How much should a baby sleep at 4 months - dry numbers and the truth of life

Baby 4 months (four months)

: what he can do, how much he sleeps and eats, height and weight, daily routine, health and doctors, development and games

During the first year, babies grow by leaps and bounds, sometimes changing every day. By the 4th month, you can see how big the baby has become: he is already beginning to distinguish the people around him, especially highlighting his beloved mother. The baby stays awake more and more time, while sleep time decreases.

The child can be active for up to two hours. At this time, he studies surrounding objects and sounds. He is no longer interested in sitting “just like that, doing nothing.”

An understanding of “day - night” comes: if before there were night feedings, now the babies are gradually moving away from them.

4 month old baby – what can he do?

At 4 months, the child begins to show an “active life position” and curiosity. Everything that was previously considered, now you want to touch, or even better, try. Physiological development helps the baby achieve his goals.

If you put the baby on his stomach, he rises on his forearms. Perhaps he is trying to lean on his palms.

The first preparatory skills appear, allowing him to sit down independently in the future - he grabs onto his parents’ fingers and tries to pull himself up.

If you take the child under the arms and try to place him on the floor or changing table, then when he feels support, the baby will begin to squat, push off, step with his feet and dance.

Everything your hand can reach goes into your mouth! Be careful!

He grabs toys accurately enough and doesn’t miss (he has developed the ability to see with both eyes at the same time and estimate the distance to an object).

There are attempts to roll over from back to side. You can help him with this - very soon he will master this skill. If the changes from stomach to back are random at first, then by the end of the month they become conscious.

The baby begins to babble, pronouncing the syllables “ma”, “ba”, “am”.

By the age of 4 months, a child has well remembered the appearance of the people around him, so he may be surprised (and sometimes scared) if he sees mom in a hat or dad in sunglasses.

How can you tell if your baby is full?

It is easy to understand that a child is full based on certain signs. During and after feeding, the mother is advised to monitor the baby.

The following indicates that the newborn is full:

• the baby refuses breastfeeding and looks happy;
• the child sleeps soundly and calmly;
• after feeding, the breasts become softer;
• the baby is active and gaining weight well;
• stool 2-3 times a day, mushy, yellow or light brown;
• the child empties the bladder at least 10 times per day.

It should be taken into account that most children under three months of age experience colic. They arise due to the immaturity of the gastrointestinal tract. Characterized by increased gas formation. If there is colic, the baby cries a lot after feeding and sleeps poorly. But that doesn't mean he's hungry.

If the baby is not full, it will manifest itself like this:

• poor restless sleep;
• crying, groaning;
• lethargy;
• low level of activity;
• the appearance of a sucking reflex;
• when the baby is picked up, he looks for the breast with his mouth;
• underweight;
• infrequent bowel movements and urination.

But you need to understand that the signs listed above may indicate the presence of a disease. The pediatrician can determine whether the baby is eating the allotted portion during an examination.

If the child grows and develops normally, this means that the selected dose of milk is optimal. If there are deviations, the doctor will recommend changing the diet and the volume of a single serving.

If there is any doubt that your baby is not getting enough milk, it is recommended to purchase or rent a special scale. By determining the baby's weight before and after feeding, you can calculate the volume of milk consumed for each feeding.

4 month old baby – how much does he eat?

As before, the total volume of food and drinks (except water) is about 1 liter per day.

Those who started complementary feeding at three months will expand the baby’s diet by gradually introducing vegetable puree into the menu.

You can offer vegetable puree starting at 4.5 months. You should start with 1-2 teaspoons, gradually increasing it to 100 g per day.

In order to avoid disputes about the timeliness of complementary feeding, I note that recently there has been a tendency to introduce complementary feeding starting from 5.5 - 6 months (with natural feeding and normal weight gain). Each mother makes the final choice regarding the start of complementary feeding herself.

How much should a 1 month old baby eat?

Nutrition of a baby in the first year of life is an eternal topic, and it worries absolutely all mothers. And the heated debates happen in the first six months. Often inexperienced parents do not know how much a baby should eat at 1 month and are afraid to overfeed him or leave him hungry.

Babies who were born very large - more than 4500 grams - will need slightly more food than a baby with an average birth weight. And vice versa - if a child was born with a low weight, and especially premature, then he will need less food than the average established figure for this age.

