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Your baby's growth and development - 1 month old

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Infant development begins at birth. Initially your baby will grow fast and learn a lot. At 1 month, cuddling, sleeping and feeding are all that really matters to your baby. The time you spend with them will help their brain to grow and develop as they start to experience the world.

Your baby will probably be crying a lot at the moment. It’s often because they’re hungry or have a dirty nappy, but often babies just cry for no apparent reason. Give them lots of cuddles to comfort them and remember that the crying will eventually pass.

At 6 to 8 weeks, your baby needs a full health review by a health professional such as child and family health nurse, midwife, GP or paediatrician.

Your 1-month-old

All babies grow at different rates. But, on average, at 1 month they gain between 0.7 to 0.9 kg each month and grow 2.5 to 4 cm. Their head circumference will increase by about 1.25 cm each month.

All babies lose weight right after they are born. Healthy babies usually get back to their birth weight in about 2 to 3 weeks and will then continue to grow.

Your baby was weighed at birth and your doctor or maternal child health nurse will plot their growth regularly on a growth chart. Babies come in all different shapes and sizes, and your baby might be large or small. What matters is that they grow consistently over time. Try not to compare your baby’s weight gain with that of other babies.

Understanding baby growth charts

A growth chart helps you and your doctor keep track of how your baby is growing.

What can your baby do?

At 1 month, most of what babies do is still caused by reflexes. They aren’t thinking about their actions. They will be sucking, swallowing, searching for milk and grasping an object if you put it in the palm of their hand (although most of the time they’ll keep their hands clenched in tight little fists). They will also step one foot in front of the other if you put their feet on a flat surface.

They will start to focus with both eyes at 1 month and should be able to follow a moving object from side to side. They will probably prefer looking at a human face to looking at an object and will gaze deeply into your eyes if you hold them about 45 cm away. Most babies can recognise their parents by this age.

1-month-old babies love the sound of your voice, but they will get startled if they hear a loud noise. They might fall backward and throw their arms and legs out, blink their eyes and breathe faster.

By the end of the first month, most babies can raise their head when you lay them on their stomach, and they will turn their head to one side. As their neck muscles get stronger, they will be able to turn their head and lift it up when they’re in a car seat or carrier.

Your baby will cry loudly when they are hungry or uncomfortable. When they are happy and content, they usually make little gurgling noises. Respond to your baby’s sounds by gurgling and cooing back.

At 1 month, some babies will be learning how to soothe themselves, with a dummy or even by sucking their fingers or thumbs. Helping your baby to suck is a good way to calm them down.

How can I help my baby develop?

Spend as much time with your baby as possible. Looking deep into their eyes and smiling at them will help them to bond and to feel safe and secure.

Read and sing to your baby. Even though they can’t understand, they will enjoy hearing your voice. Music helps to stimulate their senses and will keep them amused. Playing with them will also strengthen your bond.

Help your baby to develop neck strength by putting them on their tummy for 1 to 5 minutes at a time. This is called tummy time. Always keep an eye on your baby during tummy time and always put them to sleep on their back.

Development problem signs

Babies develop at different rates. At 1 month, you will still be learning about your baby and their needs. But talk to your doctor or maternal child health nurse if:

• they aren’t feeding well
• they are regularly sleeping a lot more than 16 hours a day
• they aren’t moving their arms or legs
• they aren’t following your face with their eyes or responding when they see you
• they aren’t making gurgling sounds
• they don’t startle or seem not be hearing things
• you are worried about your baby’s crying or sleeping

Where can I go for help?

If you are worried or would like to discuss any issues with your baby’s development, speak to your doctor or child health nurse.

Speak to a maternal child health nurse

Call Pregnancy, Birth and Baby to speak to a maternal child health nurse on 1800 882 436 or video call. Available 7am to midnight (AET), 7 days a week.

Sources:

Learn more here about the development and quality assurance of healthdirect content.

Last reviewed: October 2020

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Related pages

• Bonding with your baby
• How your baby learns - birth to 3 years
• Your baby’s growth and development – first 12 months
• Understanding baby growth charts

This information is for your general information and use only and is not intended to be used as medical advice and should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes.

The information is not a substitute for independent professional advice and should not be used as an alternative to professional health care. If you have a particular medical problem, please consult a healthcare professional.

Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, this publication or any part of it may not be reproduced, altered, adapted, stored and/or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Healthdirect Australia.

