So during the 12 to 15 month period, your baby's going to start to explore a lot more. Most babies start to walk between 12 to 15 months, so you want to make sure that your home is baby proofed. You also want to make sure that all sharp corners, like glass coffee tables, edges of end tables, sharp corners on frames of beds, you want to make sure they are all padded or covered up so the baby doesn't get banged into it. Like their eye banging into the corner of the table, things like that.
So babies are going to start walking. They're going to explore their surroundings. They're going to put things in their mouths. They're very oral and they want to learn to eat and feed on their own. Babies at this age when they are in the high chair they have most often been eating their hands and putting things in their mouths, and you can start introducing a small baby spoon and they can learn to feed themselves and they really enjoy it. It's very fun.
Never leave a baby unattended during a feeding session because baby can choke. Babies put way too much food in their mouths often and often things like bread and biscuits and crackers, large pieces can break off and the baby can choke, so you never want to leave a baby unattended.
At this age, you can give a baby whole milk or you can give a baby the breast milk. It could be pumped or the mom might still be nursing. We recommend whole milk until age two. Babies may also start drinking from a sippy cup between 12 a 15 months. I recommend that the parents check the sippy cup before they give it to the baby. I know a lot of doctors fixate on weaning the baby from the bottle by 15 months of age, but sometimes the sippy cups are so hard to suck because they make them spill proof that you see the baby with their bottle and, you know, they're sucking for their life and no water or no milk is coming out. So I always recommend that the parent check the sippy cup and test it before giving it to the baby because it might be very hard for them to get that fluid out and you wouldn't want the baby to be frustrated.
Ideally, a baby should be weaned from the bottle between 15 to 18 months of age. I also think it's a good time between this age if a baby has a pacifier to wean the pacifier.
When the baby's starting to walk at 12 months, the baby can also look for the pacifier and go and walk and get it. Throwing away a pacifier, getting rid of a pacifier is a very emotional thing for parents, I think even more so than for the children. And you might have one or two rough nights of sleep when you throw away the pacifier but once it's gone, most babies forget that they ever had it and they don't look for it anymore. Whereas if you let the pacifier use continue until two or three years of age, it's a much harder habit to break.
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