In less than a year, your little one has more than doubled in weight, developed a number of new physical abilities, and is even learning how to speak and walk. It’s incredible to think how much your 11-month-old baby has grown in such a short amount of time.
In this post, the baby experts at Mustela will tell you everything you need to know about caring for your 11-month-old baby.
We’ll begin by discussing your baby’s development, senses, motor skills, feeding schedule, sleeping habits, and immunizations. Then we’ll provide some general childcare tips and talk about a few signs that your little one may need a visit to the doctor’s office.
Last but not least, we’ll remind you to take good care of yourself as well!
Caring For Your 11 Month Old Baby
With almost one full year of parenting experience under your belt, you’ve mastered several important tasks: carrying your baby, keeping your baby clean, and changing dirty diapers are all surely a breeze by now.
Despite your parenting proficiency, you might still have a few questions about your 11 month old baby. The baby experts at Mustela are here to give you all the information you need to take extra special care of your little bundle of joy.
Your 11 Month Old Baby’s Development
Let’s get started with your little one’s height and weight. On average, 11-month-old boys are 28.7 inches (73 cm) to 29.9 inches (76 cm) in height and 19.2 pounds (8.7 kg) to 22.1 pounds (10.1 kg) in weight.
Girls at 11 months old are typically a bit smaller than boys, with an average weight of 17.6 pounds (8 kg) to 20.9 pounds (9.5 kg) and an average height of 27.9 inches (71 cm) to 29.3 inches (74.5 cm).
Of course, these figures are just averages. There is no evidence that a baby being smaller or larger than average is a sign of a developmental issue or medical condition.
Your 11 Month Old Baby’s Senses
All five of your little one’s senses — vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell — have come a long way since delivery day. Let’s have a look at each of your 11-month-old baby’s senses.
Vision
Your baby can now see clearly and sharply, even at long distances. Notice how their face lights up when you walk into a room! Your little one can distinguish between different shapes and colors and can identify specific objects, like a favorite toy or stuffed animal.
Hearing
Your 11-month-old baby has been able to recognize your voice and your partner’s for many months. Now, they’re able to recognize the voices of friends and family members, as well as other sounds.
Keep speaking to your little one constantly. This will help their language skills to develop.
Taste
Since your child has been eating solid foods for roughly five months now, their sense of taste is developing rapidly. Continue letting your 11-month-old baby try new foods, and monitor their reaction as they taste them.
It’s normal for babies to naturally enjoy some foods more than others, so take note of which ones are your baby’s favorites.
Touch
Your little one is full of curiosity and eager to explore the world. This means touching every new surface and object they come across. Make sure to babyproof your home, and then feel free to let your 11-month-old baby explore to their heart’s content.
Also, remember that your little one still loves to feel your touch, so give them plenty of TLC.
One way to bond with your baby over touch is to give them a baby massage. It also can help calm your little one, aid in development, and help them sleep better.
We’ve provided more information as well as tips for how to give a baby massage here.
Moisturize your baby’s skin at the same time by using a safe, natural oil like Mustela’s Baby Oil. This hypoallergenic oil is composed of 99% plant-based ingredients and enriched with an elixir of pomegranate seed oil, sunflower seed oil, and avocado oil.
And you can count on it to be free of parabens, phthalates, and phenoxyethanol.
Smell
While your baby’s sense of smell is fully functioning, they cannot yet associate smells with specific objects. While they may enjoy the scent of, say, an orange, they don’t yet have the ability to recognize the scent as belonging to an orange independent of seeing the fruit itself.
Your 11 Month Old Baby’s Skills
Motor Skills
At this point, your 11 month old baby is:
- Rolling over from their tummy to their back (and vice versa)
- Lifting their body into a seated position during tummy time
- Crawling around your home without difficulty
- Sitting up on their own and staying in a seated position without support
- Making fists and grabbing items firmly
- Using their thumbs and index fingers to grasp small items (a pincer grasp)
- Standing with support from adults or furniture
By 11 months old, many babies have developed each of these physical abilities, but it’s not a cause for concern if your little one hasn’t yet mastered one or more of them. Your baby will hit all of these milestones before you know it.
Language Skills
One of the most exciting things about this age is that your baby’s language skills are really starting to take off!
Your baby is probably already communicating with you using nonverbal communication, but around 11 months is when your baby will understand simple words and even begin to say their first words. This is an exciting time!
Even if your little one can’t articulate words, they probably understand a lot. They may respond to “no” or recognize the name of their favorite toy.
That said, don’t worry if your baby doesn’t have any specific words at 11 months old. It’s completely normal. Keep having conversations with them and encouraging their babble. Their words will come!
