This includes ...

• sitting up without support

• crawling

• standing

• bone growth

• weight gain

  
  

At birth, infants display a set of inherited reflexes such as sucking, blinking and grabbing.

Babies can be weaned off milk from around 3 months and the appearance of teeth allows them to switch from soft to hard foods.

They are born with around 300 bones - however most of these fuse together during their first few years of life.

Babies have a diving reflex that causes their heart rate to slow down and them to instinctively hold their breath when they are underwater.

Without these being fully met, it can be harder to make trusting relations further on in life.

This is the time where the environment in which an infant is being brought up in shapes their development emotionally and socially.

They begin to develop an awareness of their surroundings and express a desire to engage, i.e banging objects or toys.

• love, safety, with their primary carer so that they can build trust and form a strong bond with them and will create a sense of security for the baby.

• They will also need support to learn new skills such as walking and talking. They will learn how to talk by trying to copy the people around them therefore its important that they have a strong bond with their primary carer.

• Being protected from illness (for example they'll start to be vaccinated for things like polio), and protection from injury is also important in their development as they are still very fragile. The first few weeks after the baby is born their immune system is still very week as its still developing therefore more likely to catch illnesses.

• They'll also need a lot of activity to help them develop their fine and gross motor skills as well as their sensory skills. It will also help them develop their problem solving skills.