In a Nutshell… Your Baby at 3 Months Old

In a Nutshell… Your Baby at 3 Months Old

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Congratulations! Your baby is near the end of her first 0-3 months, and what an exciting ride it’s been!! At birth, she spent most of her day adjusting to life outside of mom’s safe and cozy womb, regulating her body functions and systems by sleeping, eating, and using her collection of reflexes. At 3 months old your child has started developing her gross motor abilities and strength and is learning to use her senses to explore her world. As a result, you will notice her starting to replace some of her involuntary reflexes, such as sucking, palmer grasp, and tonic neck (looking at an outstretched arm, while the other is bent) with more intentional actions and behaviors, like sucking on her fingers for comfort and pleasure, holding and exploring objects, and intentionally reaching out for toys with one arm.1 

With your love, attentive care, and support, your baby has likely mastered many amazing developmental milestones across all learning domains by the end of this newborn period. She should be able to recognize you and other caregivers by voice and has started expressing her feelings by using facial expressions, coos and cries, and gestures, as well as imitating your actions, like sticking out her tongue or smiling back at you.2 Physically, your baby should now be able to support the weight of her own head, push up on both arms while laying on her tummy, and purposely move her arms and hands to reach for nearby objects to explore.2 Finally, your baby’s sensory abilities have developed to the point where she can turn her head towards sounds, recognize familiar scents, see objects that are 8″-12″ away, and follow moving objects with her eyes.2

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What Are Developmental Milestones? Is Your Baby Able to Outgrow Developmental Delays?

Developmental milestones are age-specific skills and functional abilities that babies and young children master as they grow and develop.3 Every developmental milestone has a “normal” range during which most children develop the skill, so it’s important to note that your baby may achieve the various developmental milestones at different rates and times than other children her age.4 For instance, even though she may start walking at 18 months when her older sibling started at 8 months old, her development is still within the normal range. However, if she appears to have difficulties with or exhibits little interest in walking at 18 months old, this may be an indication of a possible developmental delay or issue.

So, while every child grows and learns along a similar path, they often achieve their various developmental milestones at different rates and times.4 But what if your baby hasn’t begun pushing up onto her hand and knees by 9 months? You may be asking yourself, “Is there something wrong with her? Or is my baby just not ready for that skill today and will simply outgrow her ‘delay’ in the next day, week, or month? What should I do? Is she normal, and I’m just overreacting??” These are very common questions parents ask themselves if and when they suspect that their children are experiencing developmental delays, or developing and learning more slowly relative to other children of similar age.5

It’s often hard to tell whether your baby is naturally slower at learning specific skills and will eventually “grow out” of her temporary delay or whether she has an underlying medical condition that is preventing her from achieving milestones that are typical for other children her age.6 But with approximately 1.45 million young children under the age of 5 entering school every year at risk for undiagnosed developmental delays and disabilities, and “already far behind other kids their age,”7 it’s best to ditch the “don’t worry, let’s wait and see” approach and go to your care provider to discuss your concerns as soon as possible.8

Preparing for Pediatrician Visits

First Signs, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to public education on autism and related disorders, recommends that you follow these important steps when speaking to your pediatrician about your concerns:9

  • Be prepared by printing out your baby’s developmental milestone checklist, noting all of the skills and abilities she may be having difficulties with and providing any specific examples you may have that can illustrate your concerns (e.g. “My child is having trouble bearing her own weight up with her legs.”).
  • Express your concerns clearly by pointing out what you have noted on your baby’s developmental milestone checklist (e.g. “I’m concerned my child has language issues. She does not babble much or imitate sounds.”).
  • Ask lots of questions about your baby’s development progress, potential screening opportunities, and any other terms or processes you are unfamiliar with and would like to learn about.
  • Follow up on your baby’s progress with regular well-child visits to screen for her developmental concerns over time. Your physician will likely keep a close watch on your baby’s development pattern and progress to evaluate whether you should seek additional assistance from a developmental specialist.

During your well-visit, your pediatrician may use a variety of screening tools10 to evaluate whether or not your baby may be at risk for a developmental delay or disability. And if you feel that your care provider is not taking your concerns seriously, be persistent in exploring your options for early screening and/or seek a second opinion.5

Developmental Concerns

You should develop an awareness of and look out for any major developmental red flags that you observe in your baby as she plays and interacts with people.

Physical Development

Is she unable to lift her torso up during tummy time, keep her head supported and steady, or push down on her legs when placed against a firm surface?2,11,12 Does she suck poorly, have stiff or excessively loose and floppy limbs, fail to grasp objects, or not bring her hand to her mouth?2,11 If so, you should consider discussing these concerns with your pediatrician as they can indicate a delay in her physical development, which may affect her later abilities to roll over, sit up, walk, self-feed, and write, or even indicate more serious conditions, such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.13, 14

Cognitive Development

Sensory concerns that could appear at this age include your baby’s inability to blink when exposed to bright lights, to track moving objects with her eyes, or to move her eyes in a particular direction.2,11,12 These warning signs may indicate poor eye health or potential for vision loss. Because vision loss or disability may impact not only your baby’s ability to see, but also her ability to learn in all other domains, you should seek help as early as possible to ensure that neural connections between the eyes and brain develop properly.15,16

Prenatal complications and infections, premature birth, and congenital (genetic) issues can all have negative affects on a baby’s hearing.17 One of the major warning signs is if your baby doesn’t respond to loud noises.2,11 While your young baby may be able to sleep through noise, take note if she does not startle or turn towards loud noises when she is awake and alert. Her non-responsiveness at this age can point to a possible ear infection, hearing loss, or even indicate other underlying conditions, such as Down syndrome, Usher syndrome, Treacher Collins syndrome, Crouzon syndrome, and Alport syndrome.17

