By the 15th week, your little one’s cognitive and memory abilities begin to develop pretty well. Also, for a 15 week-old baby, many mothers are advised to wean the baby away from feeding and begin solids. However, as recommended by the doctors, breast milk consists of all the essential nutrients and immunity boosters needed to keep the child healthy. In this article, we will be discussing a 15 week-old baby:
In this article:
Milestones of a 15 Week-Old Baby
Feeding
Sleeping
A 15 Week-Old Baby’s Care Tips
Tests and Vaccinations
Games and Activities
When to Consult a Doctor?
15 Week Old Baby: Milestones, Care Tips and Development
Milestones of a 15 Week-Old Baby
- It is important to keep your baby in sight at all times as he/she can now shift in a way that they can roll to the side or flat on the tummy, using their body weight. Although some babies may still need a little nudge.
- Due to strong and developed neck muscles, they can now turn around the head to look at something interesting, respond to a sound and follow movements more frequently.
- Looking at different colours and beginning to understand the differences in shapes are some of the signs of brain development.
- One of the favorite activities of kids is staring in the mirror. They will observe themselves and begin to understand the movement of their limbs when they move it in a certain way.
- There will be an increase in the call and response between you and your baby. when you repeat the sounds back to him, it gives him an understanding that he was able to communicate well about his needs, sleep, or food.
- The weight gain will also be quite on track and thus, the feeding amount will be in sync with it.
Feeding
A 15-week old baby pattern may begin to get a little predictable for a lot of mothers. Your baby undergoes a number of changes, both in the behaviour as well as growth. It is due to cognition and communication development that your baby might now suddenly want to play and eat. Due to his curiosity and sense of wonder, he would now want to consume as much information as he can about himself. All of this can either cause the feeding session to last longer than usual at times or he may be distracted by something at one point and then feed again. Whereas, there are other times too when he may just refuse to feed at all because he may want to play with his favourite toy.
So, at times, it gets pretty common that he may not have the patience to have the full meal. In order to ensure that the feeding is completed properly, hold your baby in a way that his sight is limited to you and the environment is free from any sort of distractions. The same can be done at night when the baby does not want to sleep but only wants to keep sucking the milk.
Read More:Baby Development Milestones – 1st year
Sleeping
It is very important to ensure that both you and your baby get the sleep that is needed. If you want, you can also make him sleep on the same bed as yours and this is also beneficial in a way that in case, he wakes up in the middle of the night, you can quickly slide the breast into his mouth to satisfy his hunger.
If the baby refuses to sleep at all after the first feed, try changing the schedule a bit and give him a quick bath and massage as that will help him relax and put him in a deeper sleep. In addition to this, hum a slow relaxing tune so he can fall asleep.
A 15 Week-Old Baby’s Care Tips
- Do not let him sleep on the stomach unless he can hold his head high.
- As your little one has a higher tendency to roll around, you must make sure that he is safe and secure when you leave him unattended.
- Make sure the mouth area stays dry.
Tests and Vaccinations
Prior to two weeks of the baby’s growth, a few vaccines are already scheduled. Thus, there is no such need for other vaccines during this week if the prior ones have already been administered properly.
Games and Activities
Do you know why every time you are on the phone, your baby tries to converse with you? they tend to observe you and learn from the same too. You can get them a toy telephone so you both can pretend to have a conversation with each other via phone.
Also, you must have observed that their vision tracks bright objects like a shining torch or reflection. You can do the same by making use of shadow. You can use a strong light against a plain wall and make a number of shapes using your hands. You can also make dog and cat sound along so that he can spot the same later in a park or garden.
When to Consult a Doctor?
There may be times when your 15 week-old baby fussy signs may seem to increase and he may just keep on crying and refuse to calm down. At this point, you must consult a doctor as there can be something that might be troubling him. Also, most of the babies make an attempt to roll over by this age. In case, your baby does not show any sign of this, let your doctor know.
Reference
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/08/newborn-babies-more-developed-cognitive-development
http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=122&id=2312
