11th Month Guide

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11th Month Guide While the eleventh month may not be a lot different for you and your baby than the tenth, it could be as different as night and day. This is because any babies that weren’t walking and climbing last month could very well decide to take off during this month. It is also possible that your baby wasn’t walking last month and still isn’t. This is perfectly normal and, just like everything else involving babies, really doesn’t signify anything except the simple fact that they aren’t walking yet.

Whether your baby’s eleventh month involves a big leap in mobility or not, there are many new things that can occur during this month and many new experiences that parents and babies may have. The eleventh month is a time of learning, of understanding, of playing and laughing and having fun. This is not just for babies, either. The parents during this month often learn as much as their babies do and can have just as much fun by watching their baby have fun.

Physical Development and Appearance

The eleventh month usually brings with it slightly more thinning out, because your baby will depend more on food for nutrition than ever before. This means that he will drink less formula or breast milk, and this causes babies to thin out a little. While it will vary from baby to baby, the average weight of a baby in the eleventh month is 20 or 21 pounds. At this age, there isn’t much difference in size for boys and girls, but this will change later.
At this point, there is no telling what your baby is able to do. During the eleventh month, your baby may be able to do a variety of physical activities—he may be able to pull up to standing, walk, run, and climb, or he may still just be sitting and crawling. There can be much variation in the abilities an eleven month old baby can have, and most of these are no indication of any problems. However, if your baby cannot sit up on his own during the eleventh month, you should consult with your pediatrician to be sure.
Your baby likely has at least two teeth at this point, and may have many more. During the eleventh month, your baby can understand almost everything you are saying, although she may not know what some of the words mean. Your baby probably says at least a few words at this point, and many babies can say several that are understandable.

Care for Baby

• Skin care—by the eleventh month, you will not have to apply lotion to your baby on a regular basis unless there is some sort of skin condition that your baby has. Depending on what time of year your baby was born, the eleventh month may be a time to use sunblock on a regular basis. Eleven month old babies love to be outside, and if your baby was born at a time that allows it to be warm enough outside to go out all the time during the eleventh month, you will need to put sunblock on him every time.

• Teething—just as with last month, some babies will cut teeth this month. This may be an experience that is similar to the last teething episode, or it may not be. For advice on teething, see last month’s guide.
If your baby is acting sick, but you aren’t sure that it is her teeth, you should take her to see the doctor. While many parents try to avoid taking their baby to the doctor over every little thing, it is important to know that you are not the only parent that does this. Also, it is very likely that your pediatrician has many patients whose parents are this way, and he has dealt with it before. If your pediatrician ever makes you feel like you are stupid for being concerned over minor things (and, while most pediatricians do not do this, some actually do), you should find another doctor immediately. Your baby will use a pediatrician until he is at least a teenager, so it is important that you have one that does not make you feel bad for caring. If you have a doctor like this, what can happen is that you can avoid taking your baby to the doctor for fear that it isn’t anything big and the doctor will make you feel bad for wasting his time. This is a situation you want to avoid because it could lead to your baby not being seen and treated when there really is something wrong. This is why it is important to have a doctor that you trust and can call on even if it is something minor. Your doctor should be supportive and comforting of you and your baby.

If your baby has teeth, you may also have to deal with biting during the eleventh month. See the tenth month’s guide for how to deal with this situation.

• Bathing—the biggest difference between bathing your baby at ten months and at eleven months is that it is possible that it can be a little more dangerous than before. This is because your baby may be more mobile than before, and probably doesn’t like sitting still very much at all. Plus, when a baby learns a new “trick,” he wants to do it all the time. This may mean that your baby can pull up to standing and a variety of other things. If this is the case, being in the bathtub is likely no different than being out of it, and he may pull up to standing in the tub. You can prevent injury by using a bath mat or stick-on grips for the bottom of the tub. These will help, and can work to a point, but the best way to prevent your baby from getting hurt in the tub is to prevent the standing in the first place. You should never take your eyes off baby while in the tub even for a minute. This can help prevent many accidents that could otherwise occur.
The way to teach baby not to stand is to sit him back down every time he stands. You should tell him that he has to sit down or he will get out of the bathtub. While your baby may not understand what you are saying, you should tell him this several times and, if he continues to stand, remove him from the tub. Then you can either talk to him about it and put him back in with a warning that he will get out for good (this is the best method to choose if you have not finished washing your baby yet), and then place him back in the tub, following up with what you said if necessary. The other way is to immediately remove your baby after a few warnings. It won’t take too many times of being removed from the tub for your baby to learn what you mean when you tell him that he must sit down or get out.

• Discipline—the discipline you began last month will need to continue through this month, and you will likely have to use it much more often. If you didn’t begin using discipline last month, you may still find yourself needing to during the eleventh month. This is because your baby doesn’t understand yet what is off-limits. He doesn’t know what can hurt him and what can’t, he doesn’t know what he should and shouldn’t do. The point of discipline at this age is to keep your baby safe and to teach him rules.

To avoid discipline as much as possible, you should baby-proof your house as best you can. If you ever notice something you forgot to baby-proof (and if there is anything, your baby will find it and let you know), you should immediately make it safe. One way to ensure that you have thought of everything is to peruse the baby isle of a baby store, or the baby isle of any drug store or grocery store, and search for their baby-proofing devices. Seeing what is available can often help you think of something you may have forgotten.

