. Toys need to be changed after 4-5 days. After all, they will bore the baby, and he needs new objects to study.
It is better to hang the rattle at a distance of about 45 cm from the eyes. The kid will reach it with a pen. Imagine what an entertaining task for the child’s brain is to establish that the hand sets the rattle in motion and the rattle makes a sound. After all, all these, at first glance, primitive games are the development of causal relationships. What should a child be able to do at 3 months? Hold the toy, look at it, catch the sound source.
For the same purpose, bells are also suitable. They are hung from the mobile. The goal is to master the same logic: movement causes sound.
There are also soft rag bell bracelets that are worn on the wrist. It is important to wear this bracelet in turn on one hand, then on the other. After all, his bright color and the sound made by him help to draw the attention of a child to his own hands and their movements.
Toys such as a tumbler toy and a yule are also useful for the development of a child. They also move and make a sound. But for starters, an adult must show how to use them - how to unwind a yule, pump a tumbler toy. After a few shows, the baby himself will begin to try to do the same.
What do games develop?
If you ask which analyzer these games develop, it is best to answer that all at once. At this age, there are no separate games for the development of vision, hearing or touch. Toys for children 3 months old are designed for all senses. Indeed, most often a child masters the world at once with all his senses - he touches a toy and puts it into action with his hand, observes with his eyes, hears a sound.