Week 31

Days 211 to 217 · 30 weeks 0 days to 30 weeks 6 days old · about 7 months This week a typical baby is about 68 cm (26.8 in) long and weighs around 7.9 kg (17.5 lb), though babies vary widely and what matters is that your baby keeps following their own curve on the growth chart. Busy hands are the story now. Your baby is learning to pick up smaller things, which makes this a good time to offer more finger foods. They are also starting to understand some of the words they hear every day. For you, a heavier, wrigglier baby means more lifting, so your back deserves some care. This week covers the pincer grasp, first finger foods, early understanding, simple toys, and what to do when your baby vomits or has diarrhea.

Day 211 · 30 weeks 0 days old

Little fingers are learning to pick things up

Watch your baby go after a crumb on the high chair tray. A few months ago they would have swept at it with a flat hand. Now you may see them rake at it, curling all their fingers to drag it closer. This raking grasp usually appears around 6 to 7 months.

Next comes the pincer grasp, using the thumb and fingers together. At first babies press the pad of the thumb against the side of the index finger, a kind of clumsy pinch that often shows up somewhere around 8 to 9 months. The neat fingertip pinch, precise enough to lift a single pea, usually follows between about 9 and 12 months. As always, there is a wide range, and babies born early tend to reach these skills by their corrected age rather than their age from birth.

This new skill is a big deal for the brain. Your baby has to see something small, judge where it is, open the hand the right amount and close it at the right moment. Every attempt is practice.

It also means your baby can now find tiny objects you might miss. A quick sweep of the floor before playtime is worth the effort, as you read in the weeks on choking hazards and babyproofing.

Try this: Put a few soft pieces of cooked vegetable on the tray at lunch and watch which grasp your baby uses.

Day 212 · 30 weeks 1 day old

Finger foods let your baby take the lead

Whether you started with purees or went straight to baby-led weaning, finger foods have a place at this age. Holding food, squishing it and getting it to their mouth helps babies practise chewing, hand control and the idea that eating is something they do, not something done to them.

Good first finger foods are soft enough to mash between your thumb and finger, and shaped so a baby can grip them. Before the pincer grasp is reliable, long strips about the size of an adult finger work best, because your baby can hold one end in a fist and gnaw the other. Think steamed carrot or broccoli stalks, strips of omelette, toast fingers with a thin spread, ripe avocado or banana with a little peel left on for grip, and soft-cooked strips of meat or fish.

As the pincer grasp develops, you can offer smaller, pea-sized pieces of soft food. Keep serving purees and mashed foods alongside if your baby still enjoys them. Most babies eat a mix of textures for months.

Expect mess, gagging and lots of food on the floor. Gagging is a normal safety reflex, as you read when your baby started solids. Stay with your baby, keep them sitting upright, and let them go at their own pace. Try this: Offer one new finger food at today's meal, cut into a strip your baby can hold in their fist.

Day 213 · 30 weeks 2 days old

Your baby understands more than they can say

Long before first words, babies start to understand them. Around this age, many babies turn when they hear their own name. Over the coming months, they often begin to recognize a handful of familiar words: "milk", "bath", "Mama", "Dada", the dog's name, "bye-bye" and the tone of a firm "no". This understanding grows from repetition in real moments. Your baby hears "bath" every evening as the water runs and the towel comes out. Eventually the word alone brings a kick of excitement. Researchers call this receptive language, and it races ahead of spoken language all through the first years. A baby who says nothing yet may understand dozens of words by their first birthday.

You can help simply by naming things as you go. Use the same words for the same things. Point and pause: "There's your cup." Talk about what your baby is looking at, rather than what you wish they were looking at.

There is no need for flashcards or special programs. Ordinary chatter during diaper changes, meals and walks is exactly what young brains are built to learn from.

If your baby never seems to react to sounds or voices, mention it to your baby's doctor or nurse. Hearing can change after a newborn screen, and a check is quick.

Try this: Pick three words you say every day, like "bath", "milk" and "up", and say them clearly each time the moment comes.

Day 214 · 30 weeks 3 days old

When your baby throws up

Vomiting is forceful, unlike the easy spit-up of early months. In babies of this age, the most common cause is a tummy bug, a viral gastroenteritis, which often brings diarrhea a day or so later.

