Infant Development: Baby Stages by Month

One Month

• Movements are limited within the first month. Your infant can move his head from side to side and kick. The only communication he has is crying. He can follow movements with his eyes if the objects are close to him. He will like to look at his fingers. According to the Mayo Clinic, an infant can respond to loud noises within a few weeks.

Two Months

• According to WedMD, an infant will start to respond to you with a smile at 2 months old. He can smile when he looks at your smile. If you lay him on your tummy he'll hold his neck and head up for a bit. He can start exploring the movement in his hands by opening and closing them, and playing with his fingers. If you put your finger in his hand, he can grip it lightly.

Three Months

• By the third month, an infant will react to objects around him. He will grab for objects even if he can't reach them. He will grip objects in his hand tightly. His kicks will be stronger as the muscles in his legs grow. If you stick out your tongue, your infant can copy and do the same.

Four Months

• Your infant will enjoy playing at this stage. He can laugh when he's having fun and he cries when he's done playing. He plays by grabbing objects and getting them in his hand. He can control his muscles and sit with support, according to the University of Illinois. If you lay him on his tummy and he has the strength, he can push up onto his arms.

Five Months

• At 5 months old, he will start to explore rolling over. According to WebMD, an infant will lie on his tummy and roll over onto his back. After he's mastered this, he will then roll from back to front. When playing with objects he can learn to pass them from one hand to the other. He can also have fun by blowing raspberries with his mouth and creating bubbles.

Six Months

• By this stage, an infant can usually roll over both ways. He will also start to form sounds with his mouth by babbling. An infant can recognize you as a caregiver and respond to you positively, either laughing or reaching out to you. He can also recognize other family and friends he sees often.

Seven Months

• In the seventh month, your baby is starting to develop the use of his thumbs and fingers, which can help him with musical toys that have buttons. It's around this time that he'll start to crawl. There are three common crawl techniques -- moving on his hands and knees, lying on his tummy and moving using his arms and legs and sitting on his bottom while scooting around with his legs.

Eight Months

• Your baby becomes faster at crawling and he is able to sit well without any support. He can respond to interactive games, like peek-a-boo, by clapping his hands. Playing peek-a-boo can teach him to respond to words. Soon he can respond to words, like looking up when his name is called and stopping if you say "no."

Nine Months

• At this stage he will be exploring the room more, and can attempt to climb on things and up stairs. He will have developed the ability to grasp small objects between his fingers, which will help him start to feed himself. He will be anxious around strangers and prefer certain people's company.

Ten to Twelve Months

• At this stage, an infant will become more independent. At the tenth month he can pull himself up to stand using furniture. His communication skills have also developed. He can wave to mean "goodbye" and lift up his arms if he wants to be carried.

  An important milestone at 11 months old is say his first word, which is usually "mama" or "dada." He will develop his taste for food and show you if he doesn't like a meal by pushing the dish away. He will start feeding himself by picking up food.

  According to WebMD, the average 12-month-old baby says three words. He can copy how you use objects, by doing things like pretending to talk on a toy phone or flipping through the pages of a book. He will take his first steps unaided but often can't walk very far.