Brain Builders

Stimulating Activities for Your 5-month-old Baby

By Tammy Morey

Are you ready to rock and roll! This month Baby is rockin' and rollin' all over – wiggling, wriggling and rolling her body in ways to get what she wants. And she is expressing herself quite well, too, with squirms, giggles and wails to let you know how she feels. That's just the beginning of all the wonderful experiences awaiting you and your baby in her fifth month of life.

All babies flourish in an environment that is consistent, orderly and predictable. By providing your baby with a routine, you are establishing a lifetime of security and dependability. Now is the perfect opportunity to incorporate a routine into your life or reassess the one you currently have – both for you and your baby. First, evaluate whether or not you are taking adequate care of yourself, then assess your baby's well-being through the following ABCs assessment from Susan Ludington, author of How to Have a Smarter Baby (Bantam, 1987)):

• A – Appearance: Does Baby appear happy? If yes, continue with B. If no, then evaluate the behaviors that promote security such as establishing a bedtime routine to ensure adequate sleep.
• B – Behaviors: By now you will probably have had enough time to establish a routine based upon her patterns of sleep/wakefulness/hunger and ensure that you organize your day accordingly. During the day, she will probably require two to two and a half hours of wakefulness approximately four times a day. She will need 10 to 12 hours of sleep each evening, which may or may not be interrupted by feeding.
• C – Care: Is Baby receiving the essential play and sense opportunities? The play opportunities are: structured, unstructured, interactive and free play. The sense opportunities are: vocalizing, visual, tactile, listening, taste and smell opportunities.

If you are unsure whether you are providing her with adequate routines that establish her sense of dependability, begin with writing down the sequence of your day. For example, when do you bathe and feed her, and when does she nap and go to bed? These natural routines are the perfect opportunities to include sense and play activities.

For example, while you are feeding her, play some soft music. During her bath, describe the routine of washing her hair and let her smell the shampoo before you put it on her head. If you give her a bath before bed, add tactile/touch into the routine by massaging lotion into her arms and legs before diapering and dressing her. This will also relax her, allowing her to fall asleep easier.

Want to see more?

• Brain Builders: An Introduction
• Brain Builders: Stimulating Activities for Your 1-month-old Baby
• Brain Builders: Stimulating Activities for Your 2-month-old Baby
• Talk about it!