The main goal is to keep fluids going in. Keep offering the breast or bottle, in smaller amounts more often. If your baby keeps bringing up milk, your doctor or pharmacist may suggest an oral rehydration solution, given in small sips with a spoon or syringe every few minutes. Avoid juice, sports drinks and homemade sugar or salt mixtures. Solid foods can wait until your baby feels like eating again.

Most tummy bugs pass within a day or two. Wash your hands well after every diaper and clean-up.

Call your baby's doctor if your baby cannot keep any fluids down for more than a few hours, vomits for more than a day, has a fever, or shows signs of dehydration (see day 218).

Get help right away if the vomit is green or contains blood, your baby is very sleepy or hard to wake, has a swollen or hard tummy, or is in pain that comes and goes with pulling up of the legs.

Try this: Ask your pharmacist about oral rehydration solution today, so you know what to buy if you ever need it.

Day 215 · 30 weeks 4 days old

Loose stools and what to do about them

Babies who eat solids have stools that change from day to day. New foods can bring new colours, smells and textures, and a little undigested food in the diaper is normal. Diarrhea is something else: stools that are much more watery and much more frequent than usual for your baby.

Most diarrhea at this age is caused by a virus and clears up within a few days to a week. Keep breastfeeding or giving formula as usual. If your baby is losing fluid quickly, an oral rehydration solution can help replace it. Once your baby is hungry, offer ordinary foods. There is no need for a special bland diet, but avoid fruit juice, which can make diarrhea worse. Diarrhea is hard on skin. Change diapers promptly, rinse with water, pat dry and use a thick layer of barrier cream, just as you did for diaper rash in the early weeks.

In many places, babies get the rotavirus vaccine in the first months. It protects well against one of the worst causes of severe diarrhea. If you are unsure whether your baby had it, check their vaccine record.

Call your baby's doctor if the diarrhea contains blood or mucus, lasts more than a few days, comes with a fever or vomiting, or if your baby has fewer wet diapers than usual.

Try this: Keep a tube of barrier cream and a spare outfit in the diaper bag, since diarrhea rarely picks a convenient moment.

Day 216 · 30 weeks 5 days old

The best toys are often the simplest

Walk through any toy shop and you would think babies need flashing lights and electronic voices. They do not. At this age, the toys that hold attention longest are often the plainest ones, because your baby can do so much with them.

Think of things your baby can bang, shake, drop, stack, squeeze and pass from hand to hand. Wooden spoons and a metal pot. Plastic cups that nest. A ball with holes to grip. Soft blocks. A cardboard box with a lid. A basket of safe household objects, like a silicone whisk, a clean sponge or a small cloth, can keep a baby busy for longer than any gadget.

Simple toys leave the work to your baby. A rattle only rattles if they shake it. A block only falls if they push it. That sense of making things happen is how babies learn cause and effect.

Check every toy for small parts, loose pieces and button batteries, and rotate a few at a time rather than offering everything at once. A toy that disappears into a cupboard for a week often seems brand new when it comes back. Try this: Fill a low basket with five safe objects from your kitchen and let your baby explore it while you sit nearby.

Day 217 · 30 weeks 6 days old

Look after your back as your baby gets heavier

Your baby now weighs nearly two and a half times what they did at birth, and you lift them dozens of times a day. Into the crib, out of the car seat, up from the floor, onto your hip. Many parents notice an aching lower back, sore wrists or stiff shoulders around now.

A few habits make a real difference. Bend your knees and hold your baby close to your body before you lift, rather than reaching out with straight arms. Avoid twisting while you carry weight. Switch the hip you carry on, and put your baby down rather than holding them on one side for long stretches. Lower the crib mattress, which you need to do now anyway, and raise the change table or use a mat on a counter at waist height while you keep one hand on your baby.

Car seats are awkward. Climb partly into the car instead of reaching in from the doorway, and carry an infant seat close to your body or switch to a stroller base.

Gentle strengthening helps too, building on the return to exercise from the early months. If pain is sharp, spreads down your leg, or does not ease after a couple of weeks, see your doctor or a physiotherapist.

For your partner: Take over the heaviest lifts of the day, like car seat transfers and bath time, and notice when the birth parent is rubbing their back.