Your baby, 17 months 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 and older

Toddlers at this age are learning about expressions and feelings. More than likely, you have seen your toddler happy, sad, mad, frustrated and everything in between. Children will learn about their feelings best if you put a name with the feeling. If you notice that your child is sad, tell him that you are sorry he is feeling sad. Your child will soon learn that feelings have names and you understand how he is feeling. Help your child deal with and accept his feelings. If he is frustrated, help him. He will learn that you care about his feelings and that it is okay to show how he feels.

Children at this age are very curious about the world they live in. Keep your child's environment safe and help her to learn what is appropriate and what is not. Most seventeen month old toddlers love to put things in their mouths. This can be very dangerous and you must teach your child that is is not safe.

Children at this age can become spoiled. Parents can spoil their children if they do not set and enforce limits and rules. When limits are set and enforced, children learn that there are rules to follow and generally will succeed at following them. Your job as a parent is to set realistic expectations that can be enforced.

Your child likes to drag things around and can climb stairs at this point. She still has long babbling conversations with herself. Your child will understand more of what you say than she can actually say. If you ask her to do a simple task, she probably will. Continue to encourage her vocabulary by using clear descriptive words and reading to her.

Toddlers need discipline. Catch your child being good and praise him. Instead of telling your child what he shouldn't be doing, tell him what he should do. Often times, spanking teaches children that hitting is okay and a way to solve problems. Do not threaten your child with empty threats or promises. Do what you say or your child will learn that he does not have to listen.

Developmental Milestones - 17 Months Old

Physical

• Can walk upstairs if one hand is held
• Runs, but bumps into things
• Likes to drag items around
• Enjoys dancing

Intellectual

• Understands more than he can say
• Imitates sounds and actions
• Will do what you tell her to do
• Has babbling conversations

Emotional

• Self-centered
• Greedy and selfish
• Stubborn
• Bossy
• Likes to hug and kiss

Age Appropriate Toys

• Nesting toys
• Stacking toys
• Shape sorters
• Art and crafts
• Push toys
• Ride on toys
• Balls
• Books
• Musical instruments
• Dolls
• Cars and trucks
• Bean bag toss game

Comments:

Comments 76-100 of about 8293 for month 17
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Luv2Bamama - Wednesday, 13 Jul
I never thought I would become the parent who was strict about my child’s eating habits…then I had my daughter! As an infant, I made all my own baby foods for her, rarely giving stuff from packages; now that she eats cow dairy, she only gets organic and non-hormone added stuff. While my daycare provider offers quite a bit of healthy choices to the daycare kids, I did give her rather long list of stuff I don’t want her to give to my child (nothing fried/breaded; hotdogs; fruit from a can; any sugar snack or dessert, absolutally NO fast food etc., NO juice or soda, etc.) I know it is inevitable that she will eventually be exposed to these things, but the longer I can delay it the better, IMO. Granted every once in a while I am ok with her having something unhealthy, but it is few and far between and on my terms, not an every day/meal occurrence. On 4th of July, I made chocolate chip cookies and let her lick the beaters, and at the BBQ we went to, I let her have a small piece of Jello. There have been so many news articles recently on obesity in pre-K kids I know it comes from the sudden surge of HFCS in pre-packaged foods that are out there. It is hidden in Ritz crackers, and graham crackers, animal crackers even whole wheat bread! Sugar is one thing, but this modified unnatural sweetening stuff scares me. And quite frankly, the reason it is in everything goes back to the government subsidizing corn and soy farmers making it cheaper for businesses to buy and more attractive to farmers to plant. I say cut back on corn and start subsidizing broccoli, lettuce, beans etc! Sorry to vent; it just angers me how our country views nutrition. It also scares me on how many unpronounceable ingredients are being added to all of our packaged food. I’m not the poster child of health by any means but at least I’m educated on the subject and want my family to be aware of the choices they make too.

