10 month old baby

What a 10 month old baby is doing

Ten months is when the index finger gets a job. The HSE describes a baby who can isolate their index finger and use it to poke at things, and who may walk around furniture while holding on to the edge — cruising. Poking is not a trivial skill; it is the fine motor step that sits behind pointing.

Communication becomes gestural. Your baby may use gestures such as clapping and waving, begin to understand what "no" means, respond to music and singing with movement, sounds and smiles, and enjoy taking turns with you using different sounds and babble. They will respond to positive recognition such as clapping. In play they will bang two cubes together and explore by poking.

Everything in that list is a "may" or a "will" chosen carefully, and the HSE states that the ages given for its milestones are averages and that every child is different. Our guide to crawling, standing and first steps covers how wide the range for moving about really is.

Naps at 10 months, and the one-nap question

"One nap a day" is one of the most searched phrases at this age, and the honest starting point is that no national health body publishes a nap schedule for babies at all. The NHS publishes total sleep across 24 hours and nothing about how to divide it: by around six months a baby may sleep up to 12 hours at night, teething pain and hunger can disturb it, and after the first birthday most babies sleep around 12 to 15 hours in total.

So a ten-month-old fighting the second nap is not evidence of a rule being broken, because there is no rule. What the NHS does say is that all babies change their sleep patterns, that you should be prepared to change routines as your baby grows and enters different stages, and that growth spurts, teething and illness all affect how a baby sleeps. A run of refused naps that coincides with a new skill or a tooth is more likely a phase than a permanent transition. Our wake windows guide sets out where the circulating awake-time charts actually come from.

The bedtime routine the NHS suggests

A simple, soothing routine may help your baby settle and is a chance for one-to-one time. The NHS sketches it as a bath, changing into night clothes and a fresh nappy, going to bed, a bedtime story, dimmed lights to create a calm atmosphere, a goodnight kiss and cuddle, a lullaby, and brushing teeth if there are any. It adds that too much excitement and stimulation just before bedtime wakes a child up again, so wind-down time earns its place. If your baby is having problems sleeping, the NHS points you at your health visitor rather than at a schedule.

Food and milk at 10 months

Three meals plus milk is the usual shape. Keep breastfeeding or giving first infant formula until your baby is at least one year old — cows' milk can be introduced as a main drink from twelve months, and formula milks are not needed once your baby is one, including follow-on formula, growing-up milks and toddler milks.

Now is the time to work on cups, because the deadline is close: once your baby is one year old, the NHS says feeding from a bottle should be discouraged. An open cup, or a free-flow cup without a valve, helps your baby learn to sip rather than suck and is better for their teeth, and you should move from a lidded beaker to an open cup as soon as your child is ready.

Juice is the other ten-month search. The NHS position is that only breast milk, formula milk or water belong in a bottle or trainer cup, with nothing added — no sugar, cereals, baby rice or chocolate powder. Comfort sucking sweetened drinks from a bottle causes tooth decay in young children, because drinks flow slowly through a teat and stay in contact with the teeth for longer. Our guide to cups, beakers and dropping bottles covers the transition in detail.

Teeth at 10 months

The NHS's rough order puts central incisors at around six months, lateral incisors around eight months and first molars around twelve. It is explicitly a rough guide: most babies start teething at around six months, but some start before four months and some after twelve, and a few are born with teeth. A ten-month-old with two teeth, eight teeth or none is not out of range. A slightly raised temperature can go with teething, but only to less than 38C.

Weight and growth at 10 months

Between six and twelve months the NHS says a thriving baby needs weighing no more than once every two months, which gives a clear idea of weight gain over a period of time. The centile chart in the red book is the reference, and a baby following their own centile is doing what is asked, whatever the absolute number.

What is worth raising

The HSE's advice at ten months is broad: contact a GP or public health nurse if you are worried, or if your child loses skills they had before. If your baby has not started moving about in any way — crawling, commando crawling or bottom shuffling — or cannot take weight on their legs when held standing, those were named at nine months and are worth raising now rather than waiting. If you have not yet had the nine to twelve month review, this is a good month to chase it.

When to get urgent help

Get urgent advice if your baby has a high temperature alongside other signs of illness, is feeding much less than usual, has far fewer wet nappies, is unusually floppy or hard to wake, or their breathing looks like hard work.