What are the nutritional standards?

Each child eats as much as he wants. Not only older children are divided into children with little teeth and children who eat well - all the origins come from infancy. But doctors have calculated how much a baby should eat at 1 month.

So, from birth to two months, a baby should receive 1/5 of his own body weight in liquid food. That is, a child weighing 5 kilograms per month is supposed to drink 1 liter of milk or formula. Of course, this is not a one-time requirement, but a daily requirement, which will need to be divided into the required number of meals.

How many times does a 1 month old baby eat?

Depending on the type of feeding, the number of feedings per day differs. Thus, children who receive formula should eat every three and a half hours during the day, and at night they have a break of 5-6 hours. That is, it will be about 7-8 times a day.

But infants who are fed on demand receive more ml of milk than bottle-fed infants. But this does not mean that you can feed such babies as much as you like; it is advisable to leave an interval between feedings of at least two and a half hours. During the day there are about 10-12 breastfeedings.

How long does a 1 month old baby have?

And again, it all depends on whether the baby is breastfed or bottle-fed. In the first case, the baby can spend 40 minutes at his mother’s side, while in the second option, the children drink the mixture in about 5-10 minutes.

How to determine how much a 1 month old baby eats in ml?

First, we need an accurate baby scale. The baby is placed on them before feeding and immediately after, wearing the same clothes. This method is considered the most accurate. There is also an old method to check how much milk or formula a baby eats at 1 month. This is a wet diaper test, and during the day there should be at least 12 diapers. If there are fewer of them, then the baby clearly lacks nutrition.

4 month old baby – regime, daily routine

Here is an approximate daily routine for a baby aged 4 to 5 months:

This regime is far from being a guide to the life of mother and baby by the hour, but only an example by which you can imagine what the duration of the sleep and wakefulness phases and breaks between meals can be.

Height and weight

The main indicator of a child's development in the first months of his life is weight gain. In the fourth month of his life, weight gain should be 18-24 grams per day. By the end of the fourth month, the average weight gain should be 600-750 grams. The increase in height in the fourth month should be 2-2.5 cm. In addition to such indicators, when assessing the baby’s development, the circumference of the chest and head is taken into account. In boys, on average, the head volume should be 41.9 cm and the chest – 42.8 cm; in girls at 4 months, the chest should be 41.8 cm and the head – 41 cm.

4 month old baby – health and doctors

The appearance of the first teeth is still far away, but already now they can begin to bother the baby. The teeth are located deep in the gums, they are not visible, but they can cause itching and anxiety in the baby.

!) Buy a couple of bright teethers, different in density and structure. The brightness of the toys will attract the baby's attention, at the same time, he will always have a safe toy to chew on.

!) Consult your pediatrician about the first signs of teething, what is considered normal, and what should be alarming.

How to put your baby to bed at 4 months to help him sleep more peacefully

Today you can find simply millions of trainings and schools that talk about how to improve a child’s sleep, teach him to quickly and independently fall asleep and sleep soundly. However, in reality everything is quite simple.

After all, to set up this process, you only need to know a few rules and subtleties:

1. You should introduce several rituals into your routine that will help your baby navigate. Such signals include: reading books, quiet games, taking a bath with aromatic herbs, anything that calms your baby. The only thing is, do not teach him to fall asleep with the breast, pacifier, or rocking, since in the future the baby will only require these manipulations before bed and it can be very difficult for him to fall asleep without your presence.
2. In addition, if before the child did not care much whether the room was light or dark, loud or quiet, if he wanted to sleep, then he slept, but now all this also affects how soon he will fall asleep and how long he will sleep. To one of the rituals you can add drawing the window curtains, then the child will develop the concept - mom drew the curtains - time to sleep, mom opened them - time to wake up. This way, you can control and influence your baby’s daily routine.
3. Of course, every mother simply has a huge pile of things to do, which she tries to get done as quickly as possible. However, in order for the baby to sleep well, give him an hour or two hours of time during the period when he is awake. Choose something interesting to do: learn a new rattle, look at pictures of animals, or just take a walk outside. As a result, the child will be physically tired, but at the same time will be calm mentally and happy next to his mother. Agree that in such a state of mind, sleep will be much stronger and longer, and during this period you will be able to redo all your affairs
4. The best period for motion sickness at night is considered to be the following time range: 19:30-20:30. It is during this period that the baby is tired, but not overexcited. If you decide to put him to rest later, it will be much more difficult.
5. Try not to let your baby sleep until late in the morning; make sure that the night's rest lasts no more than 10 hours. If he rests more than the “allotted” time, then in this case it is worth waking him up. Then it will be easier for the child to get used to a certain regime.
6. Of course, teething or some stomach problems, such as constipation in a baby, may be a cause of concern. However, in this case, he will give you certain signals that will indicate that something is wrong, for example: if his stomach hurts, he will begin to bend his legs or twist them. And in the case of teething, he may be restless and only feel relieved when something gets into his mouth and he can “massage” his gums. In this case, it would be correct to contact a pediatrician to accurately diagnose the situation and select the right medication.

