Your Little Gourmet: Babys Fifth Month Guide

Baby smiled her real smiles at you and you were so charmed, you decided nothing could be better. But baby has more in store for you in her fifth month. Endless entertainment coupled with increasing interest in her surroundings makes your five month-old baby an ideal playmate.

Squeals and smiles

You will be amazed by the repertoire of sounds your baby can produce now. She is always eager to communicate with you with her smiles, and squeals of delight. Laugh and your baby laughs with you. Baby babble is almost at its peak now.

In baby's fifth month, she can sit with support and haul herself up a little bit when she is laid on her tummy. She can pay attention to tiny objects, but it is wise to keep such objects well out of your curious baby's reach.

More sleep, yet less rest for you

Your five month-old baby sleeps for longer stretches at night, which means your under-eye circles might soon go away. But when he is awake, he loves your company and wants all your attention. His daytime naps continue and give you a few short breaks to get that pile of laundry done.

Are you ready for real food?

Probably. Once your baby's tongue thrust reflex has disappeared and she seems interested in what you are eating, you might want to premiere with solids. Start feeding baby when he neither has a full tummy nor a ravenous appetite. The trick is to know when to begin, and more important when to stop. When she looks disinterested and turns her head away, it is time to abandon project cereal until the next meal.

In baby's fifth month, she will be open to the idea of trying out a cup. Pour a few drops into her mouth. Most of it will probably be spilt, but the earlier you start a cup, the fewer the spills later in childhood. A sippy cup has its own advantages, but it might be tough to wean an older child from a sippy.

Unfortunately, along with your dimples and your lovely golden hair, your baby also inherits some of your food allergies. Wheat, cow's milk, soy, peanuts and fish are common culprits.

Feeding your five month-old baby is one of the messiest tasks you will ever perform. The baby-on-your-lap method is by far the most logistically tricky. An infant seat can double as a feeding chair. Make sure you strap baby in and never leave baby unsupervised in an infant seat even for a moment.

Get some exercise

Most mobile walkers and jumpers are unsafe and some have even been banned. A safer option would be an exersaucer or a stationary walker. A baby swing can work miracles as it calms your baby while you are occupied. But too much use of the baby swing can impair his practice of motor functions such as walking, crawling and cruising.

Health is wealth

In baby's fifth month, a medical examination is generally not scheduled unless you have specific health concerns or questions. Read all about environmental hazards that can affect your baby both at home and outdoors. Try to minimize your baby's exposure to environmental hazards by adequately childproofing your home, monitoring baby all the time and following safety measures.

Parenting is a demanding job and there are no job regulations or specifications. Keep yourself informed so that you know what is best for your baby.

* About the author *

This article has been provided by ParentingSurvivalGuide.com.

Please visit our web site at http://www.ParentingSurvivalGuide.com to discover more articles.

Copyright 2005 ParentingSurvivalGuide.com, all rights reserved.

This article may be freely republished for noncommercial use as long as the article, including the author information and this reprint policy statement, is republished in its entirety, unedited, and with all links working.

In The News:

Yahoo! News: Top Stories

President-elect Barack Obama makes remarks on the nations economy, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)AP - President-elect Barack Obama's proposed tax cuts ran into opposition Thursday from senators in his own party who said they wouldn't do much to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Senators from both parties agreed that Congress should do something to stimulate the economy. But Democratic senators emerging from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee criticized business and individual tax cuts in Obama's stimulus plan.



Palestinian demonstrators use sling-shots to hurl stones at Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against Israel's military operation in Gaza, in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah,Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. Israel resumed its Gaza offensive Wednesday after a three-hour lull to allow delivery of humanitarian aid, bombing heavily around suspected smuggling tunnels near the border with Egypt. Despite the heavy fighting, strides appeared to be being made on the diplomatic front with the U.S. throwing its weight behind a deal being brokered by France and Egypt. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)AP - The U.N. Security Council called for an "immediate" and "durable" cease-fire in Gaza in a resolution Thursday night even as fighting between Israel and Hamas raged — with early morning airstrikes killing seven Palestinians and pushing the death toll to about 760 in the near two-week conflict.