Social Emotional Development

By 3 months old, your baby should be making social smiles and vocalizing when you smile or talk to her.2,11 If she does not appear to smile at people, you may want to speak to your pediatrician about your concerns and the possibility of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Affecting approximately 1 in 88 children,18 ASD covers a group of developmental disabilities that can cause a child to develop social, communication, and behavioral difficulties.19 While the cause(s) is still unknown, symptoms often appear well before the age of three, and early intervention can drastically improve long-term outcomes!20

Language Development

According to WebMD, speech and language delays are the most common types of developmental delays found in children.21 If you notice that your baby is not communicating with you by cooing or making sounds by now,2,12 you may want to speak to your doctor about your concerns. Language delays can affect the entire process of learning and understanding language and may be caused by hearing issues, auditory processing disorders, physical difficulties in producing speech, and even autism spectrum disorders.21,22

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Track Your Baby’s Learning Progress!

Although each baby develops in her own individual way and at her own rate, failure to reach important developmental milestones may signal medical or developmental problems requiring special attention.2 So be sure to engage your baby with Playful Bee’s Just Right LearningTM curriculum and track her learning progress weekly. By supporting your baby’s development across all learning domains (Social-Emotional, Language, Physical, and Cognitive development), you are giving your baby a great head start in life!

To review and check out all of her achievements to date, click on your baby’s 0-3 month old developmental milestone list.

Physical Development:

  • Sucks poorly and feeds slowly.
  • Lower jaw trembles constantly, even when not crying or excited.
  • Rarely moves arms and legs; seems stiff with tight muscles.
  • Seems excessively loose in the limbs; seems floppy, like a “rag doll”.
  • Doesn’t grasp, hold, or bring objects (or hand) to her mouth.
  • Can’t support her head well and keep it steady.
  • Can’t hold head up when laying on her tummy.
  • Doesn’t push down with her legs when her feet are placed on a firm surface.

Cognitive Development:

  • Doesn’t blink when shown a bright light or follow moving objects with her eyes.
  • Crosses her eyes most of the time or has trouble moving one or both eyes in all directions.
  • Doesn’t respond to loud sounds or turn her head to locate sounds.
  • Doesn’t smile at the sound of familiar voices.

Social Emotional Development:

  • Doesn’t smile at the sound of familiar people or pay attention to faces.
  • Still has the Moro reflex (startles in reaction to sudden stimuli).

Language Development:

  • Doesn’t babble, coo, or make sounds.
  • Begins to babble, but doesn’t try to imitate any of your sounds.

Sources:

1Santrock, John W. (2010). Life-Span Development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

2American Academy of Pediatrics: Shelov, Steven P. (Ed.) (2009). Caring for your Baby and Young Child – Birth to Age 5 (5 ed.). New York, NY: Bantam Books.

3Boyse, Kyla (2013). Developmental Milestones. University of Michigan Health Systems.Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/devmile.htm.

4Mannheim, Jennifer K.(2013). Developmental Milestones Record. U.S. National Library of Medicine: Medline Plus. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002002.htm.

5Children and Youth Health. Developmental Delays. Women’s and Children’s Health Network: Parenting and Children Health. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=122&id=1633.

6Development Delays, Inc. Signs & Symptoms. Development Delays, Inc. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://developmentdelays.org/signs___symptoms.html.

7Make The First Five Count. White Paper. Easter Seals Disability Services. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://www.easterseals.com/centralohio/shared-components/document-library/white_paper.pdf.

8First Signs. If You Have Concerns. First Signs, Inc. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.firstsigns.org/concerns/if.htm.

9First Signs. Sharing Concerns: Parents to Physician. First Signs, Inc. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.firstsigns.org/concerns/parent_doc.htm.

10First Signs. Recommended Screening Tools. First Signs, Inc. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.firstsigns.org/screening/tools/rec.htm.

11Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2012). Important Milestones: Your Baby at Two Months. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Retrieved March 11, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-2mo.html.

12Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2012). Important Milestones: Your Baby at Four Months. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Retrieved March 11, 2014, from

13Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cerebral Palsy Fact Sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Learn the Signs. Act Early. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/cerebralpalsyfactsheet.pdf.

14Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Duchenne Muscular Distrophy Fact Sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Learn the Signs. Act Early. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/duchenne.pdf.

15Gellens, Suzanne R. (2013). Building Brains. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

16National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (2012). Visual Impairment, Including Blindness. NICHCY Disability Fact Sheet 13 (FS13). Retrieved March 16, 2014, from http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/visualimpairment#kids.

17National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (2013). Deafness and Hearing Loss. NICHCY Disability Fact Sheet 3 (FS3). Retrieved March 16, 2014, from http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/hearingloss.

18Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). New Data on Autism Spectrum Disorders. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: CDC Features. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/Features/CountingAutism/.

19Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). How Many Children Have Autism? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Autism Spectrum Disorder. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from

20Falco, Miriam (2012). Early Therapy Can Change Brains of Kids with Autism. CNN.Retrieved April 26, 2013, from http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/31/health/autism-therapy-brain.

21WebMD. Recognizing Developmental Delays in Children. WebMD. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/recognizing-developmental-delays-birth-age-2.

22Nelson, Amy. Delayed Speech or Language Development (2013). KidsHealth. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/communication/not_talk.html#.

Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee
Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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