Your 11 Month Old Baby’s Feeding Schedule
Healthcare professionals recommend introducing solid foods to a baby’s diet at around six months of age. That means your baby has been eating solid foods for five whole months!
By now, they’re consuming a wide variety of solid foods — fruit, veggies, bread, cereals, noodles, cheese, and beans, just to name a few.
Medical experts also recommend waiting until at least 12 months of age to wean your baby off of breastmilk and baby formula completely.
For now, breastmilk and/or formula should still be a substantial part of your 11 month old baby’s diet, providing somewhere around one-third of your baby’s calories and nutrients.
Your 11 month old baby is still growing extremely quickly, so they need lots of food to nourish their body. In general, your little one should have three meals and two snacks of solid food per day, plus breastmilk or formula three to five times per day.
Your 11 Month Old Baby’s Sleeping Habits
Your 11-month-old baby is likely sleeping soundly through the night, probably between 10 and 11 hours straight. In addition, your baby needs two naps every day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Naps typically last 60 to 90 minutes, giving your baby another two to three hours of sleep per day. This adds up to a grand total of 13 or 14 hours of sleep every day.
Your 11 Month Old Baby’s Immunizations
There are no immunizations scheduled for the 11 month mark. However, your baby should already have received a number of vaccinations over the last several months. Here’s a list of those shots:
- 1 round of Polio vaccine (IPV)
- 2 rounds of Hepatitis B vaccination (HepB3)
- 3 rounds of Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV)
- 3 rounds of Diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP)
- 3 rounds of Rotavirus vaccine (RV)
- 3 rounds of Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine (HIB)
If your baby is behind on their shots, now is the perfect time to get them caught up. Talk to your doctor at your next baby checkup.
General Childcare Tips
Diaper Changing
With an 11-month-old baby, you’re still doing the diaper-changing thing and quite some time away from potty training.
Care for your baby’s skin and help ward off diaper rash by keeping their bottom clean with Mustela’s Cleansing Wipes with Avocado.
These wipes are effective but also gentle on your baby’s skin and contain no parabens, phthalates, or phenoxyethanol. For extra-sensitive skin, try our Certified Organic Water Wipes with Cotton and Aloe.
However, even with the best of care, a diaper rash can strike! Soothe your little one’s irritated skin with a safe and effective diaper rash cream like Mustela’s Diaper Rash Cream 1 2 3 or, for an organic option, try Diaper Cream with Olive Oil and Aloe.
This organic and fragrance-free cream is safe for even the most sensitive of skin. Made with 99.7% naturally derived ingredients, including aloe vera, sunflower oil, and olive oil, this formula leaves a moisturizing layer on your baby’s skin to soothe and diminish redness.
And it’s not only good for your baby’s skin. It’s also good for the earth!
The packaging is made from sustainably sourced sugar cane and the formula itself is biodegradable and meets EWG Verified™ criteria, which means that it avoids EWG's ingredients of concern.
Babyproofing Your Home
Babyproofing your home becomes necessary when your little one starts rolling, reaching, crawling, and moving.
When we discussed your 11-month old’s motor skills, we mentioned that they’re probably rolling over, sitting by themselves, pulling up and standing, crawling, and, of course, making a fist to grab onto anything in sight!
You can see that at the 11-month mark, your baby is extremely mobile. That makes it more important than ever to follow baby safety tips and babyproof your home.
Never leave your 11-month-old baby unattended — even for a moment — and never leave sharp or dangerous objects lying around.
Plus, keep in mind that the babyproofing you did when your baby started rolling over may be different than what you need to do now that you have an almost walker on your hands.
You can read our full babyproofing guide here, but for the time being, we’ll leave you with these tips:
- Lower your baby’s crib mattress as they grow so that they can’t pull up and fall out of the crib.
- Keep the crib out of reach of cords, blinds, curtains, and the like.
- Raise curtains, tablecloths, and blinds so your baby can’t pull on them.
- Cover electrical outlets throughout your home.
- Keep small objects out of your baby’s reach. This includes magnets on the fridge as well as objects on low shelves or tables.
- Use safety locks on any drawers and cabinets that contain dangerous items.
- Install baby gates on stairs and fireplaces.
- Put a childproof lock on the toilet as well as any trashcans that your little one can reach.
Bath Time
By now you’ve probably learned the ropes when it comes to bath time!
Just remember that even though your baby is now able to sit up by themselves in the tub, you should never leave them alone. Always be close by and attentive when your little one is in the bath.
And keep in mind that bath time can be both fun for your little one and a great time to care for their skin, too. It’s important to take extra special care of your baby’s delicate skin.
Here are some of the skin conditions to keep an eye out for:
As these are all possibilities for your 11 month old baby, it’s crucial to use gentle, baby-friendly skin care products, like Mustela’s.
