Celebrate with your little one as they reach these milestones for 6-month-old babies.
6-month-old milestones for your baby:
Thinking
- Shows interest in complex patterns
- Focuses on small objects
- Smoothly tracks moving objects
- Increased attention span
- Experiments with cause and effect
- Discovers object permanence (an object is still there even when they can’t see it)
- Understands sequencing (setting up a high chair means it’s time to eat)
Moving
- Holds up their head without support when upright
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Pushes up to elbows and arches back when on stomach
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Rocks on stomach; waves arms and legs
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Rolls from stomach to back, then back to stomach
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Sits in frog- or tripod-like position without support
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Coordinates hands and eyes (sees an object, then reaches for it)
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Rakes object toward them and grasps it
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Brings object to mouth with good accuracy
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Uses hands to explore body; grabs feet when lying on back
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Can stand on your lap or a firm surface and bounce
Communicating
- Uses different cries to express hunger, pain, sleepiness, or boredom
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Listens to your language patterns and copies those sounds
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Makes more complex, two-syllable babbles that combine vowels and consonants (“ah-goo,” “bah-bah”)
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Babbles begin to sound like intonation used in real language
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Squeals, giggles, and laughs to draw attention
Understanding
- Distinguishes emotions from your tone of voice and expressions
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Uses voice and facial expressions to convey emotions
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Observes faces; makes and maintains eye contact
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Copies facial expressions and movements
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Expresses emotions more distinctly
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Soothed by your presence and voice when upset
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Personality becomes more apparent
And those are the milestones for your 6-month-old. Your baby is already half a year old, so they’ll be walking and talking before you know it. Be sure to look out for milestones coming at 7 months!
If I could give advice to my former self and mommas-to-be, it would be don't stress the small stuff because there are way worse things that could happen. – Enfamil® mom