Week 26

Days 176 to 182 · 25 weeks 0 days to 25 weeks 6 days old · about 6 months Your baby is now, on average, about 66 cm (26 in) long and weighs around 7.5 kg (16.6 lb). Most babies have roughly doubled their birth weight by now, but babies vary widely, and following their own curve is what counts. Many are sitting with less support, babbling in long strings and showing clear opinions about people and food. Your baby may already be eating a little each day, or may be about to start. For you, this week closes the first half of the year. The focus is on how eating settles in: changes in the diaper, trusting your baby's appetite, offering variety, food and sleep, caring for your back, bringing your baby to the family table and, on day 182, looking back on six months.

Day 176 · 25 weeks 0 days old

What goes in changes what comes out

Once your baby starts solids, their diapers will change, and it can be a surprise. Stools usually become thicker, firmer and smellier, more like an adult's. Breastfed babies, whose poop used to be soft and mild, often notice the biggest difference.

Colours change too. Carrots and sweet potato can turn stool orange, spinach and peas green, beets red, and blueberries almost black. Pieces of undigested food, such as bits of corn, peas or tomato skin, often pass straight through. That is normal: your baby is still learning to chew, and their gut is adjusting. The number of bowel movements may change as well, sometimes more often, sometimes less. Some babies have a few days of firmer stools while they get used to food. Offering water in an open cup with meals and plenty of fruits, vegetables and legumes helps. Constipation with solids is covered in more detail early in Part Four.

Call your baby's doctor if you see red blood in the stool that is not from a red food, black stool that is not explained by food or iron, white or very pale stool, or diarrhea with signs of dehydration such as fewer wet diapers. Any of these can need a closer look.

Try this: Keep a quick note of new foods and any big diaper changes for the next week or two, so you can tell food colours from things worth asking about.

Day 177 · 25 weeks 1 day old

Your baby knows when they have had enough

Babies are born with a good sense of hunger and fullness. Protecting that sense is one of the most useful things you can do at the table.

Signs that your baby is hungry and interested include leaning forward, opening their mouth as the spoon comes near, reaching for food and getting excited when they see it. Signs that they are done include turning their head away, closing their mouth, pushing the spoon or food away, getting distracted, arching their back or simply looking bored. When you see those signs, stop, even if the bowl is still full.

Avoid games and tricks to get "just one more bite", such as airplane spoons or distracting your baby with a screen. They teach a baby to eat past fullness and can make meals a struggle later. Let your baby touch, squash and explore food with their hands. It is part of learning, and it often leads to tasting.

Amounts in these first weeks are tiny and vary a lot. A baby may eat several spoonfuls one day and two licks the next. Over a week, it tends to even out. Your baby's growth, energy and wet diapers tell you more than any single meal.

Try this: At the next meal, say out loud what you notice ("You are turning away, you must be finished") and end the meal on your baby's signal.

Day 178 · 25 weeks 2 days old

It can take many tries before a new food feels familiar

Babies often make a face at new flavours, especially bitter vegetables such as broccoli, spinach or kale. That grimace does not mean they dislike the food. It means it is new. Many babies need to try a food 8 to 15 times before they accept it, and some need more.

So keep offering. Put a small amount of a new or once-refused food on the tray alongside foods your baby already enjoys, without pressure or fuss. Serve it in different ways, mashed one day, in soft strips another, mixed with something familiar the next. Let your baby watch you eat it with obvious enjoyment.

The months around now are a good window for variety. Babies tend to be more open to new tastes in the second half of the first year than they will be as toddlers, when wariness of new food often rises. A baby who has met a wide range of vegetables, fruits, grains, proteins and gentle spices such as cinnamon, cumin, garlic or herbs may be more adventurous later. There is no need to keep baby food bland. Just leave out salt, sugar and strong chili heat. Vegetables do not have to come before fruit, and fruit will not ruin your baby's taste for vegetables. Offer both.

Try this: Pick one vegetable your baby did not seem to like and offer a small amount of it again today, prepared in a new way.

Day 179 · 25 weeks 3 days old

Solids will not fix the nights

It is one of the most persistent pieces of advice new parents hear: give the baby something more filling, and they will sleep through. Unfortunately, research does not support it. Starting solids earlier, or giving bigger meals before bed, does not reliably help babies sleep longer. Night waking at this age has many causes, including development, habits, comfort and simply how babies are wired.