When your baby does something that needs discipline, there are a variety of ways to go about it. Some people spat their baby’s hand if they are touching something (or are close to touching something) that could possibly hurt them. Other methods are to sit your baby in time out (at this age, the best way to do this is to place your baby in a playpen—since he doesn’t yet understand when you tell him he can’t get up, just sitting him somewhere for time out usually defeats the purpose). Telling your baby “no” and removing him from the item is another way to help teach him. He likely understands the meaning of the word “no” at this point, and removing him from the situation helps enforce that you mean it.
While discipline is often necessary to teach your baby to stay away from items that will hurt them, you will not want to use it if it isn’t necessary. So, for things that won’t hurt your baby, but that you don’t want him messing with for some reason, you should simply distract your baby. If he is getting into dresser drawers and pulling out clothes, for instance, you can simply find him a toy or do something else to distract him. This is a good way to get your baby to stop doing the things that you want him to stop, without having to enforce any kind of discipline that isn’t necessary.

• Tooth care—tooth care will have remained the same (although there may be more teeth to care for). You can see the guides of the previous months for advice on tooth care and teething.

• Sleep—most babies at eleven months sleep all night or only wake up for one feeding. Your baby probably takes two long naps per day or three slightly shorter ones. If your baby still doesn’t sleep all night, you can change his feeding schedule and nap schedule around to help him stay full and tired all night.

While doing this can take some adjustment time, it can lead to a better night’s sleep for both you and your baby.

• Eating—your baby will be able to eat many different types of foods this month, and, depending on how many teeth he has, this may not even be limited to just mashed foods. Many babies at eleven months are able to eat French fries and other items that they have to bite and chew well (again, it all depends on how many teeth your baby has as to what types of foods he will be able to eat).

Even though your baby will be able to eat almost any types of food, there are still some foods that are forbidden until the one year mark. It is important to be safe and keep the following list in mind when you feed your baby. Foods that your baby can’t have—regardless of how many teeth he has or his ability to chew—until the one year mark:

• Honey—honey can contain a type of bacteria that can cause infant botulism, and your baby’s body will not be able to prevent this illness until he hits the one year mark (corn syrup also has this risk, but in a much smaller way).

• Peanuts—many people are allergic to peanuts and most of these reactions are very, very strong. You should, at minimum, not introduce these to your baby until at least one year old. If possible, you should not let your baby have them until 2. This includes peanut butter, and peanut butter is worse than peanuts because it poses not only an allergy risk, but also a choking risk.

• Egg whites—your baby’s digestive system cannot handle egg whites until after one year old, so you should not feed these to your baby until that point.

Other than the above list, there aren’t any types of foods that should be totally refrained from at this age. There are, however, some types of foods that you should take precaution with. For example, if you give your baby a carbonated drink, you should shake it first to relieve some of the carbonation. If you are giving it to your baby in a bottle, you should shake it with the nipple hole closed, and then uncover the nipple hole to release the air. You should do this several times until there is no fizz when it is shaken. If you are giving the drink to your baby in a sippy cup, you should do the same thing. If covering the holes is not necessary (such as with a spill-proof sippy cup), you should remove the lid after shaking to release the air. Doing the above can prevent stomach pain is caused by the air in the carbonated drink.

• Head care—you will not have to be as careful anymore about protecting your baby’s head and soft spot from being touched or hit, but you should still protect it as much as possible. It is likely that your baby’s soft spot is nearly closed, but until then, you should keep your baby from hitting it on anything as much as possible (a task that becomes harder and harder the more abilities your baby learns).

Experiences

• Toys for this age—at this age, just as with the last few months, your baby will likely love anything that lights up or plays music, as well as anything that isn’t a toy. This includes phones and keys and things of this nature, and to prevent your baby from playing with these as much you can buy him some toys that are similar. While it doesn’t always work, some babies are just as happy with toy keys and phones as they are with the real ones.

Many babies of this age, especially if they can pull up to standing, will love toys that they can pull up to. This includes small tables and toys that are meant to be pushed around. If your baby can walk, he probably enjoys toys that he can pull behind him that make noise or do something while pulling them. There are many types of these toys, such as a row of ducks that quack while you pull them, etc.

Pop-up toys are likely very popular with your baby, as well as jumpers and anything else that allows them to be active (an example of toys that require activity that your baby may love are balls and trucks or cars—these require rolling or pushing around and many babies like them at this age)

• Parents—the eleventh month can sometimes be difficult for parents. Not only is your baby into everything at this point, requiring more work than ever before, but it is sometimes difficult for parents to accept their baby’s new independence. Even though you probably yearned for the day that your baby could walk, you may now wish he would let you hold him more often.

Even if your baby isn’t walking, you will still be able to see the things that your baby can do that prove she is growing up. It is happening slowly, but this month verifies that it is actually happening. Their independence is likely getting stronger with every passing day, and your baby has probably gotten mad at you at this point—some babies have even bitten or hit their parents out of anger at this point. It can be a difficult thing to experience, but it helps to know that it happens to everyone, and everyone experiences the feelings of sadness that come with it.

These feelings are often accompanied by amazement and pride in all the little things that your baby learns each day. Enjoy these moments, and record them as best as possible as often as possible.

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