Other causes of sleep disturbance

Age norms are a rough guide for parents that indicate the approximate duration of sleep at a similar age. In case of deviation, you should definitely find the cause of the problem. In addition to regression, violations of the regime at this age can be caused by other reasons.

• Teething - this complex and lengthy process causes a lot of suffering: pain and inflammation of the gums, upset bowel movements, and high fever.

• Illness of the baby - be it abdominal discomfort, viral infection or other health problems.
• Overfatigue and overexcitation - if the baby stays awake for more than 2 hours in a row, according to his age, fatigue accumulates in the body and, as a response, the stress hormone cortisol begins to be produced. Its task is to invigorate the body, give it strength and energy. Therefore, it is almost impossible to put down a baby who has been “overnight” and who is getting a second wind.
• Uncomfortable conditions - most often, excessively hot air and stuffiness in the room prevents you from falling asleep.

Psychologists talk a lot about the fact that deviations from the norm of rest by 2 hours more or less are not critical if the children are healthy, cheerful, active and cheerful.

Sleep regression

Upon reaching the age in question, the difficult adaptation process is left behind. The child is no longer bothered by painful colic - it seems that parents can breathe a sigh of relief. But it’s too early to relax - suddenly, for no apparent reason, behavior changes, and problems with sleep appear:

• difficulties arise with falling asleep both day and night - the procedure for motion sickness is delayed for an entire hour;
• sleep becomes intermittent, short and very sensitive;
• due to lack of sleep, the baby is capricious, even to the point of hysteria;
• appetite increases, which is explained by high energy expenditure - the child often wakes up (up to 15 times a night) to have a snack, and this greatly exhausts the mother;

• The baby does not want to sleep on his own, preferring to be in his parents’ arms all the time.

Don't be alarmed, this is a natural phenomenon that experts call sleep "regression." The baby seems to return to the time when sleep was not yet at all ordered. This condition occurs around the 17th week of a child’s life and lasts from 2 to 6 weeks. Therefore, moms and dads should be patient in order to survive the difficulties of “regression” without nervous breakdowns.

Thematic material:

• How long does a 5 month old baby sleep?
• Baby's sleep at 3 months

Why is the sleep schedule of a 4-month-old baby disrupted? The main cause of the problem is a sharp jump in his physiological and psychological development, which results in a change in the structure of sleep. Now he goes through the same stages as an adult.

1. Slow sleep, which includes naps, the superficial phase, as well as deep sleep, and is necessary to restore the body’s physical strength.
2. Fast, or the stage of the most vivid dreams. At this time, the nervous system is restored, the information received during the day is processed, and memory is prepared.

These phases are repeated periodically. The sleepy “hour” for a 4-month-old baby lasts approximately 40 minutes. Between cycles there is an awakening. Only an adult does not notice it, easily falling asleep again, but the baby does not yet know how to do this on his own, so he wakes up and attracts attention to himself by crying loudly.

Daytime nap

During the day, the child is awake most of the time.
Cognizes the world around him in accessible ways (vision, smell, hearing). But the most important and basic way of learning is the little one’s mouth. Anything that gets into the baby's hands - a diaper, toys, socks or his own feet - will definitely end up in his mouth. Daytime sleep is reduced. This may upset some caring mothers; they have less time for household chores.

Sleep is divided into one long deep sleep of 2-3 hours, and one - two short sleeps per day, 30 - 60 minutes each. During the time spent in sleep, the baby gains strength, analyzes the knowledge and skills acquired during play and communication with family members. The average duration of daytime sleep is 4-5 hours.