At around 12 weeks of age, babies move both of their arms when you offer an object.  Yet by 16 weeks of age, most babies reach out for objects with the left hand…..

But at 24 weeks (6 months) they are back to the two-handed approach.  Hmmm….

At 28 weeks, a mere month later, babies will again show a preference, and it is ususally the right hand.  You ready for this?  The switching back and forth continues.

For the record:

1. Milestones are guidelines for the journey.  Not markers for a race.
2. Babies have distinct personalities.
3. There will never be an adequate expert substitute for bare-knuckle parenting.

So much parenting advice out there … but, none of it matters if it doesn’t apply to your baby.   Forget the formulaic advice. The best strategy? Moms and Dads — know thy baby.

To know your baby, you must observe your baby.  A key fact to remember is that babies grow via observable processes that we in the baby biz call “domains.”  The developmental domains interconnect, they are interdependent, and an infant’s proficiency in each domain strengthens quickly.  Babies have steady work.  Even in this economy.

At birth, baby brains already have more cells, called neurons, than will ever be needed in life.  These neurons function by connection to each other and sending information –electrical impules, actually.  Connections sites are called synapses.

The human brain begins forming just three weeks after conception.  At peak development, the cerebral cortex creates 2,000,000 (wait let me count the zeros… yep, that’s two million) synapses every second.  Yes, every second.

Your baby is in cahoots with Mother Nature.

Together, they lure you (and any other helpless adult) into feeding, touching, talking to, listening to, and bonding with the newborn members of our species. About twelve inches from target is the best distance for a newborn’s built-in binoculars to see most clearly.

You play into their hands every time you position the highly-favored roundness of your face and your eyes’ rounded irises approximately that distance from your baby’s face — an inevitable consequence of breastfeeding.

Your new infant also appreciates the easy-to-see contrast between light and dark.  That’s why you’ll notice his gaze fixed on your hairline, your eyebrows, and even your moving mouth — you are talking to him during feedings, right?