12th Month Guide

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12th Month Guide This month, the last month of baby’s first year, is a lot of fun for everyone involved. It can be a lot more work than in the past, but it is worth it when you see your baby doing all kinds of new things on a regular basis.
For those babies who have yet to walk, many of them begin to at this point (although many wait until well after the first year to do this). Whether your baby is walking or not, she will most likely be able to get wherever she wants to go in some way or another. During the twelfth month, your baby will learn new abilities, will possibly have a mouthful of teeth, or headed that direction, will begin to say many more words, and more.

Physical Development and Appearance

Babies during this month have so many abilities, if you look back to several months ago, you will be truly amazed at how far your baby has come in such a short time. This is the last month in which your baby will need breast milk or formula (many parents do still breastfeed for a while after this, but it is no longer a requirement after this month). Your baby will begin to look more and more like a little kid than ever before. She will have her own opinions, her own thoughts, she will try to get away with touching things she shouldn’t, and more. This is the last month of babyhood and your baby will very likely, as so many others do, be sure to go out with a bang.

Your baby will be very physical now, whether he can walk or not. Many babies in the twelfth month, even though they may not be able to walk, are able to climb up onto a couch. This month, you may actually need to try to teach your baby some new abilities, just to keep him safe. For example, some babies in the twelfth month can climb onto the couch, but many cannot climb back down. Since it is nearly impossible to keep your baby from doing the things he desires, you should try to make it as safe as possible for him. You can teach him how to get back off the couch so that he won’t fall and hurt himself, and you may be surprised to see how quickly your baby can learn this and other feats.

Care for Baby

• Teething—many babies go through teething during the twelfth month as well as previous months. Unfortunately, there is really no way of knowing in advance whether your baby will cut teeth this month or not. If your baby has already grown in many teeth, he could grow more this month. If your baby has yet to grow even one, he could begin this month. It is just one of those situations where you must wait until it actually happens to find out that it is going on.

Although you can’t know in advance whether your baby will cut teeth this month or not, you can be prepared for it just in case. Keep teething gels and tablets around the house, as well as teethers and pain/fever medication (such as Tylenol). Having these around can limit the amount of time that your baby has to be fussy and in pain.

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 has teeth, you may also have to deal with biting. You can find out how to deal with this problem by reading the guides from previous months.

• Bathing—bath time means fun time for most babies in the twelfth month. Your baby is likely to hate his bath ring at this point, and you may have quit using it months ago. He likely doesn’t want to be kept stationary, and would rather be crawling around the tub having fun. To keep your baby safe while he does this, if you haven’t done so yet, you should get a bath mat or stick-ons to place on the bottom of the tub. Using these is much safer than not, but you should be sure to not have too much faith in the safety of these. They cannot keep your baby from ever slipping, and they cannot prevent your baby from falling over. This is why—although they are great to have and can prevent many accidents—you should still continue to watch your baby the entire time he is in the bath.

If your baby has a habit of trying to stand in the tub, and many babies do, you can try to stop this by following the advice in last month’s guide.

• Discipline—while you don’t want to have to use discipline, this is unfortunately something that comes with the territory of your baby getting older. The real reason for discipline is simply to keep your baby safe. In the process, you will also want to begin teaching him the rules at an early age, but the main goal of discipline is to simply keep your baby safe from harm by teaching him what not to touch or mess with.

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 rather quickly), 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.

There are many ways to enforce discipline, and to teach your baby to stay away from the things that could harm him. To learn more about this, see last month’s guide. The methods won’t need to change until your baby is much older.

• Tooth care—at this point, your baby’s tooth care will not change much, except you’re your baby may likely show an interest in brushing his own teeth (and may be very insistent about it). You can let your baby brush his teeth as long as you ensure that they actually get clean. Since sucking and chewing toothpaste off the brush doesn’t do the job properly (and this is most likely what your baby will do at this age), you will probably need to brush your baby’s teeth after he does so that they actually do get clean. Since you don’t want your baby eating too much toothpaste, you should put about half on the brush of what you normally would for him to brush his own teeth. Then, you can do the same when you brush his teeth. This way, your baby has a chance of having clean teeth without having to eat twice as much toothpaste (be sure you use baby toothpaste and a baby toothbrush while doing this).

• Sleep—during the twelfth month, your baby probably has the same sleep schedule as before, and if your baby is one who does not sleep all night yet, this may change soon. Since many parents quit breastfeeding around a year old, and most parents take their baby off formula at this time as well, it is likely that your baby will start sleeping through the night when this happens.

• Eating—the same will apply as last month where food is concerned for your baby. This means that your baby can eat nearly everything besides what is on the list below, and you should always pay close attention for allergic reactions any time you feed your baby a new food.

Foods that your baby can’t have—regardless of how many teeth he has or his ability to chew—until the one year mark (which is now not very far away):

• 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.
The same rule applies as last month about carbonated beverages, and this should continue until your baby is at least two years old or so. If possible, you should simply avoid giving your baby any carbonated drinks due to the caffeine and sugar, anyway.

• Head care—your baby’s soft spot may have grown completely up, or you may have to wait a couple more months for this to happen. Either way, your baby is likely on the move constantly and you will need to be on guard all the time for bumps and bruises that may occur.

• Diapers—your baby probably hasn’t upgraded more than one size in diapers over the last couple of months, if that. Your baby may actually not increase any more in diaper size before you begin potty training. Many babies never even make it to the top diaper size.

Experiences

• Toys for this age—babies of this age tend to love all the same toys that they did during the eleventh month. One toy that could be added around this age might be things to climb on or play on. Instead of simply playing with things, your baby may love to actually get on them. One example of this is a baby rocking horse. Many babies at this age also love such toys to climb on as little push-cars, that they sit on and roll around using their feet instead of peddles.

Since your baby’s first birthday will be coming up soon, it is important to pay attention to the types of toys that she likes so that you can find the best toy possible.

• Bottle Breaking/Breast Breaking/Pacifier Breaking—this can be a very challenging thing for parents to do. Not only is it hard because the baby can make it hard for you, many parents simply have difficulty letting go of their baby by breaking them from these baby-related things. It is always more difficult to break a baby from the breast than to break them from anything else. How difficult this will be can vary from extremely easy to extremely difficult. Some babies will almost break themselves from the breast without too much parental assistance. They will simply quit wanting it. This can be difficult for many parents to deal with, but you should be thankful that it is as easy as it is. Some moms are ready to quit breastfeeding, but the baby isn’t, and this is a much more difficult thing to overcome.

While you may decide you aren’t ready to break your baby from the pacifier, it is often much easier to do it now than later. It is the same with a bottle, but a bottle is easier to replace with something else—such as a sippy cup—than a pacifier is. With either one, it is best to simply do it quickly and never look back. And then you should keep in mind during those sleepless nights that the crying and unhappiness will usually last only about a week or less. And then you will not have to go through it again.

• Parents—the twelfth month is often very hard for parents to adjust to. It’s not that the baby is any more trouble than the last couple of months, it is simply that it is difficult to face the fact that your little newborn is no longer a newborn. This baby is suddenly becoming a toddler and, for many parents this can be very sad.

You can help distract yourself from feeling badly about this by throwing yourself into the planning of the baby’s first birthday party. It is one that should be full of fun and presents and laughter. And, don’t forget, it should also be well-recorded.

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