Welcome to Budding Babies where you will find an extensive range of books and magazines covering Baby Development, Health, Parenting, Pregnancy and Reading books for baby. We also supply Photograph Albums to keep all those baby photo's in one special place.

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An article on Baby Development - the First Year by Karen Fowler

Although varying a great deal, babies have a general time-frame for their growth and development, especially in the first 12 months of life.

The 'newborn' period is the first month after birth and is a time of great change not only for your baby, but for the rest of the family also, who have eagerly awaited the arrival for nine months.

Newborn babies can do some things by themselves such as breathe, cry, sleep and move their arms and legs. They can suck and swallow milk and their bodies can eliminate waste products, but because babies have little control over these actions, they are totally dependent upon others for care.

Very young babies sleep for about 16 hours per day and when they are awake they are usually crying or feeding.

Their hearing is good, especially for human voices and they will also react to loud noises.

Newborn babies do have difficulty in focusing and see best at a distance of around 18-23cm and are most alert when being held upright. In this position they can take in the most information such as smells, lights and sounds. When your baby has reached 2 weeks old its eyes will follow light and be able to fix on an object. At around 2 months old they will be able to see colours and maybe even smile.

Small babies and especially premature infants are very limited in controlling their temperature due to the fact they are poorly insulated because they do not have much fat so it is important to keep them warm.

Two to three month-old babies can hold their own heads up but will not be able to sit unaided until they are around 6 or 7 months old.

Different foods can be introduced at around 3 to 4 months such as cereal, fruits, vegetables and baby biscuits but expect a few tears to start with as they have only been used to milk and water.

Vaccinations are also an important part of your child's first year and will protect your baby from certain diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio and whooping cough.

Although your baby will have been making sounds for a while and responding vocally they do not start to 'babble' consistently with some indication of meaning until they are around 6 to 9 months old. They will learn words from their own language by listening and copying others.

Most babies will start teething at around 6 to 8 months old and although when born they have no teeth at all, they are present under the gums in the form of tooth buds and as baby grows the teeth will appear through the gums. When teeth are present your baby will then move on to more interesting foods such as your own cooking, liquidised.

By about 9 months old your baby will move on from crawling and rolling over to pulling themselves up and standing while holding on to something and can usually take a few steps by the time they reach their first birthday.