The approximate daily regimen for a child is 4 months. Tips & Tricks

Behind the back of a four-month-old baby was another month of life. During this time, he was very strong, grew up and learned a lot. Adapting to the new needs and possibilities of the baby, his daily routine should also change. It will continue to consist of an alternation of feedings, periods of sleep and wakefulness, filled with developing games, gymnastics and hygiene procedures, only the duration of these periods will change.

The approximate daily routine of a 4-month-old baby:

• 6:00-8:00 Morning Awakening, First Meal, Complex hygiene procedures (with mandatory washing and changing the diaper), taking air baths combined with morning exercises, a period of active wakefulness.
• 8:00-10:00 Morning dream.
• 10:00-12:00 The second meal, active leisure (exercise, light massage, communication with loved ones, educational games).
• 12:00-14:00 A walk combined with sleeping in the fresh air (about the first walks).
• 14:00-16:00 The third meal, a tour of the apartment, active games, educational activities.
• 16:00-18:00 Evening walk, acquaintance with the outside world, a dream.
• 18:00-21:00 Fourth meal, games and educational activities with family members, baby bathing.
• 21:00-22:30 Preparation for sleep.
• 22:30 Night meal.
• 23:00-6:00 Night sleep.

Additional option (optional):

Moms should understand that the proposed daily routine is approximate and should not be climbed out to follow it minute by minute. The individual characteristics of each child will inevitably make adjustments to it..

However, with any adjustments in the daily regime of the four-month crumbs, the following points should remain unchanged:

• intervals between meals should be at least four hours;
• the total duration of daytime sleep is about six hours (it is advisable to divide them into three intervals).

Nutrition

The schedule governing the life of a 4-month-old baby does not include six, but five times a day. This is its main difference from the regime in the previous month.. Modern mothers have the opportunity to feed their children in one of three ways: by breastfeeding, artificial and mixed feeding.

• A four-month-old baby who is breast-fed does not yet feel the need for additional feeding, since the nutritional value of mother's milk is quite sufficient for him. The reduction in the number of meals is due to the fact that a grown up and stronger child sucks a greater amount of milk during one feeding, remaining satiated longer;
• The daily requirement for breast milk in a baby at 4 months is 900-1000 ml, so it is easy to calculate that the volume of one serving should be about 200 ml.A bottle with such an amount of milk mixture is obtained by a child who is being breast-fed.

We read in detail about how much breast milk or mixture a child should eat — https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/kormlenie-grudyu/skolko-dolzhen-sedat-novorozhdennyiy.html

One important event takes place in the life of artifact kids: starting this month, they begin to receive the first lure. Concerning the nature of the products with which to start complementary foods, the opinions of pediatricians were divided. Some of them believe that gluten-free non-dairy porridges are the best option, while others recommend feeding crumbs with baby kefir and cottage cheese. The overwhelming majority of experts advise gradually introducing pureed vegetables and juices into the child’s diet, and then fruit ones.

Of importance is the reaction of crumbs to complementary foods: he should like food. Starting with a teaspoon, the amount of new product is increased by one spoon daily. After ten days, the amount of complementary foods should be at least 150 ml. As soon as this happens, one feeding with a new product appears in the child’s diet, and the other four are carried out with the usual milk mixture.

Nutrition is also introduced into the diet of 4-month-old babies, due to the need for being on mixed feeding. Usually it is resorted to by mothers who develop insufficient breast milk. With this diet, the baby needs 500 ml of mother's milk, 400 ml of the milk mixture and 150 ml of complementary foods.

Related article: first feeding of children on IV

Sleep

In a 4-month-old baby, the need for sleep is still high. As in the previous month, he should sleep at least sixteen hours a day, but the increased duration of daytime wakefulness leads to a change in sleep patterns.

In an ideal situation, the baby should sleep at least ten hours at night and six during the day. Instead of four periods of daytime rest, he has three.

[sc: rsa]

Of course, this mode is not suitable for every child. Some babies still need a fourfold daytime sleep, while others are fine with one. Some calmly sleep all night long, while others even wake up at night every three hours and require reinforcements. At this age it is already possible to understand who will be the “early bird” and who will be the “owl”.

In each case, a smart and caring mother should build her baby’s day routine in such a way as to provide him with the conditions for proper development, and this is possible only with a reasonable alternation of periods of sleep and wakefulness. A poorly slept baby will be capricious, refuse games and food, and a slept baby will become too energetic. So the middle ground is important here.

With a thoughtful approach, you can adapt to any individual characteristics of each baby, forcing him to get used to the correct routine. If the baby does not sleep well at night, preventing his loved ones from sleeping, it makes sense to sacrifice the first part of his night's rest and lay him a little later than usual. He will have to show some ingenuity by entertaining the capricious baby, but then after that he will instantly fall asleep without waking up until the very morning.

How to teach a baby to sleep all night / our daily routine from 4 months:

On the topic of sleep:

• How to put a child to sleep without tears and vagaries -https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/psihologiya-detey/kak-ulozhit-rebenka-spat-bez-slez-i-kaprizov.html;
• We teach a child to sleep in his crib separately from his mother (video, real stories) - https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/razvitie-rebenka-do-goda/kak-priuchit-rebenka-spat-otdelno.html;
• Whether to rock the child before bedtime: to what age can you rock the child -https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/razvitie-rebenka-do-goda/kak-ukachat-rebenka-spat.html;
• The child sleeps only in the arms, but put it wakes up - a problem or not -https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/eto-polezno-znat/rebenok-spit-na-rukah.html;
• At what age can a child sleep on a pillow -https://kid.htgetrid.com/en/razvitie-rebenka-do-goda/s-kakogo-vozrasta-rebenku-mozhno-spat-na-podushke.html.