lillhill79 - Wednesday, 13 Jul
I'm very fortunate that Cort is not a picky eater what so ever. In fact the only thing I've found that she doesn't care for is raw summer squash (but she likes it cooked so it's ok) Other than that, you put it in front of her, she'll eat it. I was trying to add up how much milk she has per day and I think it's probably somewhere around 20-25 oz of soy milk. I'd love to be able to switch her back to cow, but her little system still isn't back to normal (6 months later) Something else I've noticed is that my older DD has always been a big snacker. She's the type of kid who HAS to have a snack, but Cort really could take it or leave it. Don't get me wrong, she eats it if I give it to her, but if I forget it's not a big deal - could be because she eats as much as I do at meal time. :) No wonder she's hanging on to those chubby thighs of hers.

scarlet begonia - Tuesday, 12 Jul
Karen - my parents decided to pass on the house they were looking at before we even moved out here. It was a short sale and it was going back and forth for way too long. They eventually grew inpatient and withdrew their bid. Which is fine with me as the home needed quite a bit of work. It was a great house with a lot of potential, but, being a renter that's not what I was looking for and I think that made my parents rethink that purchase. They're looking for another home and are even exploring their options about moving closer to Los Angeles. That would be great news for us as we want to get out of this high desert and move closer to Travis' work and then I actually have a shot at putting my degree to use down there and earning some real $$. So if my parents move down there too we get to keep our built in babysitter (my mom). :D So.... having said all that, there is still a lot up in the air. For starters, my current job is a contract-to-hire. I'm not too sure if they are going to keep me. My manager says they will, but she's not the owner of the company. Her co-manager doesn't see a future for me w/ the company and he's right. I'm over qualified and too expensive to keep. I don't want to remain an admin assit. w/ a little bit of web dev. and marketing thrown in just for the sake of keeping me happy. Not trying to look down on anyone, but I didn't go to an accelerated college and earn a degree in programming to be an f*cking assistant. Believe me... the idea of this eats away at me every single day. *deep breath* For now, I'm working on my online portfolio and I hope to have it done before my contract is up so I can start looking for some web. dev. opportunities in LA, or near LA at least. If... and it's a big IF... I can get something down there, I could possibly manage to not only buy us a home down there, but put Aly in a great day care (if my parents stay up here) and have Travis' income as strictly supplemental. That is a very sweet dream!!! I'm not banking on it, but after researching some opportunities in that area I feel like all my talents are wasted where I am right now. Not to mention all the money I could be making. Once my site is up, I'll let you know so you can have a looksee at some of my work. :)

scarlet begonia - Tuesday, 12 Jul
Oh wow.. not sure if you girls really want to get me started on schedules/routines!!! haha. Ok, here it goes... For starters, after doing the E.A.S.Y. routine for so long we have actually started to.. kinda sorta.. let Aly guide us throughout the day. I think she's so used to routines, patterns, structure..etc, that once she gets comfortable with something she is like clockwork on her own. That being said, whenever we do need to say keep her up longer before naps, put her down earlier because of a short nap during the day... she does pretty well at just going with the flow. I'm glad she's so flexible. Anywho, she typically wakes up around 7am and takes a nap at 11am (typically for 2 hours). Then it's bedtime at 8pm. So she gets about 13-14 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. We definitely still stick to our routine, but it's been modified by Aly and her needs and we just stick to it until we see her needs change again. I think what is most structured about her routine is not so much the time she goes to bed or takes naps, but the order in which things happen. Like, snuggle time upon waking, breakfast, play time then a nap, followed by milk, more play time and lunch. Then it's outside play time until mommy gets home then it's playtime with mommy, reading, dinner, bath, snuggle time while watching Shrek or TS3, then some rocking/wind down and it's off to bed. The exact times of all the activities might change but for the most part some key activities of her day never change. Like having a bath after dinner or story/snuggle/tv time w/ mommy before bed.

