What are the developmental milestones for babies 2 to 3 months?
Well, the 2 to 3 month development is actually one of my favorite months of development, because so many things happen. When parents come back at that 3 month-old visit, this is when they say, "I really feel like my child's interacting with me, they're not just a lump-on-a-log anymore," - no offense to the babies out there. But, basically what happens is development goes from peripheral to central. And at 2 months, and before, your child actually doesn't know their hands and feet exist. They don't know they have their body. Their world is all out here. And that's why you see them laying on their back with their arms and legs splayed out. Sometimes they hit themselves in the face, sometimes they get their hand in their mouth, but, for the most part, development is peripheral. Well, from month 2 to month 3, and beyond, development becomes central. So, their posture changes - it goes from out, to now more in, where they hold their hands and their body in toward the center. They start looking at their hands, perplexed, like, "Ooo, what are these?" And they start purposely sticking their hands and their fist in their mouth. At first, they're going to choke and gag themselves, and they're going to start drooling like crazy, and everybody's going to say, "Oh, look how cute, Johnny's teething," - and, again, he's not teething most likely, he's just finding his mouth for the first time, and he's exploring it. From there on out, he's going to drool like crazy, and gnaw on everything he can get in his mouth. He's going to find his ears for the first time, and he's going to yank them, and pull them, and twist them. And everybody's going to say, "Oh look, Johnny has an ear infection," - and he doesn't have an ear infection. It's just he's finding this body part, and it's self-soothing, especially when he's tired you'll see, "Oh," just massaging his ears. You're going to find your son or daughter grabbing the back of their head and their hair, if they have it, and yanking their head back, and you're going to think, "Oh, something must be wrong!" But, again, they're just exploring these parts of the body and finding it for the first time. Then their vision is going to become much better, and instead of just fixing and watching you a little bit, a 3 month-old will watch you as you walk all the way across the room. So a lot more interactions. And then vocally, they're going to interact more, too. And these cooing noises are going to become full-belly laughter, and screaming, and 3 month-olds come back and they just scream all the time. And parents say, "My child doesn't stop screaming!" But, they're happy screams, and fun screams: the "Aah, Ooo!" So many things that you see at 3 months of age!