Support this browser is being discontinued for Pregnancy, Birth and Baby

Support for this browser is being discontinued for this site

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You are welcome to continue browsing this site with this browser. Some features, tools or interaction may not work correctly.

Norms of height and weight of children and adolescents

The physical development of a child as a combination of various indicators (length, weight, shape, strength, etc.) characterizing his growth and development is due to a complex of hereditary and social factors. To study the physical development of children and adolescents, a unified method for measuring the human body and its parts has been developed. All anthropometric indicators can be divided into two groups: basic (body length, body weight, chest and head circumference) and additional (other anthropometric indicators, for example, leg length, head height, etc.). Analysis of the main anthropometric indicators at the time of the examination makes it possible to assess the physical condition of the child, in dynamics - the pace of physical development. At the same time, the features of the physique, the state of the musculoskeletal system, the degree of puberty, etc. are taken into account. Physical development is analyzed by comparing individual or group indicators with average data (standards) characteristic of the corresponding age and gender of the child.

The value of indicators of a child's physical development can be explained by a number of arguments. For many chronic diseases of childhood, there are no specific symptoms related to the early stage of the development of the disease, therefore, a violation of physical development is one of the first signs of trouble and serves as an indication for an in-depth examination of the child. Violations of the physical development of children and adolescents may be the result of malnutrition, lack of necessary care, improper or harsh treatment of the child, etc. Violations of physical development can cause constitutional features, congenital or hereditary pathology of the developmental apparatus. Such children have imperfect mechanisms of adaptation and anti-infective protection, for example, a lack of body weight in a child may be accompanied by a higher frequency of minor developmental anomalies. Any deviations of anthropometric parameters from the norm at the birth of a child can become one of the reasons for the decrease in immunological resistance, increasing the likelihood of a disease in the first year of life by half, and the probability of death by 4 times. All factors characterizing the growth and development of the child's body can be divided into genetic and environmental factors. The influence of heredity affects the growth of the child after 2 years of life.

Hereditary factors mainly determine the rate and possible limit of a child's growth under optimal environmental conditions.

The influence of environmental factors on the growth rate of the child's body can be traced very clearly. Among these factors, nutrition and vitamin sufficiency, motor mode and emotional stress, acute and chronic diseases, the influence of climatic and geographical conditions, etc. are distinguished. At the same time, environmental factors can slow down or accelerate growth processes, but in general the growth trend is quite stable, it obeys the conservation law growth. A variety of adverse influences that disrupt the individual growth rate of a child can subsequently be neutralized by the phenomenon of "catch-up or compensatory growth." What happens to the physical development of your baby from the moment of birth to its full maturity? We observe the growth and development of a child in the first year of life: How can we understand if he is healthy, is everything okay with him? Remember: the health of a child is judged primarily by its weight, height and head circumference. On average, a newborn's body weight is 3.0-3.5 kg, body length 50 cm, head circumference 35 cm. But do not expect your baby to necessarily meet this standard. Children are considered normal if their indicators are within the following limits: body weight 2.5-4.5 kg, length 45-55 cm, head circumference 33-37 cm. Immediately after birth, babies lose some weight, and then regain it and start adding. Further weight gain as well as height and head circumference are important indicators of your child's condition. By the end of the 1st year of life, body length increases by 47% in relation to body length at birth.

Weight gain of a child in the first year of life: by 4-5 months, body weight doubles, by the 1st year it increases 3 times. The head circumference of a child in the first 6 months of life increases by approximately 1 cm per month, but if the father of the child is large and the mother is small, the growth rate of the head circumference may be above the norm, and in the opposite ratio - below the norm. The circumference of the chest of newborns is less than the circumference of the head, these dimensions are equalized only by the age of one. In the first month of life, the child must be weighed daily. Thus, you monitor the development of lactation and fix the daily weight gain. Body weight is the most sensitive indicator of a child's health: whether he fell ill, whether his appetite worsened, whether his sleep was disturbed, whether you made any errors in care - all this will immediately be reflected in grams. A sign of nutritional adequacy is normotrophy - the correspondence of body weight due to a given body length of a child. If the weight of the baby has decreased by more than 10%, this is already a sign of malnutrition (malnutrition). Equally alarming is excess weight - parotrophy (excess nutrition). But the increase in the growth of the child is a more stable indicator, and its violations often indicate the presence of the disease.

Assess the rate of development of your child in the first year of life, prescribe additional examinations in case of violations of the rate of weight gain, body length, head and chest circumference, correct nutrition, if necessary, a pediatrician will be able to, therefore the cooperation of parents is so important with a doctor from the very first year of a baby's life.