Florida's Tim Tebow (15) throws a pass over Oklahoma's Auston English (33) during the third quarter of the BCS Championship NCAA college football game in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP - The game defied expectations. Tim Tebow fulfilled them. He rescued No. 1 Florida, running through and throwing over No. 2 Oklahoma for a 24-14 victory Thursday night that gave the Gators their second BCS championship in three years.



Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) votes to recommend the impeachment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the House during an Illinois House Impeachment Committee hearing Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, in Springfield, Ill. The committee voted unanimously to recommend impeachment putting the matter before the full house.  (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)AP - A key panel unanimously recommended impeachment for Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday, setting up a vote that could make him the first governor to face such fate in Illinois' sordid political history. Blagojevich should lose his job for abusing power, mismanaging government and committing possible criminal acts, including federal allegations he tried to sell off a U.S. Senate seat, the special committee concluded.



A sign instructs job seekers at the California Employment Development Department in Sunnyvale, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. The country lost nearly 2 million jobs through November and more bad news is expected this week when the government releases data on weekly jobless claims and December unemployment. No matter how bad those numbers are, and economists expect at least another 500,000 jobs were lost last month, the pain is stretching into 2009.  (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)AP - Trying to survive a deepening recession, employers are cutting their work forces to the bone, leaving more Americans unemployed and with dim prospects of finding a new job any time soon.



Neel Kashkari, the assistant treasury secretary in charge of the bailout program, speaks at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)AP - Less than a month after its first report, a congressional panel overseeing the Treasury Department's $700 billion financial bailout is demanding more answers.



Freida Pinto backstage with the best picture award for 'Slumdog Millionaire' at the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday Jan. 8, 2009 in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)AP - The critics have spoken, and "Slumdog Millionaire" is their final answer.



Vice President Dick Cheney pauses during an interview with the Associated Press at the White House in Washington Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)AP - Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday that he sees no reason for President George W. Bush to pre-emptively pardon anyone at the CIA involved in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists. "I don't have any reason to believe that anybody in the agency did anything illegal," he said.



Recruiter Sgt. Mario Ashe (L) and Christopher Stevens talk in the tactical operations center area of the U.S. Army Experience center at the Franklin Mills mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 7, 2009. The U.S. Army, struggling to ensure it has enough manpower as it fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is wooing young Americans with video games, Google maps and simulated attacks on enemy positions from an Apache helicopter. Departing from the recruiting environment of metal tables and uniformed soldiers in a drab military building, the Army has invested $12 million in a facility that looks like a cross between a hotel lobby and a video arcade. Picture taken January 7, 2009. (Tim Shaffer/Reuters)AP - U.S. policy to win in Afghanistan must recognize the poor nation's limitations and its neighborhood, especially its intertwined relationship with U.S. terrorism-fighting ally Pakistan, the top U.S. military commander in the region said Thursday.



The east side apartment building where Bernard Madoff remains under house arrest is seen Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, in New York. Prosecutors said Thursday that investigators found 100 signed checks worth $173 million in Bernard Madoff's office desk that he was ready to send out to his closest family and friends at the time of his arrest last month. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)AP - Prosecutors said Thursday that investigators found 100 signed checks worth $173 million in Bernard Madoff's office desk that he was ready to send out to his closest family and friends at the time of his arrest last month in what is alleged to be largest financial fraud in history.



Palestinian women mourn as they watch the funeral of Palestinians killed at a U.N. school, in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip January 7, 2009. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)Reuters - Israel pushed ahead with its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Friday, ignoring a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire to the 14-day-old conflict.



Jaclyn Holt (R) fills out an application form at a job fair organized by the New Hampshire Employment Security agency in Salem, New Hampshire December 17, 2008. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. employers probably cut the most jobs in at least 34 years last month as the global economic crisis gathered pace and moves by policy makers took time to filter through to struggling companies.



