4 Months

Visit from Your Health Visitor

Your Health Visitor might visit you when your baby is 16 weeks old. You can find out more on Happy Healthy Tots.

16 Week Immunisations

Now is the time for your baby's next dose of immunisations. It is vital that your child receives protection against significant illnesses.

Remember to take your red book with you to the appointment.

Your child will receive their next dose of the following vaccines:

1. The Six-in-one vaccine helps protect your baby against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and hepatitis B (HepB).
2. Pneumococcal helps to protect your baby against pneumococcal disease.

The immunisation pages of NHS Inform includes information on when and why you should immunise your child, and what to expect after immunisation.

Public Health Scotland have produced a Protect your child against serious diseases guide. This booklet is provided by your Health Visitor within the first two weeks of your baby being born and will help you over the next five years of your child’s own immunisation journey. This is also available in other languages.

In the first six months babies get all the nutrients they need from breast milk or from first stage infant formula. There is no need to introduce any solid foods before this time. If you need support with breast or formula feeding look at our information in the 9-12 weeks section.

You should never wean before 17 weeks (4 months). If you are thinking about starting solids early, discuss this with your Health Visitor, Family Nurse or GP before you start.

Until your baby is around 6 months old:

• All equipment must be sterilised.
• Any tap water used must be boiled and cooled.
• Foods must be pureed (your baby won’t be able to cope with lumps).

You can find more information in the Fun First Foods booklet. This leaflet is available in other languages. It is also available in audio format.

Your baby will be starting to reach for objects (like toys), grasping them and bringing them to their mouth. Make sure that anything small is out of reach to keep them safe. It helps at this stage to have a variety of objects and textures within reach of your baby. Play "What's in the bag?" to get them excited about different objects and toys. Find out more from CBeebies Parenting What's in the bag? Once your baby is managing to reach and grasp for toys you can start to move things a bit further away so they have to work a little bit harder. 

Your baby can hold their head still when being moved into sitting. When held upright, they are starting to look around them to both sides.

When they are lying on their tummy they are getting much stronger. They are now starting to prop on their forearms, lifting their chest off the floor and looking around them.

When laid on the floor your baby can now roll from their back onto their side. If placed on their side your baby is able to play in this position with their hands together.

When playing on the floor, make sure they are able to reach some of their toys but make them work harder to reach others by putting them just out of reach.

Care Routines

Your baby is beginning to put their hand on the breast or bottle while being fed. They are now enjoying bath time and some of the other care routines. They might even be able to anticipate what is going to happen if they hear familiar sounds of you getting ready to do a task. Play Ready Steady Go during care routines to build the anticipation. Find out more from CBeebies Parenting Ready, steady, go!

Teeth Brushing

It is important to introduce your baby to teeth brushing before or as soon as teeth begin to appear. Make sure that your baby is registered with a dentist too. You can find out more from:

• The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) A Practical Guide to Children's Teeth
• Childsmile Oral health for babies: birth to 3 years old

Listening and Understanding

Your baby loves to listen to your songs and rhymes. Your baby will stop and listen to your voice even if they can't see you. They will stop and turn to familiar noises like a favourite rattle. Your baby enjoys it if you do something funny and will look forward to you doing it again and again.

Talking

If you make noises and wait, your baby will try to copy you. Your baby will laugh, chuckle and blow raspberries. Soon they will start to make sounds on their own like 'ma' and 'ba'. Your baby knows that you will respond if they make a noise like a squeal and they love this.

Interacting 

Your baby will scream with annoyance if you take something they like away or if they can't reach it. They enjoy interacting in everyday routines like bath time. Find out more from CBeebies Parenting Songs to sing to baby all day long.

For more information look at Parent Club Top tips for chatting together with your baby.

Your baby's eyes now work together to let them look at things close by and further away. This means they are starting to make sense of the world around them and how they interact with it.

Your baby will now be touching everything within reaching distance. So make sure to keep an eye on them as they will put everything in their mouth to explore it.

Your baby will now smile at themselves in the mirror. They may not recognise that the baby they see is actually them but they like the look of the baby!

Your baby will now repeat activities they enjoy over and over again.

Find out more from CBeebies Parenting Sensory play with baby: Blowing bubbles.