As for meals, Aly normally has 3 square meals a day, 1-2 snacks in between and one sippy of 8-10oz milk (or chocolate milk once in a while) after her afternoon nap. Some of her favorite foods are bananas, raspberries, yogurt, cheese, carrots, corn, salami, mac n cheese, grilled cheese, hot dogs, crackers and toast. She absolutely hates any kind of pasta w/ red sauce, ham and turkey. She has tried fish sticks, chicken nuggets and mini corn dogs, but she's not a big fan of any. Which I guess is good since they're not really healthy for her anyway. It's just too bad for me because I can pop those in the oven so easily!! Ah well...

Her breakfast is at 8am, unless she gets hungry earlier. Sippy of milk (8-10oz) is at 1pm, lunch is at 2pm and dinner is at 6pm. Breakfast is usually cheerios or kix w/ fruit or porridge, eggs, yogurt, toast, cheese. Once in a while she'll have sausage or bacon but she's not a huge fan of meats. I really like the porridge because we get to put in a lot of nutritional foods in it and she loves it. For lunch some typical foods are cherry tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, avocados, corn, rice, salami, yogurt, cheese, chicken, green beans. If she has a snack between lunch and dinner it's typically a few crackers & cheese or a banana. She can peel banana's all on her own! Dinner is usually whatever we've cooked from the night before or something quick I can whip up in 30 minutes! But often times it's usually not very different from lunch but we try to limit the not so healthy stuff (mac n cheese, hot dogs, etc.)

We give her water throughout the day, sometimes mixed in with some juice and at meal times she has either milk or water...just depends on what we're having. She loves most fruits and cereals so those are always winners. I tend to give her a little something for dessert after dinner about 2-3 times a week. A small cookie or a few bites of ice cream. I try not to substitute dishes unless it's something new and she just does not like it (like spaghetti). At that point I feel it's only fair as long as she's tried the food, to replace it something I know she will like. I'm not too concerned about creating a picky eater as much as I am concerned about creating bad habits. Most bad food she loves so that makes me a little concerned. My immediate knee jerk reaction is to cut out all sweets or unhealth foods, but I think that would just backfire eventually. I offer her some sweets so as to avoid her going overboard later in life because she was so 'deprived' as a child. Does that make sense? IDK if that's right, but I just figure balance is key. She has a good balanced diet for now and hopefully she'll stay on this path the rest of her life. :)

Luv2Bamama - Tuesday, 12 Jul
What do you guys do for meals for your little ones? Our daughter eats dinner before my husband and I on weekdays, so on those days, I give her leftovers from our previous night’s dinner. On any given day she may devour it, or ignore it completely. On nights that she ignores the main course, I let her fill up on fruits and veggies (mostly fruits). I look at her chart from what she has eaten at daycare; if she has had tons of bread products, I usually don’t offer a starch at dinner. On the weekends, if she hasn’t had a lot of protein, I offer cheese or plain yogurt or tofu mixed w/ veggies, or a scrambled egg. I don’t want to create a picky eater, but I also want to make sure she gets enough nutrients.

gretch - Tuesday, 12 Jul
Rory is finally off the bottle. Actually, I am finally off the bottle. I really liked the cuddle time. We do have a morning sippy together. We all sit on the couch. Husband and I with our coffees and Rory with his sippy. We get the day started. Then it is breakfast at 7:00 (Waffle, fruit and cheese), off to daycare, snack at 9:00 (cereal/fruit, daycare lunch at 11:00 (they cook on premises), snack at 2:30 (yogurt/cheese), milk/cookie at 4:30 and dinner at 6:00. I serve water at meals and milk at snacks (except the yogurt snack). Rory eats what we eat. I am big on frozen fish (mahi-mahi is the fav) and organic chicken tenders as meals in a pinch. I always have fruit cups on hand in case I don't have something fresh. Rory will drop anything for a cookie so I use that as bribery, if needed. He still naps twice a day. He goes to bed at about 7:00 and wakes up at 6:00. He knows some body parts and is fascinated by ears. He can say bird, squirrel (curl), outside, cookie. He does not say mama or dada. He can say night night. He is interested in shoes and socks and has associated shoes with outside. He takes keys and tries to put them in the door (and the refridgerator, but that's another story after a frantic search). He's a blast. He is not into being read to. Maybe lasts three minutes before book becomes a toy.