We offer a variety of products made from natural ingredients, from bath time products, cleansers, and shampoos to hydrating lotions, baby oils, and sunscreens. All of Mustela’s products are made especially for your baby’s sensitive skin.
Turn bath time into skin-healthy playtime with Mustela’s Multi-Sensory Bubble Bath. This biodegradable baby bubble bath formula safely and gently cleanses your baby's skin while they have fun splashing away!
Our bubble bath is composed of 88% plant-based ingredients including marine extracts to help maintain the skin's water balance, cornflower extract to soften skin, and our signature Avocado Perseose to help protect and hydrate.
To clean your baby’s skin and hair, reach for our Organic Cleansing Gel with Olive Oil and Aloe and Gentle Shampoo. Last but not least, don’t forget to moisturize your baby’s skin when you get them out of the tub with Hydra Bebe Body Lotion.
Play Time
For babies and kids, playtime is when they learn about themselves, others, and the world around them. And your 11-month-old is getting more curious, playful, and interactive with each passing day!
Enjoy this stage and spend quality time playing with your baby. Help your little one develop both cognitive and motor skills by reading stories and teaching them how to turn the pages of board books.
Have conversations with your baby, play “chase,” see if they will copy your movements or facial expressions, or turn on music and dance.
And to help your baby continue to develop their pincer grasp, try these activities:
- Encourage them to pick up finger food (like cheerios) by themselves.
- Put baby socks into a ball with large holes and let your baby pick the socks out.
- Place small items in the holes of an open egg carton and let your baby pick them out and put them back. Just be sure to use items that your baby can’t choke on and supervise them while they play!
Naptime And Bedtime
We mentioned earlier that by now your baby is probably sleeping 10 or 11 hours each night. That means you’re hopefully getting a good night of sleep as well! Your little one will also take a couple of naps during the day.
However, while some babies sleep like a dream at 11 months old, this isn’t the case for all little ones. If that’s your baby, don’t be discouraged!
If you think your little one is going through a sleep regression, read our article here. And consider implementing a bedtime routine.
Doing the same activities in the same order helps your baby realize that it’s time to wind down and get ready to sleep. A pre-bedtime (or pre-naptime!) routine could include a diaper change, a calming baby massage, putting pajamas on, cuddling and reading a book, and a goodnight kiss.
When To Be Concerned
Here are a few warning signs that your 11 month old baby may have a developmental disorder:
- Your baby never smiles or laughs
- Your baby doesn’t seem to make or hold eye contact with you
- Your baby doesn’t seem to recognize your face or voice
- Your baby is unable to crawl or support the weight of their own body
- Your baby is unable to make a fist or grasp small objects
If your child is displaying any of these signs, head to the doctor’s office for an evaluation ASAP.
Ultimately, every child follows their own unique path of growth and development. Some babies hit milestones sooner than others. This is neither good nor bad; it’s just a fact of life.
As long as your little one is getting plenty of hugs and kisses from Mom and Dad, they’ll grow up happy and healthy.
Keeping Well As A Parent
Can you believe you’ve been doing the parenting thing for almost a whole year?
While you’ve probably got a lot of things figured out, your baby is constantly changing and there is always more to learn. Plus, parenting can be challenging no matter how experienced you are.
Taking care of yourself — mentally, emotionally, and physically — is important!
Care for your body by eating well, staying active without overdoing it, and looking after your skin.
If you’re still breastfeeding, ease sore or cracked nipples, try Mustela’s Nursing Comfort Balm. This vegan, fragrance-free, and dye-free formula is made with 100% naturally derived ingredients so you can feel good about what you’re putting on your skin.
Looking after your mental and emotional health can include seeking professional help. Or it may be as simple as going for a walk, asking for help, picking up an old hobby, spending time with family and friends, or taking your baby for a playdate so you can enjoy some adult conversation.
Remember: parenting is not always a walk in the park. Give yourself grace and keep up the good work!
You And Your 11 Month Old
In this article, you’ve learned about your baby’s senses, skill development, sleep habits, and immunization schedule. Your curious, mobile 11-month-old is sure to be a handful but also a lot of fun!
Keep your little one safe and healthy by babyproofing your home, engaging in interactive playtime, and caring for their skin with Mustela’s Cleansing Wipes, Diaper Cream with Olive Oil and Aloe, and Multi-Sensory Bubble Bath.
And, amidst the craziness of parenting, don’t forget to take care of yourself, too. Look out for your mental, emotional, and physical health, and turn to Mustela’s Nursing Comfort Balm to soothe sore nipples.
Finally, enjoy this stage of your baby’s life. You’ll have a one-year-old on your hands before you know it!