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Baby month 8 for dads: stranger shyness and more teeth

Around now many babies become shy or clingy with strangers and react when a parent leaves the room. It is a typical stage, not a problem with you. Teeth keep coming, food gets more varied, and your job is to be one of the familiar faces.

How to read this

Month 8 means the baby is between 7 and 8 months old. Everything below is a typical range, not a test: babies get there at different times. If your baby was born early, ask your health visitor or pediatrician how to count. Anything that worries you goes to your GP, health visitor or pediatrician, or NHS 111 / 911 when it is urgent.

▸What is typical for the baby this month

Development: shy and clingy is typical

By 9 months, most babies are shy, clingy or fearful around strangers, react when you leave by looking, reaching for you or crying, and smile or laugh at peek-a-boo. These can show up before then. [CDC]

Most also look when you call their name and show several facial expressions, such as happy, sad, angry and surprised. [CDC]

Teeth

As a rough guide, the front teeth usually come through at around 6 months and the teeth either side of them at around 8 months. Bottom teeth often arrive before the matching top ones. [NHS]

Feeding

Breast milk or infant formula stays the main drink for the whole first year, alongside a widening range of foods. [NHS]

▸Your jobs this month

  1. Do handovers yourself: bath, bedtime and morning wake-ups. Familiar people are the ones who turn up for the routine jobs.
  2. Play peek-a-boo, and make it a game every day. It is a milestone game, not a silly one.
  3. If childcare is starting, do some of the drop-offs and settling sessions yourself.
  4. Once teeth appear, add brushing to the bedtime routine you own.

▸Her recovery, your head, and the two of you

If the baby wants only her for a while, do not take it personally and do not leave her to do every bedtime. Keep showing up for the routine; it is how you become a familiar face.

Postnatal depression signs the NHS lists include low mood, finding it hard to enjoy anything, feeling hopeless or unable to cope, feeling guilty or like a bad parent, constant worry, irritability, trouble sleeping even when there is a chance to rest, trouble concentrating, difficulty bonding with the baby, and thoughts of suicide or of harming herself or the baby. Symptoms can start any time up to a year after the birth. [NHS]

It is not only her. NHS Best Start in Life says up to 1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men develop a mental health problem such as depression or anxiety in pregnancy or the first year after the birth, and the NHS says fathers and partners can also get depression after a baby. [NHS Best Start in Life · NHS]

Where to get help

UK: talk to your GP, midwife or health visitor. In England, adults can also refer themselves to NHS talking therapies. PANDAS runs support groups, a text line and a callback service, and Samaritans answer on 116 123. In an emergency call 999. [NHS · PANDAS]

US: talk to her OB or your own doctor. The Postpartum Support International HelpLine is 1-800-944-4773 (call or text; it takes a message and a trained volunteer gets back to you), and PSI runs a support group for dads. For a crisis, call or text 988, any time. In an emergency call 911. [PSI · PSI · 988]

▸Money and paperwork around now

UK: Shared Parental Leave has to be used in the first year, with 8 weeks of written notice for each block. Count back from the first birthday now. [GOV.UK]

US (Massachusetts): PFML gives up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to bond with a child during the first 12 months after birth. [Mass.gov]

Get every first-year deadline as a date → · Vaccination schedule (UK and US) →

▸Common questions

Why does my baby cry when I leave the room at 8 months?

It is typical. CDC lists reacting when a parent leaves, and being shy or clingy around strangers, among the things most babies do by 9 months.

What order do baby teeth come in?

As a rough NHS guide: front teeth at around 6 months, the teeth either side at around 8 months, first molars at around 12 months, canines at around 18 months and second molars at around 24 months.

▸The whole first year

M1BABY WEEKS 1-4M2BABY WEEKS 5-8M3BABY WEEKS 9-12M4GUIDEM5GUIDEM6GUIDEM7GUIDEM8YOU ARE HEREM9GUIDEM10GUIDEM11GUIDEM12GUIDE
Not medical advice

This is general information for expectant fathers, not clinical guidance. Anything about symptoms, pain, or bleeding goes to your midwife, doctor, or emergency service, not to an app.

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Your first year, dated from the birthday.

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▸Sources

Checked against these pages. Where guidance differs by country, follow your own GP, health visitor or pediatrician.