Growing up
Children grow in fits and starts, not in a straight line. A baby who has been steady for weeks will suddenly gain; a toddler who was babbling happily will go quiet for a fortnight while they concentrate on walking. Almost all of it is normal.
What we watch at each visit is the pattern rather than any single number: whether your child is following their own curve on the growth chart, and whether new skills keep arriving. That is why we plot height, weight and head circumference every time, and why we ask what your child is doing at home.
Roughly what to expect
- By 2 months — smiles back at you, follows a face, holds the head up briefly.
- By 6 months — rolls over, reaches for things, turns towards a voice, babbles.
- By 12 months — sits steadily and pulls up to stand, picks up small objects with finger and thumb, waves, and says one or two words with meaning.
- By 18 months — walks well, points at what they want, uses several words, drinks from a cup.
- By 2 years — runs, puts two words together, follows a simple instruction, feeds themselves.
- By 3 years — speaks in short sentences a stranger can mostly understand, climbs stairs, plays alongside other children.
These are ranges, not deadlines. Arriving a little late at any one of them is common and usually means nothing at all.
When to bring it up with us
- Your child loses a skill they already had.
- No smiling by three months, no sitting by nine months, no walking or first words by eighteen months, or no two-word phrases by two and a half.
- They do not meet your eye, or do not answer to their own name by twelve months.
- Your own feeling that something is different. Parents notice these things first, and we would far rather look and reassure you.
Bring it up at any visit. Nothing here is too small to ask about.
Related reading: W-sitting: is it harmful?