People taking the Long Island Foreclosure Tour arrive at a foreclosed home for sale in New Hyde Park, New York in this May 17, 2008 file photo. Citigroup could soon agree to principles that would let troubled borrowers save their homes through bankruptcy, sources familiar with the talks said on Thursday, while industry groups are easing their opposition to the plan. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)Reuters - Financial giant Citigroup Inc will support a proposal in Congress to rewrite U.S. bankruptcy law to help troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Thursday.



Reuters - A report being released on Friday alleges that the U.S. Treasury has failed to reveal its strategy for stabilizing the financial system, not answered questions asked by a government watchdog, and has done nothing to help struggling homeowners, the Wall Street Journal said.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gestures as he announces former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris as his choice to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama during a news conference in Chicago, Illinois December 30, 2008. (Frank Polich/Reuters)Reuters - A legislative committee on Thursday recommended the impeachment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, citing widespread abuse of power including allegations he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.



Timothy Geithner (R), pictured in Chicago, November 24, 2008. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is urgently overhauling the $700 billion financial rescue package to broaden its scope beyond Wall Street, The Washington Post reported on Friday.



Usama al-Kini, Al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan, is pictured in this undated FBI Most Wanted photograph. Al-Kini, also known as Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, and a top aide are believed to be dead, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on January 8, 2009, in what appeared to be the latest results of a campaign targeting the militant group's leadership. Operations chief al-Kini was thought responsible for attacks, including the bombing of a Marriott hotel in Islamabad that killed 55 people in September, and an unsuccessful attempt to kill former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was later assassinated in a separate attack, the official said. (FBI/Handout/Reuters)Reuters - Al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan and a top aide are believed to be dead, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest results of a campaign targeting the militant group's leadership.



Reuters - Some friends of accused swindler Bernard Madoff considered him a "warm and charming" man, and one of his alleged victims praised him just before his death in 2005, Fox Business Network reported on Thursday.

An Israeli army tank takes position on a hill at the border between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip on January 8, 2009. Israel was under intense pressure Friday to end its two-week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip after the UN Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire as the death toll from the war rose past 760.(AFP/David Buimovitch)AFP - Israel carried out new deadly air raids on the Gaza Strip on Friday as the UN Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire to end the two-week-old conflict in the Palestinian enclave.



A man carries firewood in the suburbs of Sofia, Bulgaria. Hopes for a quick resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe were rising Friday after Russia agreed on the terms for the deployment of monitors in Ukraine.(AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff)AFP - Hopes for a quick resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe were rising Friday after Russia agreed on the terms for the deployment of monitors in Ukraine.




Honor Grandma with a Baby Shower for Grandma

Throwing a baby shower for grandma could be a great way to... Read More

Baby Clipart for All Your Baby Shower Printing Needs

Baby clipart is the perfect accent to all of your baby shower... Read More

Childrens Backpack Safety and Comfort

One of the easiest and safest ways to carry your child around... Read More

How to Buy Infants? Best Educational Toys?

Buying educational toys for infants can be difficult, because infants seem to... Read More

How To Deal With Toddler Temper Tantrums

It's one of the few things your child can do that will... Read More

Baby Shower Favors to Spice up Your Baby Shower

Baby Shower Favors should be at every baby shower for its guests.... Read More

Child Safety in the Home

In the 15-year period from 1982 to 1996, the leading cause of... Read More

14 Steps To Reducing Your Infants Reflux

Many of the things listed below will help with your baby's discomfort... Read More

The Personality Traits of a Capricorn Baby

Your Capricorn Baby..December 23 - January 19Capricorn babies thrive on routine and... Read More

Baby Shower Food Items

Baby shower food items are one of the most important features of... Read More

3 Simple Steps In Searching For A Baby Name

1) BRAINSTORMIt is a good idea to pick a baby boy, girl,... Read More

Baby Shower Gift Ideas

A few guests can get together and get a big laundry basket.... Read More

Choose Baby Bedding Wisely

Every adorable baby deserves equally adorable baby bedding to complete the nursery.... Read More