Luv2Bamama - Tuesday, 12 Jul
Karen, we are also on a regular schedule, not because I’m OCD, but that it works for us and our daughter. She gets up between 6:50 and 7:30; has 8-10 oz of milk. My husband gets her ready and drops her off at daycare and she has real breakfast around 8:30. Morning Nap at 9:30/10 am; Lunch at Noon; Afternoon nap at 1:30; Snack at 3; Dinner at 6; then bath and bed time by 7 pm (bedtime was 6 pm until the time change, and will likely fall back in the fall). She sleeps about 12 hours at night, and her two naps can be anywhere between 45 min and 3 hours each, depending. Aside from the morning bottle; she has sippy cups of milk and/or water with her meals and snack, but I would say she doesn’t usually drink more than 18 oz in any given day. The schedule also makes it easier in case daycare is closed and a friend or family member needs to watch her; they know what to expect and so does she. That being said, we go with the flow too; if she takes an extra long morning nap, we will usually skip the afternoon nap and make bedtime a little earlier. I’m a believer in the schedule because it works for us, but go with whatever works for your lifestyle!

lillhill79 - Tuesday, 12 Jul
beebee - I thought of you this morning when Cort woke up for the second night in a row at exactly 3:48am. Cried less than 2 minutes and put herself back to sleep. I think we all sometimes just get in to patterns of waking at a certain time throughout the night. I know when I was prego with Cort I went through a strech where I'd wake up at exactly 1:36am every night to pee.

lillhill79 - Tuesday, 12 Jul
Karen - we have a pretty firm schedule (but that's what you get from an OCD mom :0) Keep in mind that the girls go to daycare M-F so I try to keep their schedule as close as possible on the weekends - the only exception is that Cort sleeps later on the weekends (now if I could only get my 3 yo to do the same) Up and ready for breakfast 7:30-8am, snack 9:30-10am, lunch 11:30-noon, nap 12:30-1pm (usually sleeps 1.5-2 hours-both girls) snack after nap, dinner 6pm, bedtime 8pm. I'm one of those people who love structure and I don't do well flying by the seat of my pants. I NEED a plan! LOL

Luv2Bamama - Monday, 11 Jul
Poor little Caitlin if she truly is having night terrors, but I agree, she is probably a little too young for them! With these little guys anything can disrupt their sleep from teething to being too hot/cold, to suddenly being thirsty, or just missing mom and dad, or even gas! Although I can’t imagine dealing with the interrupted sleep AND being in your first trimester. Good thing that phase only lasts 12ish weeks, then you’ll soon be getting the energy surge!

lillhill79 - Monday, 11 Jul
beebee - if she's awake screaming (like standing in her crib or knowing it's you in the room) then it's not a night terror. Night terrors are much more random and they are actually asleep the whole time and don't respond at all when you talk or try to comfort them. More likely if it's at the same time every morning, she's shifting thru her sleep cycle and something (teeth, habit etc) is making her waken enough to want the comfort. With any luck it will work it's self out in a few weeks. In the mean time, try not to pick her up and comfort her unless you have to, otherwise it may become a true habit if it's not already.