Never put cereal or other food in a bottle. It is a choking risk, it can lead to overfeeding, and it skips the chance for your baby to learn how to eat from a spoon. If someone suggests it, you can tell them the advice has changed. Starting solids can, for a while, even shake up sleep a little. New foods and changes in digestion can cause the occasional unsettled night. That usually passes. Keep your usual bedtime routine and keep milk feeds going as your baby needs them.

Some babies do naturally start to sleep for longer stretches in the second half of the year, and some do not. As you read a few weeks ago, there are several gentle and more structured approaches to sleep if you want to make changes. Safe sleep stays the same: on the back, in their own sleep space, in your room for at least the first 6 months.

Try this: If you have been hoping food would help with sleep, write down what the nights actually look like this week, so any decisions you make are based on what is really happening.

Day 180 · 25 weeks 4 days old

Lift with your legs and spare your back

Your baby is now roughly twice the weight they were at birth and getting wigglier by the week. All the lifting, carrying, bending over cribs and bathtubs and hoisting car seats adds up. Back, neck, shoulder and wrist pain are common among parents at this stage.

Small habits make a big difference. When you lift your baby from the floor, bend your knees and squat rather than bending from the waist, keep your baby close to your body and tighten your belly muscles gently as you rise. Avoid lifting and twisting at the same time. Carry your baby in front or switch sides often, instead of always resting them on one hip. Raise the change table or bath to waist height if you can, and kneel beside the tub rather than leaning over it.

The car seat carrier is heavy and awkward. Where possible, leave it in the car and carry your baby, or use a stroller frame. A well-fitted carrier spreads your baby's weight across your hips and shoulders.

Core and pelvic floor strength help too. If your abdominal muscles still feel weak or separated, a pelvic health physiotherapist can guide you. Call your care provider if back pain comes with numbness, tingling or weakness in your legs, problems controlling your bladder or bowel, or fever. Try this: Watch yourself lift your baby out of the crib or off the floor today, and practise doing it with bent knees and your baby held close.

Day 181 · 25 weeks 5 days old

Pull the high chair up to the family table

Babies learn to eat by watching other people eat. When your baby sits with you at mealtimes, they see how food is picked up, chewed, enjoyed and talked about. They also learn that meals are a time to be together. You do not need to eat every meal at the same time, especially with work and nap schedules. But aim for at least one shared meal a day when you can, with your baby's high chair pulled up to the table. Offer soft versions of what the family is eating, set aside before salt or strong spice is added. A little mashed lentil curry, flaked fish and soft vegetables, or pasta with sauce can all become baby food.

Keep screens off during meals, so everyone can focus on the food and each other. Talk to your baby about what you are eating: the colours, the textures, the names of things. Siblings often love to model eating and may be your baby's favourite teachers.

Family meals are not about perfection. Some will be loud and messy, and some will be over in ten minutes. Over the coming months, these shared meals become one of the most reliable ways your baby learns to eat well. Try this: Plan one meal this week where everyone sits together, and serve your baby a soft version of the same food you are eating.

Day 182 · 25 weeks 6 days old

Half a year of getting to know each other

Six months ago, you met a tiny stranger. Today, you know their laugh, their cry for hunger and their cry for comfort, the way they rub their eyes when they are tired and the face they make at a new taste. Your baby knows you too: your smell, your voice and your arms are their safe place.

This day closes Part Three, the months when your baby woke up to the world. They found their hands, laughed out loud, rolled over, reached for what they wanted, began to babble and, for many, tasted their first food. You learned too, often on very little sleep. Whatever these months held for you, whether joy, worry, exhaustion or all of them at once, you got here. The next six months bring big changes: sitting on their own, crawling or scooting, perhaps pulling up to stand, new textures and finger foods, a growing sense of who belongs to them, and maybe a first word near the end. The 6-month checkup, usually with vaccines in many places, comes soon and is covered at the start of Part Four.

Tonight, before the next day begins, take a moment to notice how far you have both come. Six months is a real milestone, for your baby and for you. Try this: Take a photo of your baby next to the same object or in the same spot as a newborn photo, and write a few lines to go with it about who your baby is today.