Milestones develop when children practice holding

After birth, your baby will have weekly and monthly changes and the development through each stage will make parents surprised. So when is the milestone of development when your child learns to grip?

To see how your child develops through grasping skills, let's learn with aFamilyToday Health through this article!

Skills to practice holding objects

When they know how to hold objects, they will play more happily as well as help themselves gain the ability to eat, read, write, draw and take care of themselves.

From a newborn baby has the ability to grasp objects but it will take at least a year to be able to pick up and hold things more firmly in hand. Besides, your baby also has to practice a lot on this skill for 3 months and will improve a lot every month.

How will your baby's grip develop?

From birth to 2 months old

From birth, the baby has a grasp reflex. If something touches the palm of the hand, the baby will pinch their fingers to catch it. However, these movements are only instinctive and unconditional for the first 8 weeks.

During this time, your baby's hands will clench like fists, but soon they'll learn how to open their palms and clench to get used to it. Your baby may even try to grasp soft objects like a stuffed animal.

3 months

Babies still cannot grasp what they want correctly, but can reach for toys many times. Besides, your baby is also aware of objects he likes and tries to reach for it. With a gymnasium, your baby will lie on a soft mat and freely grab toys from above his head.

4 to 8 months

At 4 months old, she picked up large objects such as blocks. However, your baby will not be able to grasp small objects like peas until they have better control of their fingers.

Before the first baby tooth emerges (usually 4 to 7 months), babies often pick up objects and put them in their mouths. If the mother has practiced to feed her baby,  she still has to feed her, but she cannot keep the spoon firmly.

Your baby can pull objects back toward him and will begin to move objects from hand to hand. During this stage, you should keep valuables out of the reach of your baby and make sure that there are no small objects in your home that could choke your baby.

9 to 12 months

The baby can now pick up objects without any difficulty and the ability to move things from hand to hand also becomes more proficient. However, babies still cannot determine which side is left or right until 2 or 3 years old. Babies are also able to hold smaller objects using their thumb and index fingers.

With the ability to coordinate movements increasingly proficient, your baby will soon use a spoon and chopsticks in the meal. You may want to help, but your baby will learn how to use it faster if you let your baby try eating with a spoon or chopstick several times during each meal.

Once the baby can grasp everything, he will start throwing things away, so parents watch out for the toys to be thrown. At 1 year old, your baby will love playing rocks, stacking towers and smashing things. By 18 months of age, your baby's artistic character will appear. Children love to use crayons and learn to use them to draw and write. At 3 years old, your child will scribble and even write his name.

The role of parents

To stimulate your baby's grasping reflex, parents try placing colorful toys or objects such as soft plastic cubes or cardboard books out of reach and encouraging them to take it. Don't discourage your baby by putting it too far away that he or she won't reach it.

After your baby is able to grasp small objects, encourage her to grab small, soft foods like cooked pomegranate beans or carrots. This is not a bad way for your baby to learn how to use a spoon. To prevent small objects from choking on your baby, keep hard foods (like raw nuts or carrots) away from your baby.

When your baby is 18 months old, he or she will discover that she can put things on top like others. You can help develop this skill by giving them lots of objects to put in empty boxes, plastic bottles or other containers.

When should you be worried?

If your baby is not interested or interested in the toys that you have moved in front of your baby within 2 to 3 months of age, it's best to discuss this with your doctor. For premature babies, growth milestones will reach more slowly than for other babies.

Hope that the above information will help you to have a memorable experience with your baby!