The pace of development
Parents often worry about the fact that their children begin to sit down, crawl or speak later than others. However, we must remember that each child has an individual pace of development. The rule is that if a baby learns new skills in a few months. If the child was born prematurely, it is necessary to take this into account when assessing its development. The purpose of examining an infant at the age of eight months is to identify the development gap. At the same time, it is necessary to establish the reason for the lag and to determine whether the child will have difficulty in learning.
The child is sitting
During the examination, the doctor asks the parents to show how the child turns and sits without support. At the age of eight months, children can already lean on their legs if they are supported by handles, and some - crawl. If by 9 months the baby can not sit down on his own, this indicates a delay in development. Such a child needs a thorough examination. Almost all eight-month-old children behave identically if they give a small cube. They reach out to him, take in handles, shift from one palm to another, and then put in their mouths. The doctor can test with a cube several times - at this age the child should equally use both hands. The doctor asks the parents if the child has started to pick up small items and checks the small motor skills. Children of younger age grab hold of objects with their entire palm. By eight months they use the thumb and index fingers for this.
Follow-up
Sometimes children can not perform the tests described above due to illness. In this case, the doctor analyzes the information received from the parents. If there are doubts, he appoints a second examination in a few weeks. To improve motor skills, the child needs a sufficiently developed vision. The eight-month-old child looks around and pays attention to small bright details, for example decorations on a cake. The doctor must make sure that the movements of the baby's eyes are synchronous, and also to find out whether there were cases of strabismus in the family. When untimely detection of strabismus and lack of treatment, vision deterioration occurs on one eye. Therefore, this pathology is important to diagnose as early as possible and send the child to a consultation with an ophthalmologist. The doctor assesses the general condition of the child, including vision, hearing, diet, sleep. Data on the development of the baby are recorded in a personal medical record. By the age of eight months, children begin to pronounce syllables, for example, "yes-yes" or "ha-ha." Behavioral tests can be used to assess the child's hearing, but they are now often replaced by electrophysiological audiometric testing.
Hearing Impairment
As a complication of the common cold, some children develop exudative otitis media (inflammation of the middle ear, which can affect the hearing condition). If there is a suspicion of hearing loss, an attention test is performed (turning the head toward the source of sound), or the child is referred to a pediatric otolaryngologist. If one of the members of the family suffers from deafness, a more thorough examination is necessary. The night sleep of most children at the age of eight months is quite calm. However, some of them wake up and require feeding. Therefore, the mother of the child can become very tired, which often leads to the development of postpartum depression.
Sleeping mode
The doctor can determine the cause of frequent child's nightly awakenings. In some regions, there are special groups in which parents are trained to adjust the sleep and behavior of the baby. In the polyclinic at the place of residence, the child is regularly weighed, and the feeding scheme is discussed with the district pediatrician. By the age of nine months, the amount of milk in a baby's daytime diet is reduced to 600 ml, and the total amount of food should be divided into three meals. Children who are breastfeeding need additional sources of iron. They can receive infant formula or lure (vegetables and meat). One of the important points of examining an eight-month-old baby is determining the mobility of the hip joints. This allows us to identify the signs of congenital dislocation of the hip (congenital dysplasia of the hip joint). It is also necessary to check whether the boys have dropped testicles in the scrotum. At many boys by the end of the first year of a life testicles descend independently, otherwise surgical treatment is necessary.
Physical development table
The nurse weighs the child, measures his height and the circumference of the head and records the data in the form of a height-weight curve in the medical chart. A single weigh-in does not give information about how well a baby is gaining weight, so it should be done regularly. At the end of the survey, the data is entered into a medical record. It also contains information about vaccination, and the doctor can monitor the compliance with the schedule of vaccinations that must be done at this age. The doctor discusses precautionary measures with his parents to prevent accidents, ways of caring for the skin and teeth of the child, and also warns that parents' smoking can harm the baby's health.