Month 5 in your baby’s life: development at 20 weeks

Month 5: Baby development milestones at 20 weeks

Movement: “Mom, look, I can sit already!” If your baby could already speak in the 5th month, it would certainly want to share the joy that it can hold itself in a sitting position with your help. But always remember that you protect your head and back when you first try to sit down. These “sessions” shouldn’t last too long either, at most a few moments. Your baby’s head is also becoming more and more stable. If you lay it down from a sitting position or turn it from a supine to a prone position, it probably won’t just hang, but will show some body tension.

Senses: Your baby’s hearing and vision will continue to improve up to the 20th week. True to the motto “practice makes perfect”, your baby will continue to work diligently to improve its sensory perception. Now it can even recognize half-covered objects and perceive the finest color differences. By the 5th month, your baby will likely turn to any sound source in a flash, and their hearing threshold has been close to that of an adult for some time. You can support the development and connect it with a game idea, for example by rattling a bunch of keys here and there. Your baby will certainly respond to this with enthusiasm.

Communication: In the 5th month, your baby will have more and more fun snorting, bubbling and babbling. It will passionately repeat its favorite noises over and over again and integrate the individual sounds into larger structures. Chains of sounds like “ga-ga-ga-ga” and “bu-bu-bu-buuuu” are now commonplace and practiced tirelessly as a natural progression in language development. In the 5th month, the baby can already clearly show what mood it is in at the moment. His range of emotional expressions is now getting broader.

Also, around the 5th month, your baby will discover that every action has an effect. It finds out and understands that if a ball is pushed, it will roll away. Your baby will start touching and moving different objects more and more often just to see how they behave. This is his way of discovering the world in the 5th month.

Your baby will now also show you his bond with you more and more clearly. It will stretch out its arms for you to pick it up and, more and more often, it will hug you. His affection is perhaps also shown by the fact that he develops increasing distrust of strangers.

Sleeping: Your baby’s nightly rest period is getting longer and longer in the 5th month. Accordingly, your baby will need less and less sleep during the day. You can find out more about your baby’s sleeping and waking periods in our article “How a child’s sleep rhythm develops” .

Month 5: Baby-related appointments

• next vaccination
• Sign up for a baby language course

Month 5: Tips for the 20 week old baby

complementary food

Up to the 5th month it is sufficient to feed your baby with breast milk or formula. From about the 5th month you can also slowly start introducing complementary food . We give you tips on how to expand your baby’s menu and what you should consider when switching to complementary foods . In our special you will also find recipes for delicious dishes that you can prepare for your baby at home.

picture books

Picture books can support your baby’s development from an early age. By “reading” and looking at the pictures together, you can discover the world with your baby. A particularly suitable variant for the first few months are so-called touch books, which your baby can explore not only with his eyes but also with his sense of touch.

Child Safe Home

It will be some time before your baby becomes mobile enough to explore the apartment on its own. However, it is important to think ahead of time to prepare your home well for your baby’s crawling period. In our article “ Child safety in the house and garden ” you can read about the precautions you should take to ensure that nothing bad happens when your baby takes its first steps.

cloth diapers

Cloth diapers have regained popularity in recent years. More and more new parents are opting for the reusable version for diapering their babies. We have put together the advantages and disadvantages of cloth diapers for you. In our article “ Cloth diapers for your baby: the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative ” you can also read when it is advisable to use a cloth diaper.