Luv2Bamama - Monday, 11 Jul
@ Karen; yes, we read all the time, and she also loves “Where’s Baby’s Belly Button” (although I have to take it away otherwise the flaps would have been torn out by now). I know she understands most of what we are saying, but just refuses to point to stuff on command. At bath time I name the parts of her body that I’m washing and she likes to “wash her tummy” herself. Yesterday at lunch my husband and I were talking about ears (yes, we need a life) and little Miss started touching her ear, so I know she knows where it is. I think it is her stubbornness coming out. What cracks me up is how she understands the “process” of getting things done even if she won’t follow simple commands. We were playing outside yesterday in the kiddie pool, and daddy asked her if she was ready to get out…she nodded her head “yes” and he helped her out. Without us asking, she picked up her socks and shoes, put the socks into the shoes and carried them across the yard into the house and put them on the table by the door (which is where we put our shoes when we come inside). She also will stop whatever she is doing when I tell her that it is lunch/snack/dinner time and she trots right over to the sink so we can wash hands, then marches over to the high chair and climbs in. At the end of mealtime she gathers up anything left on the tray, including utensils, and puts it on the plate/bowl and hands everything to me. It would just be nice to show off her skills like other moms, but maybe she is telling me in her own little way that she doesn’t want the attention.

beebee16 - Sunday, 10 Jul
I think Caitlin may be having night terrors, she wakes screaming (and I mean screaming!!) at 3 every morning. It's hard to deal with, I calm her down and put her back in her bed but as soon as I go to leave her she gets hysterical. I put her some music on and leave the room and she usually stops crying after a minute or two. So now I've got lack of sleep tiredness on top of early pregnancy tiredness, I feel like a zombie all day long!! Luv2 - my friends lo is a couple of days younger than Caitlin and apart from the word 'no' I've never actually heard her speak. I'm sure you've nothing to worry about & your lo will come a chatterbox in no time!! Sometimes it drives me mad when Caitlin talks a lot because at the moment she's asking 'what is it?' to absolutely everything! Me & Caitlin sing a lot & she has started to fill in the gaps I leave in songs which really is so cute especially when she claps herself everytime she does it.

scarlet begonia - Friday, 8 Jul
I cannot wait for today to be over!

lillhill79 - Friday, 8 Jul
Ok, I need to vent for a second. This morning when I dropped my older DD off at preschool, a little girl (another 3 year old) walked up to her and said 'you can't be my friend anymore because your dress isn't as pretty as mine' Then twirled around and walked away. WTF?! I wanted to knock her flat. I'm just dumbfounded that a 3 year old says crap like that already. And of course my DD started getting defensive (who wouldn't?) so I had to take her to a different table so she could eat her breakfast in peace. I guess I just had no idea kids were so mean so young.

scarlet begonia - Thursday, 7 Jul
princess - ... maybe you meant 'month' and not 'week'... haha! Now that all makes sense!

scarlet begonia - Thursday, 7 Jul
I think my goal for now is to start TTC by the beginning of next year. Hopefully by then we'll have more job/career stability and be in our new/own home. I really, REALLY want to buy our own house and provide Aly (and future kids) a backyard and plenty of space to run around and play.

Luv2 - I'm sure everything is fine with your LO. I'm a worry wart so I worry about every little thing (even when there is nothing to worry about) so I feel you. I think I remember reading somewhere that most 2 year olds can say an average of 6 words. A friend of mine has a little boy and when he was 2 he didn't say or communicate much. Now he is about 4 and is just fine. He is a bit on the shy side with new people, but that is just part of his personality.

princess - wow... that's a lot of teeth for a 4 month old!! and OUCH on getting 2 of them knocked out already! eesh.. that just makes me cringe!

Luv2Bamama - Thursday, 7 Jul
So little girl only has 4 words—Mama, Dada, Tat-Tat (for Kat-Kat, our cat) and Uh-oh. She also refuses to use baby sign language or point to objects in books, or to body parts when asked etc. Should I be concerned about her lack of words or following directions?? I know she understands me because when we try to do these games, often times she just gives me this sly smile as if saying “I’m not your trained monkey, I’m not doing this just to frustrate you!” I’m sure she is fine, but I hear about all your kids talking up a storm and doing these amazing feats, I worry that I’m not spending enough “educational” time with her.

