Month-by-Month Guide👶Baby Development Month by Month
What to expect in each month of your baby's first year — social smiles, first words, rolling, crawling, and walking. A warm, practical guide to the milestones that matter.
⏳ 8 minute read✓ NHS-aligned🇬🇧 UK-specific
Development in the first year moves faster than any other period of life. This guide gives you the key things to watch for each month — not as a checklist to stress about, but as a way of understanding what's happening and noticing the moments worth capturing.
⚠️ Important: development ranges are wide. These are typical patterns, not benchmarks every baby must hit on schedule. Premature babies should be assessed against their corrected age. If you have concerns at any stage, mention them — don't wait for a scheduled review.
Month by month
Finding you
Can focus on faces about 20–30cm away — which is exactly the distance from your breast or bottle to your face. Startles at sudden sounds. Cries to communicate everything. Prefers your voice above all others.
Development milestone: beginning to focus on your face and calm to your voice.
The first social smile
The social smile arrives — intentional, directed at you specifically. This is different from the reflex smiles of the first weeks. Your baby is now choosing to connect with you. Also: beginning to track moving objects with their eyes, and making their first cooing sounds.
Watch for: the smile. It changes everything.
Talking back
Cooing, gurgling, and proto-conversations — taking turns making sounds with you. Beginning to bring hands together at the midline. More sustained alert periods. Head control improving significantly. The witching hour typically begins to ease around now.
The 4-month sleep regression often arrives in the next few weeks — prepare now.
The world gets interesting
Reaches for objects (though grasp isn't reliable yet). Laughs. Rolls from front to back. The sleep architecture change happens around now — previously simple sleep cycles become multi-stage, which is why sleep often worsens. Head control is solid.
Teething can begin from around 4 months, though the first tooth typically arrives at 5–7 months.
Discovering hands
Transfers objects from hand to hand. Everything goes in the mouth — this is sensory exploration, not misbehaviour. Beginning to sit with support. May start rolling both ways. Recognises their own name. Stranger anxiety begins to appear.
Signs of readiness for weaning may appear around now — typically alongside losing the tongue thrust reflex.
Starting solids
Sits with minimal support. Starts solids if the three signs of readiness are present. Babbles with consonants (ba, da, ma). Passes objects between hands with increasing coordination. The first tooth may appear. An exciting and physically demanding month.
The NHS recommends starting solids at around 6 months — not before, and only when the three readiness signs are present.
Getting moving
May begin crawling (commando crawling or traditional — both normal). Pulls to sitting. Bangs objects together deliberately. Responds to their name consistently. More pronounced separation anxiety. Feeding progresses from puree toward lumpier textures.
Babyproofing becomes genuinely urgent around now if your baby is mobile.
Pulling up
Begins pulling to stand (often well before they can get back down — hence the standing-and-crying-for-help phase). Pincer grip developing. Understands simple words: 'no', their name, 'bye bye'. The 8–10 month sleep regression often arrives now.
The 8–10 month regression is driven by the same developmental leap causing the physical milestones above.
Communication leaps
Points at things — a significant cognitive milestone indicating joint attention. Waves bye-bye. May say their first word (mama, dada — though not always with meaning yet). Cruises along furniture. Understands significantly more than they can say.
If your baby isn't pointing, waving, or making eye contact consistently by 12 months, worth mentioning at the review.
Almost walking
Cruising confidently. Some babies take their first steps — though anywhere between 9 and 15 months is normal. Feeds self with increasing dexterity. Clear communication of preferences (and refusals). First words appearing or increasing.
The range of 'normal' for first steps is wide — 9 to 15 months. Walking after 15 months is worth a conversation with your health visitor.
Opinions
Your baby now has clear preferences and will express them. Points to what they want. Says 2–4 words (some babies more). Beginning to understand simple instructions. May attempt to feed themselves with a spoon. Sleep may improve as physical development stabilises.
The 12-month health visitor review is coming. Worth reviewing the developmental red flags beforehand.
One year
Stands independently. May walk. Uses 1–3 words with meaning. Understands simple requests. Finger foods well established. A full year of extraordinary development — they are a completely different person to the newborn who arrived 12 months ago.
At the 12-month review: development, hearing, weight, and the MMR vaccine.
🏷 Red flags worth knowing
Certain signs at certain ages are worth a conversation with your health visitor, regardless of how your baby is doing otherwise. The WiseMama developmental red flags guide covers these specifically — including the signs that are worth acting on promptly rather than waiting for the next review.
Read: Developmental Red Flags →📖 Want to go deeper?
Baby Development & Milestones: 0–12 Months — the full guide
A comprehensive look at development across every domain — motor, language, social and cognitive — with a clear guide to what's in the wide range of normal.
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