It must be remembered that during the first month the pediatrician examines the child weekly, then, if the development of the baby corresponds to normal indicators, monthly. Assessment of the physical development of a child from one to 10 years. After your baby is one year old, he begins to grow by leaps and bounds. In the second year of life, he adds about 2.5-4.0 kg, and growth increases by 10-15 cm. At the age of 3 to 5 years, the baby adds 2 kg and 3 kg per year.

The head circumference of a child from 51 cm at the age of 5 increases to 53-54 cm at the age of 12. At 5-8 years old, the first traction occurs. But not all children grow in the same way - depending on a variety of factors, such as genetic ones. Children of undersized parents are usually smaller than their peers, but their puberty processes still occur on time. Faster growth than that of peers, with normal body proportions, is characteristic of children of tall parents. In some babies, the growth rate slows down from the second year of life, but after 2-3 years it accelerates again to normal. They have both growth and the onset of puberty delayed by a period during which growth was retarded, but final growth is in line with genetic potential. You must understand: the growth rate of the child should not correspond to any exact parameters, the criteria for “normality” are not at all rigid, but nevertheless, deviations in the growth rate of the child can also be pathological: for example, grossly out of proportion to age or accompanied by a violation of proportions body. Such cases require expert advice. It is also necessary to control body weight. As mentioned above, the lack and excess of body weight requires close monitoring of pediatricians, endocrinologists. In children with reduced body weight, there is a decrease in the immunological reactivity of the body, which leads to frequent colds. And excess everything is a risk factor for acquiring obesity in the future and all the serious diseases associated with it: atherosclerosis, heart disease, colon cancer, etc.

• Increase in the recommended amount of food;
• Quenching a child's thirst with milk, sugary drinks or formula;
• Excessive (more than 50-100 ml per day) consumption of sweet fruit juices and nectars;
• Use of excess high-calorie foods - fat, sweets, baked cottage cheese;
• Calming the child with food;
• Familial overeating that distorts the child's development of a real sense of need for food;
• Force-feeding, inculcating the habit of eating everything on the plate.

Your pediatrician and endocrinologist will be able to establish the correct diet, give recommendations on the daily diet. Please remember that in the second year of life, the pediatrician examines the child once a quarter, from the third year of life once every six months, in the fourth year and then once a year. Your child is between 10 and 15 years old. A uniform increase in the growth of preschoolers is replaced by its sharp acceleration in adolescence. At 10-13 years old (for girls) and at 12-15 years old (for boys) there is a second traction and at the same time an increase in body weight. The maximum growth rate in girls usually occurs at 12 years of age. The increase in height at this age is approximately 8 cm per year. The maximum increase in body weight in girls usually occurs later at 13 years of age. In boys, the maximum growth rate usually occurs at 14-15 years of age and is approximately 10 cm per year. The maximum increase in the body of a boy usually occurs with a maximum increase in height. The probable final height depends on the height of the parents. It can be calculated using the following formula: Boy's height = 1/2 x (father's height + mother's height) + 6.5 cm Girl's height = 1/2 x (father's height + mother's height) - 6.5 cm. Possible error must be taken into account - the final height can be 8.5 cm more or less.

Boys themselves and their parents are often concerned about the delay in growth acceleration, while girls, on the contrary, are worried about excessively rapid growth. However, you need to worry only if the child's growth parameters differ significantly from the parameters indicated in special tables and graphs. In such a situation, it is necessary to contact an endocrinologist.

Remember - there are methods that can influence these processes. One of the most important features of the physical development of children and adolescents is the uneven change in growth rate. In children, the distal segments of the body grow at a faster rate and in a shorter time than the upper and proximal segments. So, for example, during the period of postnatal stretching, the child's foot increases more significantly than the lower leg, and the lower leg - more than the thigh. Against this background, the increase in neck length or head height will be minimal. In certain periods, this feature of the child's growth leads to a certain disproportion, some clumsiness in movements and gait. And only during puberty, the growth rate of the trunk will be much greater than the rate of stretching of the lower limbs. Thus, the physical development of children and adolescents should be constantly in the field of view of pediatricians and healthcare organizers. Physical development subtly reflects the health of the generation, the well-being of the environment, and makes it possible to predict the longevity and resilience of the population.

Author of the material: pediatrician of the clinic on Nikulinskaya Ilyina I.D. Publication date: 2020-06-18