Luv2Bamama - Thursday, 7 Jul
@ Scarlet; so sorry to hear about Alyssa’s new fears of the potty. She will get over it when she is ready to. @ Karen—So happy for your little walker! I’ve known many a child who didn’t walk until 17 or 18 months…I’m sure your doctor said the same thing (and as you guessed, E started right after the appt. right?). Our Little Miss is doing well, but she is continuing with the tantrums…granted they are typically short lived, but irritating none the less. She has the classic little girl whine and high pitched, shrill scream. I just ignore it until she is done. We aren’t really working on potty training at this point, but we do have the seat that fits on the toilet and she has sat on it a few times. We keep it next to the toilet. Every day, she will go into the bathroom and flip up the lid (I always keep it down) and put the seat on the toilet and I put her on it. After about 30 seconds she is ready to come off. I also try to put her on it before bath (since she is naked). Also, since we use cloth diapers, when she has a poppie diaper, we go into the bathroom and wave “bye bye” to the poopie and I tell her that that is where the poopie and pee-pee go. Then we wash our hands together because “we must always wash our hands after touching the potty”. @ those TTC or now preg…congratulations! My husband asked me on Monday when we can start working on the next one…I told him we can practice all he wants, but I’m not ready to stop using protection until the end of this year early next year. The main reason being that we are building a shed and painting the exterior of the house next summer and if he wants my help, I can’t have a newborn since I was pretty much useless (as far as big home improvement projects) for the first 10 months of our daughter’s life. Nice to know that he wants more though!

princessjirehsmommy - Thursday, 7 Jul
Hello, I'm popping in from week 16. My daughter will be 17 weeks on the 21st of this month and she has 8 teeth on top and 6 teeth on the bottom. 6 on the bottom is due to her being the little dare devil that she is and in December she tried to jump off of my bed and hit her mouth and knocked her two bottom teeth out OUCH! This last set of teeth that came in was horrible! She ran a temp for about 3 days then broke out into a ugly rash and then as soon as the teeth came through, everything went away but it was total chaos in my house because she would wake up all through the night trying to bite on something (had her in bed with me) including my elbow, toes, fingers and all lol.

mom2ryder - Wednesday, 6 Jul
Wow!!! Thats lots of teeth in the room! Yay! Ryder is just working on his 7th. He has his top 4 and bottom two. Just working on another bottom one right now. Are the Cainine really as bad as everyone says?

scarlet begonia - Wednesday, 6 Jul
Well so far we've been letting her lead on the going potty front. She is back in diapers for now. When she says 'poo poo' or 'pee pee' we ask if she wants to go to the potty and she says 'no' and we leave it at that. I think we'll try again in another month or so. Her next pedi appt is in another month so maybe he'll have more direction for us. For now, I'm just keeping it on the back burner.

scarlet begonia - Wednesday, 6 Jul
Aly still only has 9 teeth. The 4 front and bottom and 1 molar. No canines yet. She gets mild teething symptoms from time to time, but no new teeth so far. She does have a few bumps on her gums, though. I think a few other molars will pop up soon.

jwalden - Wednesday, 6 Jul
Jack has one canine through and still working on them. Poor babies. He has also been very clingy, snotty, and irritable at times along with having the teething poos for the last 4 days. He still is in pretty good spirits considering but I'm ready for it to be over with.

lillhill79 - Wednesday, 6 Jul
Scarlet - poor Aly. I can just imagine her confusion on not knowing what she wants or should do with her potty. Don't worry, it'll come and I learned with my older DD that one day it will just click. Literally suddenly one day she just got it and hasn't had many accidents since (at least during the day) That was shortly after 2 yo. Cort loves to sit on the potty but she's yet to actually do anything. We're going to get more serious about that as well as move her to a daybed in a few more months - probably not at the same time. Karen - yeah for E!

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