Baby Sleep Tips

Getting a baby to adjust to a normal sleep schedule can be... Read More

Scheduling Your Baby Naming Ceremony - the Right Time Makes All the Difference

If you're at the stage of wanting to organise a naming ceremony... Read More

Getting to Know Your Baby: Babys Second Month Guide

Time has flown. Your little bundle of joy has been a part... Read More

Protecting Your Baby and Toddler from the Sun

Babies and young children have thinner and more delicate skin than adults.... Read More

TEA for TWO, For BABY and YOU!

Baby Rooibos Tea is naturally good for your baby. It is an... Read More

Babies Born With A Cleft Palate Or Lip

As many as one in 700 babies are born with either a... Read More

Baby Dangers New Parents Need to Know About

This Spring many new parents will welcome new additions into their family.... Read More

Make Your Own Baby Food - The Easy Way!

Is your baby about to start solid foods? Are you thinking of... Read More

How to Clean Those Lovable Plush Toys

Are YOUR Stuffed Animals DIRTY?Stuffed animals and dollies can lead a hard... Read More

Planning the Perfect Baby Shower

One of the most exciting events an expecting mother looks forward to... Read More

Babies: How to Get Your Children Excited About the New Arrival

The sudden appearance of a new baby can be rough on the... Read More

Potty Training At Daycare and Preschool

With 61% of children between the ages of birth and 6 years... Read More

Baby Pool Floats ? Teach Babies To Swim With Fun and Safety

There is nothing more fun than getting your baby used to the... Read More

Luxury Baby Bedding - What to Look For Before You Buy

When buying luxury baby bedding, perhaps first decide what style and fabric... Read More

Baby Massage: A Cure for Colic

Colic hurts. Any parent who has an affected child will know that... Read More

Baby Yoga and Me

Having carried a sizable bump around for a very long, very hot... Read More

What Happens When During the Baby Shower?

To be precise, anything can happen anytime as long as everyone enjoys... Read More

The Five Best Baby Shower Gifts

Ask first time parents-to-be what baby shower gifts they would like to... Read More

Your Little Gourmet: Babys Fifth Month Guide

Baby smiled her real smiles at you and you were so charmed,... Read More

Baby Expense: What To Do When Baby

As you probably know, baby expense should be high on your list... Read More

4 Tips for Taking Great Baby Pictures - Even If Youre Not a Professional

When my daughter Layla was born I had a hard time putting... Read More

The Personality Traits of a Pisces Baby

Your Pisces Baby..February 19 - March 20Your baby will have the most... Read More

Potty Training Your Child: The Five Potty Training Methods

There are many different ways to potty train your toddler. At last... Read More

Baby Shower Checklist-Hostess

Using baby shower checklist-hostess are the best way to stay organized if... Read More

Educational Toys That Stimulate Chidrens Mind

When children start to walk more steadily, run, push, pull, climb and... Read More

Guide to Choosing Toddler Toys

The play has many more functions for toddlers than for adults. For... Read More

How To Choose a Baby Formula

Breast milk is the most natural food for your baby, but if... Read More

First Birthday Party: Game and Activities for Little Guests

Do you want your baby to be thrilled by his or her... Read More

A Must Have, Do-It-Yourself Resource For ALL Preschooler Parents

There is something so amazing and joyous about watching a little kid... Read More

Freezing Homemade Baby Food

With our twin boys getting ready to start solid food, I have... Read More

Shared Dancing has Benefits for Babies and New Moms Alike

Every parent knows the calming effects on their baby of rocking and... Read More

My RAD Child

When I say RAD you may think of a child that is... Read More

Baby Shower Hostess Etiquette

Does baby shower hostess etiquette allow for gift suggestions, if yes, how?... Read More

Perfect Baby Shower Hostess Gifts

Picture this; you are invited to a baby shower. How do you... Read More