A 9-month-old baby is often active and out to discover the world. Read about development milestones, signs of developmental delays, fun learning activities, and the best toys for your 9-month-old.
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A 9-month-old baby is not sitting still. He or she is moving around one way or the other.
One way for him to move around may very well be by ordering you to carry him/her around to different places. Pointing and shouting an enthusiastic “there” or some form of the word.
Or they might not accept anything less than you holding their hands so that they can walk around.
Take care of your back!
The 9-Month-Old Baby
In this article…
9 Months Baby Milestones
Physical Development
Weight and Length
The average weight for a 9-month-old baby boy is 19 pounds and 10 ounces (8.9 kg), while the average weight for a 9-month-old baby girl is 18 pounds and 2 ounces (8.2 kg).
When it comes to length/height, the average height for a 9-month-old baby boy is 28.25 inches (72 cm), and for a baby girl, 27.5 inches (70.1 cm).
As long as your baby is happy and growing at a healthy rate, don’t worry if your baby’s measures are different than these.
Motor skills
Walking with support
At nine months, your baby will likely be able to walk by holding onto furniture or your hands.
At this point, some babies crawl, but some still don’t. If your baby isn’t crawling yet, don’t panic. All babies are different. There is still time for your baby to learn how to crawl. Some babies skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking.
Sitting without support
A 9-month-old baby is also strong enough to sit without support for a while. Take care of your baby’s back, and don’t let him sit up in a high chair or swing for too long.
From lying to sitting
Your baby’s arms and shoulders are strong enough for him to push himself up on straight arms if placed on his tummy.
At 9 months, a baby will probably be able to go from lying down on his tummy to sitting by himself. While sitting up, he will turn in different directions, for example, to reach a toy.
The pincer grasp
A 9-month-old’s pincer grasp is well-developed. That means she will be able to grab things using only her thumb and index finger. She might start using it often during feeding and try to pick up food and feed herself.
Cognitive, Emotional and Social Development
Communication and first words
Your baby probably babbles all the time. You might even recognize some of the words.
Understanding of words is increasing, and a 9-month-old might even point at a certain object when you mention it.
At 9.5 months, my daughter said her first words – “look there!” Our pediatrician said it was impossible that she actually said it and meant it. The doctor was wrong. Of course, the baby didn’t mean to put the words “look” and “there” together, but the sound was “lookthere” and she pointed and wanted me to carry her to whatever she was looking at.
Some kids say their first word at around nine or ten months, while others wait a few months longer.
Not only does your baby’s understanding of words increase, but she also understands how you feel from the tone of your voice.
Give her a lot of praise for her achievements and tell her often how much you love her.
Here are tips on how to stimulate your baby’s talking.
From your body language and the tone of your voice, your baby can also understand what “no” means at this point. If you feel there is a certain boundary that needs to be set, you can slowly start working on it.
Understands emotions
Your baby is emotionally mature enough to understand other people’s feelings. She will know if you’re sad.
Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety is now at its peak and will remain so during the next few months. Babies are very different, but some only want to be in their mother’s arms, more or less all the time. Tough for both mom and dad!
If you can, try to avoid being separated from your baby during this period. He obviously needs you!
To help your baby during this difficult time, protect him from too enthusiastic strangers. Tell people, including grandparents, if needed, to approach him slowly. Don’t force him to interact with a stranger if he doesn’t want to. Separation anxiety is a natural part of your baby’s development!
Recall memory develops
Your baby’s recall memory is developing during this month. She might not remember things for a long time, but she will be able to remember for a week or even a bit more.
9-Month-Old Baby Sleep Pattern
Unfortunately, for a lot of 9-month-olds, this is a period of bad sleep again. Similar to the one at 4 months and the one that happens at 18 months of age.
Some of the causes for your baby’s disrupted sleep patterns might be separation anxiety that reaches its peak or the developmental leap that is happening.
A baby goes through another sleep regression somewhere between 8 – 10 months of age.
My youngest slept for 8 hours without interruption at 4 months old. At 4.5 months, he started to wake up every hour for no apparent reason. Not hungry, not sick, and sometimes not even sad. He lay in his bed, babbling wide awake.
At 5.5 months, things were improving rapidly again with the help of our continued sleep routines. At 9.5 months old, he started waking up at 4.30 am. Every night.
How did we fix it? Well, I wrote a whole article sharing our experience. Don’t despair!
Warning signs of developmental delays at 9 Months
Although all babies develop at their own pace, some signs might point to a developmental delay by the time a baby reaches 9 months.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you should talk to your child’s doctor if you notice that your 9-month-old baby:
- Doesn’t bear weight on legs with support
- Doesn’t sit with help
- Doesn’t babble (“mama,” “baba,” “dada”)
- Doesn’t play any games involving back-and-forth play
- Doesn’t respond to own name
- Doesn’t seem to recognize familiar people
- Doesn’t look where you point
- Doesn’t transfer toys from one hand to another
Games To Play
PinHitting blocks against each other is great fun. The higher the noise, the better…
Hide-and-find and peek-a-boo are great games to help your baby understand that things and people do not disappear even if you can’t see them, This might be especially good to help your baby cope with his/her separation anxiety.
Putting things in a container and taking them out again is something that many 9-month-old babies enjoy. For example, put different fabrics into a bag and let your baby take them out.
Reading picture books with photos is good now when your baby is learning words and their meanings.
For 9-month-old babies that have learned to crawl or creep, a pillow mountain can be a great adventure. Build one and help your baby climb it.
Music, especially with movements, like Itsy Bitsy Spider can now be a lot of fun. Your baby may go out of his way to imitate the movements you do.
Talk a lot to your baby now (again…). Take turns saying words like dada, baba, or whatever. And listen carefully to what your baby says even if you can’t understand what he means.
Best Toys for a 9-Month-Old
If your baby is not moving around yet, or if your little one likes to take a break now and then, a gym that he can use sitting up can be a good investment. Also, toys with big buttons to press, like a phone or a baby piano, might be fun. Here is a popular one!
If your baby is crawling, he is probably not very interested in anything more than doing just that!
9 Month Old Baby Video
In this video, you can see some rather typical 9-month-old babies in action. Moving around, sitting without support playing, and not wanting to be left alone on the floor. The video shows babies happily put down in the crib for a nap, but I would say that many 9-month-old babies will not go down alone without crying. Separation anxiety is still too strong.
Where would you like to go next?
More About the 9-Month-Old Baby
- 9-Month-Old Baby Suddenly Scared of Dad!
- Hairloss In 9-Month-Old – Possible Reasons
- Tips When 9-Month-Old Baby Won’t Sleep
- All posts about 9-month-old babies
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Paula Dennholt founded Easy Baby Life in 2006 and has been a passionate parenting and pregnancy writer since then. Her parenting approach and writing are based on studies in cognitive-behavioral models and therapy for children and her experience as a mother and stepmother. Life as a parent has convinced her of how crucial it is to put relationships before rules. She strongly believes in positive parenting and a science-based approach.
Paula cooperates with a team of pediatricians who assist in reviewing and writing articles.
Speech therapist here. “Look there” def impossible just like my in laws swear my hubby said “chicken”….. Impossible! 😂😂😂
Hi Linda, I guess as a parent, you hear what you want to hear to some extent… :-D But babies do say “words” at around this age. Why is “lookthere” or “chicken” impossible in your view?
I’m curious! :-)