4 Month Milestones
GET ACCESS TO ALL PREMIUM CONTENT WITH NO ADS FOR $4.99/MONTH
- The four month old check-up is my favorite breakthrough visit with a baby, because they smile at me. I don't take it personally, because they smile at almost everyone. It's the, I don't know who you are, but I love you, age, and it's one of the best times to either travel or entertain guests, because the baby will convince almost any relative that they're the one. A baby is laughing at that age, bonding beautifully with older siblings, because the jokes that might annoy us, keep the baby entertained. The eye muscles are moving differently. A baby at four months of age, is usually tracking quite smoothly in the horizontal plane, tracking a little more slowly in the vertical plane. Their eye muscles are moving. They're smiling. They're laughing. They love jokes. They're cooing. They're answering little questions. They're asking more questions. No consonants. All vowels. Their arms are moving. Neuromuscular control is now moving out to the point where a baby is swatting. The milestone at four months of age, is not so much grabbing the rattle, as wanting to grab the rattle. And that swatting often convinces parents that the baby is interested in solid foods, because having dinner with a four month old on your lap, is an adventure, 'cause they try to go after your food. They're not ready for solids. I tell parents that if there were mud on the plate, the baby would be interested in the mud. These babies probably aren't rolling really well. They might be, but they're trying to move and it's when you have to start child-proofing, because the desire to get moving, turns into being able to move, between four and six or seven months of age, and you need to child-proof. Because when they're down on the floor, they're looking for corners and edges.
Four month milestones is Pediatrician Jay Gordon’s favorite
Related Videos
Transcript
Expert Bio
More from Expert
Jay Gordon, MDPediatrician
Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC - In the middle of his residency training, pediatrician Jay Gordon took an unusual step. Deciding that he needed greater knowledge about nutrition, vitamins, and alternative medicine in order to practice medicine the way he wanted to, Dr. Gordon took a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Nutrition at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. After his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dr. Gordon joined the teaching attending faculty at UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Intensely interested in infant nutrition and breastfeeding, Dr. Gordon is the first male physician to sit for and pass the International Board of Lactation Certification Exam and has served on the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League for 24 years.
In addition to treating patients, he participates in the training of medical students and residents, lectures all over the world, writes books, and writes a monthly column for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine. He has contributed to “New York Parent,” “Parenting” magazine and has been quoted in the L.A. Times, New York Times, and The London Times.
Dr. Gordon’s first book, the well-received Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow, offers a life-changing plan for families who want to make dramatic changes in health and fitness through nutrition. Brighter Baby examines the positive effect that attachment parenting, combined with infant massage, has on children’s health and intelligence. Other releases include: Good Night! The Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed and Hug Your Baby, a Gentle Guide through the First Year, which was released summer, 2002. He also authored Listening To Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn, which still gets great reviews from parents. His most recent book is The ADD and ADHD Cure, the Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child.
When the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Television and the Media named Dr. Gordon “the most influential doctor in America,” they were referring, tongue-in-cheek, to Dr. Gordon’s role, as the medical script consultant, in eliminating lollipops from the office of “Doctor Weston,” lead character on the sitcom “Empty Nest.”
After two years of consulting on television scripts, sets, and ideas, Dr. Gordon was named CBS TV’s Medical Consultant for Children’s programming. He also worked for five years on ABC Television as the on-air medical correspondent for the “Home Show,” and continues to consult regularly for television and movies. He’s appeared on Fox 11 News, ABC’s 20/20 and most recently on Larry King Live.
Dr. Gordon contributed and wrote the forward to Smart Medicine for a Healthy Child and The Encyclopedia of Vitamins and Supplements (both published in 1999), is pediatric consultant for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine and a frequent contributor to “Parents,” “Parenting,” and other media outlets. Busy as he is, Dr. Gordon finds that his most challenging job is “being a good husband and the best possible parent to my 22 year-old daughter.”
Login or Register to view and post comments