Your baby's developmental milestones at 2 months
Everything you need to know about your growing 2-month-old.
Your 2-month-old is wide-eyed and curious, smiling at faces and engaging with everything around them. Babies at this age are social and love to interact. Here is how your little one will be growing, learning and changing during this sweet age.
Test your knowledge
True or false? At this age, babies can drink up to 180 ml per meal.
True! Babies can drink up to 180 ml at each meal, six times a day.
To learn more, see our mini parenting master class on breastfeeding.
Social and emotional milestones at 2 months
Some of the ways you’ll see your little one learning to connect with the people around them at 2 months:
- Can self-soothe by sucking on their hand
- Starting to smile at others
- Attempting to look at their parents
Tips for parents
- Engage in skin-to-skin contact. Your warmth will help soothe them.
- Hold your baby close to your face and make eye contact. This will help your little one learn your features.
Language and communication milestones at 2 months
How your baby is engaging and expressing their needs:
- Alerted by sounds and turns toward them
- Making cooing noises
Tips for parents
- Have “conversations” with your baby when they make cooing noises by speaking back to them in a baby talk voice. This back and forth is important for helping them to develop language and communication skills.
Brain development milestones at 2 months
How your child’s brain is growing:
- Beginning to track people and objects with their eyes
- Starting to get fussy if they're feeling bored
- Paying attention to the faces they see
Tips for parents
- Say the names of the objects or people your little one is showing interest in.
>>Discover learning activities for 2-month-olds
Movement and physical development milestones at 2 months
How they’ll move through their environment:
- Arm and leg motions will be smoother
- Can push up while on their belly and hold their head up
Tips for parents
- Participate in tummy-time with your little one by facing your baby and speaking with them while they are placed on their stomach in front of you.
- Encourage them to move their head, arms and legs by moving safe toys around them.
Food and nutrition milestones at 2 months
What mealtimes look like at 2 months:
- All of the nutrition your baby needs can be found in breastmilk.
- They’ll easily suck and swallow during feeding.
- Their tongue will move back and forward to suck.
- They'll latch onto their mother’s nipple or a bottle.
Tips for parents
- You should see signs of hunger about 8 to 12 times in 24 hours. Newborn babies need to eat a lot because they’re growing rapidly. They double their birth weight in the first six months of life, or before.
Things to look out for
While all babies develop differently, you should speak to your paediatrician if your 2-month-old:
- Can’t latch while nursing or bottle feeding.
- Loses a lot of breastmilk or formula out of the side of their mouth while feeding.
- Won’t smile at people.
- Doesn’t bring their hands to their mouth.
- Has no response to loud noises.
- Doesn’t track people and objects as they move.
- Is unable to hold their head up while on their tummy.