Walks

The organization, duration and number of walks with the child remain the same as in the previous month: it is necessary to take him out into the fresh air for 1.5-2 hours twice a day. Of course, if this is not prevented by too bad weather conditions: severe frostwind or unbearable heat.

We should not forget that the beginning of the walk should be informative for the baby, who began to show an active interest in the world around him, so you need to tell him about everything that occurs on the way: about the plants, animals and birds seen, about passers-by and passing vehicles.

The child will still sleep peacefully in the stroller for the rest of the walk: thanks to the influx of fresh air, which saturates the brain cells with oxygen, this dream will be especially long and useful for him.

Educational games

Since the child at 4 months is awake for eight hours, this time must be filled with a large number of developmental games.

• Walking tours of the apartment are very useful for the kid. Traveling in the arms of adults, he gets acquainted with the name and purpose of the items in it. All information received is stored in his memory. After a while, you can verify this. Name some familiar object, and you will see that the baby will turn the head in his direction;
• For the development of tactile sensations, it is useful to give the baby bright toys with different surface textures. They can be hard and soft, smooth and rough, bumpy and have holes. The coloring of the toys must be either plain or containing no more than two or three colors. The boundaries of the color transition should be clear;
• Four months of age - a fertile time for the use of developing rugs, entertainment centers and mobile. Promoting the development of hearing, vision and small sensory, awakening the motor activity of the baby, all these toys are very useful for him, but you should not offer the baby several items at once: he should focus on one thing;
• It’s good for kids to listen to rhythmic music. Clapping her hands to the beat of music, mom will help to form a sense of rhythm in the baby. You can take the crumbs in your hands and smoothly circle with it to a beautiful melody;
• The child needs to tell fairy tales, sing children's songs, read poetry and nursery rhymes. Already from this age it is necessary to accustom kids to viewing pictures and reading books;
• Games with their arms and legs, finger games-funs “Magpie-crow”, “Ladushki”, “Goat horned” are very useful and loved by kids (+10 games that bring joy to your baby). Stroking and massaging tiny fingers favors not only the development of sensory activity, but also the activation of the brain centers responsible for speech.

Knowing that all the toys and objects that fell into the baby’s hands will certainly be in his mouth, it is necessary to monitor their cleanliness. Toys should be washed daily with boiled water, and shreds should be periodically washed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9EPxbIeAiw

Physical development, hardening and hygiene procedures

A strengthened baby needs more physical exercises, therefore, in addition to morning exercises, it is necessary to strengthen and develop his muscles throughout the day. A five-minute load performed in the morning, afternoon and evening will be optimal..

• Kids of this age begin to roll on their own tummy. To facilitate this task for them, having strengthened the muscles of the back and abdominal muscles, it is very useful to play "Kolobok". Carefully rolling the child from the back to the tummy (and in the opposite direction) on the big bed, you can accompany your actions with a cheerful comment that the baby has turned into a rubber ball or a bun that runs away from its pursuers;
• To strengthen the spine and arms, the mother can let the baby grab onto her index fingers, and then pull it towards herself. This exercise will be preparation for self-sitting skills (when will the baby begin to sit?);
• When laying out a child (lying on the floor) on the tummy, it is useful to put a hand under his heels. Based on her legs, the baby will make the first attempts to crawl away. For these attempts to be successful, the floor should not be slippery. The best option is to have a carpet covered with a thin blanket.

READ ALSO: baby development at 4 months and what a child should be able to do at 4 months: skills in 4 months

How to temper a baby

4 months is a very suitable age for starting hardening procedures. Provided that they are regularly performed, they will allow the baby to always stay healthy..

• The start of hardening was laid in the first months of the child's development, since air baths and walks in the fresh air also belong to the category of hardening procedures. The duration of air baths in a room with a temperature of 22 degrees for the baby should be at least ten minutes. They should be performed at least twice a day;
• One of the most gentle tempering procedures using water is wiping.. Before proceeding to wet wipes, conduct a course of dry ones. The delicate skin of the baby is wiped with a mitt sewn from terry cloth. This should be done very carefully, until the skin becomes slightly reddened. After 7-10 days, when the grindings become familiar, you can start using a wet mitten. Having moistened it with warm (36 degrees) water and squeezed it well, first they wipe only the face of the child. After several sessions, the rubdown area is gradually increased, bringing to the complete rubdown of the whole body. The duration of the procedure is no more than two minutes. After every three procedures, the water temperature is reduced by one degree (you need to bring it to 30 degrees).

READ ALSO: How to start hardening a newborn baby. Rules and methods of hardening

The complex of hygienic procedures for the child remains the same, including the morning wash, the obligatory wash with each change of diaper and evening bath.

Following the proposed recommendations and adapting them to the individual characteristics of their 4-month crumbs, each caring mother will be able to create such a daily routine that is necessary for the successful intellectual and physical development of the baby.

← 3 months daily routine                  daily routine of 5 months →

VIDEO GUIDE: How to arrange child care at 4 months? Feeding. Care. Highlights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaBl6IpZDdM

How to teach a child to regimen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vq-SnMIt24