What should a 6 month old be doing?

Read next: 2 months · 3 months · 4 months

A 6 month old should be sleeping roughly 12 to 15 hours in 24, still drinking milk as their main food, tasting their first solids, sitting with support, rolling both ways and babbling at you. It is one of the busiest months of the first year.

The ranges below are consistent with HSE and WHO guidance. They are wide on purpose, and a healthy 6 month old can sit anywhere inside them.

How much should a 6 month old sleep?

Roughly 12 to 15 hours in 24, usually 2 to 3 naps and the night, with wake windows of about 2 to 3 hours. Many 6 month olds now do a 6 to 8 hour stretch at night, and some sleep longer. Others still wake once or twice for a feed, and that is within normal too.

A 6 month old baby sleep schedule usually has a morning nap, a lunchtime nap and an optional late-afternoon catnap that is on its way out. Teething, a cold or learning to roll can throw a week of nights, and then it settles. The wake windows chart shows the windows for the months ahead.

How much should a 6 month old eat?

Milk is still the main drink and the main food. That is around 500 to 600 ml of formula a day, or breastfeeds on demand, and it stays that way until 12 months. Solids are added on top, not swapped in. The formula by weight guide explains why the milk amounts start to ease off from here.

Solids start around 6 months, once the baby can sit with support, hold their head steady and has lost the tongue-thrust reflex that pushes food back out. The HSE approach is single vegetables and fruits first, then iron-rich foods like well-cooked meat, lentils, eggs and iron-fortified baby cereal, since the baby's own iron stores are running down around now. The 6 month old baby food list is short at first: a spoon or two once a day, building to two and then three small meals over the following weeks. No honey before 12 months, no added salt or sugar and nothing hard or round that could be a choking risk. Our starting solids guide goes through it step by step.

How often should a 6 month old feed?

Most 6 month olds have 4 to 6 milk feeds in 24 hours, about every 3 to 4 hours by day, plus one or two small solid meals. Breastfed babies may still feed more often than that, especially in the evening, and that is fine.

If you are wondering about a 6 month old baby feeding schedule, a simple pattern is milk first, then solids about an hour later at one or two of the daytime feeds. Milk before solids keeps the milk intake up while the baby learns. A dream feed at your bedtime is optional, not required.

What milestones should a 6 month old have?

The 6 month old baby milestones to look for:

• Sitting with support, and possibly for a few seconds alone, propped on their hands.
• Rolling both ways, front to back and back to front, which makes nappy changes a wrestling match.
• Passing objects hand to hand and bringing everything to the mouth.
• Babbling, with consonant sounds like ba, da and ma starting to appear.
• Responding to their own name by turning or looking.
• The first tooth, often a bottom front one, though anywhere from 4 to 12 months is normal.

Crawling, pulling to stand and waving usually come after 6 months. If the drool and gum-chewing have arrived and no tooth has, our teething guide explains what actually helps. The 0 to 6 month milestones guide shows the rough order of everything up to here.

What is a normal day with a 6 month old?

A 6 month old baby sleep schedule and feeding schedule are usually settling into something like this.

• Wake and milk around 7am, play, a small breakfast of solids around 8.
• Nap around 9.30 for an hour or so.
• Milk around 11, play or a walk, solids around 12.
• Nap around 1 to 2.30.
• Milk around 3, play, a short catnap around 4.30 if it is still needed.
• Milk or a small tea around 5.30, bath, final milk feed and down for the night around 7 to 7.30.
• Possibly one night feed, though many 6 month olds are now going 6 to 8 hours or more.

Solids will be refused some days and thrown on the floor on others. That is learning, not a verdict on your cooking. Look at the week.

What checks or vaccines happen around 6 months in Ireland?

The 6-month vaccines are given at the GP: the third dose of the 6-in-1 plus PCV on the current HSE schedule (MenC is no longer given at 6 months for babies born from October 2024). The oral rotavirus course finished earlier, so there are no drops this time. As before, a mild temperature and an off day afterwards are common. The Irish vaccine schedule guide has the full timeline including the 12 and 13 month visits.

There is no routine PHN check at exactly 6 months. The next one is the 7 to 9 month development check, which looks at sitting, hand use, babbling, hearing and vision. The PHN will also ask how weaning is going. Our guide to PHN visits in Ireland covers what happens at each one.

What is not normal at 6 months?

Worth ringing the PHN or GP about, rather than waiting for the 7 to 9 month check:

• Not sitting with support, or the head still wobbly when held upright.
• Not babbling, not making a range of sounds or not responding to their name or to sounds.
• Not reaching for things or not bringing objects to the mouth.
• Limbs that feel unusually stiff or very floppy, or using one side of the body much more than the other.
• Not smiling or not showing interest in people.
• Refusing all milk for more than a day, fewer wet nappies or weight that is not moving over a few weeks.

How do I know if my 6 month old is on track?

Compare your baby against the ranges above over a week, not a day. A week of refused solids means nothing yet. A week where the milk keeps dropping, or the babbling never starts, is a pattern worth a mention, and the PHN check is where to raise it. Lullagram shows the baby's exact age, logs milk feeds, first foods, sleep and milestones in a tap and turns a week of logging into the averages the PHN asks about. It is free to try on Android, iPhone and web.

Every baby has their own timetable. This is a guide, not medical advice. If you are worried, ask your PHN or GP.