Your 6-Month-Old Baby: Milestones & Development (2026)

Last updated: October 2026

Six months is the halfway mark of your baby's first year, and it is one of the busiest months in pediatric development: most babies are rolling, pushing up on straight arms, laughing, squealing, taking turns making sounds with you, and reaching for whatever they want. It is also the age when solid foods usually begin, the first tooth often appears, and sitting without support is around the corner. This guide walks through the official 6-month milestone checklist, what each skill looks like at home, the gear that genuinely helps at this age, and the specific signs that mean it is time to talk to your pediatrician.

Six months sits in the middle of a run of fast change, so compare it with five months and seven months, and check how much sleep a six-month-old actually needs if nights have gone backwards since solids started.

6-Month Milestones: The CDC Checklist

The CDC's "Learn the Signs. Act Early." checklist for 6 months lists what most children (75% or more) can do by this age. Here is the full list in the CDC's own categories, with what each item tends to look like in a normal day.

Notice what is not on the list: sitting without support, crawling and a first tooth are all common around now but are not expected of most six-month-olds. A baby who is doing everything above and still toppling sideways when you let go is exactly on track.

Motor Milestones: Sitting Without Support

The official 6-month movement milestone is leaning on hands to sit (tripod sitting). Independent sitting, with both hands free, usually follows over the next several weeks, and the difference matters for play: a baby who still needs their hands for balance can only look, while a baby who sits freely can bang two things together, pass a toy from hand to hand, and drop it on purpose to watch you pick it up. All three are the skills you will see emerging between six and eight months.

You can help without "training" anything. Sit your baby between your legs or in front of a firm cushion with a toy slightly out of reach to the side, so they practice shifting weight and catching themselves. Keep floor sessions short and frequent; ten minutes several times a day builds more trunk strength than one long stretch. Skip propped sitting in seats and loungers for play time, because the seat does the balancing work the baby needs to do.

The right toy for a new sitter is one hand can hold and mouth: a lightweight rattle, a soft crinkle toy, a natural-rubber vegetable or a stacking cup. Chunky rattles reward the exact things on the CDC list (reaching, grabbing, mouthing) and give a satisfying noise when the baby waves them, which is the first time cause and effect really lands.

Starting Solid Foods at Six Months

Six months is the usual starting point for complementary foods. The American Academy of Pediatrics' parent site, HealthyChildren.org, describes readiness in terms of skills rather than a date: your baby can hold their head up steadily, can sit in a high chair or feeding seat with good head control, opens their mouth when food comes their way, and can move food from a spoon to the back of the mouth and swallow instead of pushing it straight back out. Notice how closely that maps to the CDC's 6-month list: tripod sitting, reaching, mouthing and the ability to close their lips when they are done.

Breast milk or formula is still the main source of nutrition for the rest of the first year; solids at six months are about practice, flavors and textures. Offer a small amount once a day to begin with, and let your baby set the pace. Iron-rich foods are a sensible early choice because a baby's iron stores from birth run down during the second half of the first year: iron-fortified infant cereal, pureed meats, beans and lentils, and iron-rich vegetables all qualify. Our starting solids guide covers first foods, an age-by-age schedule and gagging versus choking in detail, and our food allergies guide explains why peanut and egg should be introduced early rather than delayed.

Two pieces of gear make the first weeks of solids easier. A soft, narrow silicone or bamboo first-stage spoon fits a six-month-old's mouth better than an adult teaspoon and is gentle on gums that may already be sore with teething. And bibs: once solids start in earnest you will go through several a day, so a wipe-clean silicone bib with a crumb catcher saves a lot of laundry. Our baby bibs guide compares silicone, muslin and long-sleeve smock styles.

Language and Babbling at Six Months

The three CDC language items at six months (turn-taking sounds, raspberries, squeals) are the groundwork for speech. Babbling now includes more consonant sounds, and in the coming weeks you may hear strings like "bababa" or "dadada" that are practice for the rhythm of speech rather than real words. Your baby understands more than they can say: most six-month-olds respond to their name and to the tone of your voice, even if they ignore the word "no."

The most useful thing you can do is answer. When your baby makes a sound, pause, then make one back, and wait again. Those turn-taking pauses teach the structure of conversation before there is any vocabulary to fill it. Narrating the day ("now we're putting on your socks") works the same way, and so does reading aloud, even though a six-month-old will mostly chew the book.

That chewing is why board books earn their place now. Sturdy pages survive mouthing, high-contrast or touch-and-feel pages hold a short attention span, and the repeated words in a simple book are exactly the kind of input a baby's language system is tuned for. Keep sessions to a page or two and stop when the baby loses interest; the goal is enjoyment, not finishing.

First Teeth, Teething and Bath Time

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a first tooth usually appears around 6 months, most babies get their first teeth between 6 and 12 months, and the lower front teeth (the lower central incisors) almost always come first. Timing varies enormously and a toothless six-month-old is completely normal.

Four AAP points are worth knowing before the first tooth shows. First, start brushing as soon as it erupts, with a smear of fluoride toothpaste the size of a grain of rice on a soft infant toothbrush, twice a day. Second, book the first dental visit after the first tooth erupts and by the first birthday. Third, a true fever (over 100.4°F or 38°C) is not caused by teething and points to an illness that may need treatment. Fourth, skip teething tablets, gels with benzocaine, homeopathic teething products and amber teething necklaces: the AAP advises against all of them, and necklaces carry a strangulation and choking risk. A chilled (not frozen) teether or a clean cold washcloth to chew on is the safe route.

Bath time becomes an easy place to fit in tooth-brushing and a calming end to the day. At six months most babies have outgrown the newborn sling-style tub but still need support to sit safely in water, which is where a bath support or a seat-style baby bath comes in: it holds the baby upright and leaves you both hands for washing, brushing and splashing. Keep the water around 100°F (38°C), fill to a couple of inches, and never step away. Our how to bathe a baby guide has the step-by-step, and our baby bathtubs guide compares the options by age.

Sleep at Six Months

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine's consensus recommendation, which the AAP endorses, is that infants 4 to 12 months should sleep 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours including naps. For most six-month-olds that works out to a long night with two or three daytime naps, though the split between night and day varies a lot from baby to baby.

Six months is also when many families consider dropping night feeds, moving the baby to their own room, or trying a gentler approach to settling. None of those is required, and a six-month-old who still wakes once or twice to feed is well within normal. Two things that reliably help: a short, predictable bedtime routine (bath, pajamas, feed, book, bed, in the same order every night) and putting your baby down drowsy but awake at least some of the time, so they practice falling asleep in the place they will wake up. Our sleep by age guide covers wake windows and nap transitions, and our safe sleep guide explains what changes once your baby rolls both ways.

Getting Ready to Crawl

Crawling preparation intensifies at six months. During tummy time your baby may get up on hands and knees and rock back and forth; that rocking is the immediate precursor to crawling, and the pushing-up-on-straight-arms milestone is the strength work behind it. Some babies skip hands-and-knees crawling entirely and scoot, roll or go straight to pulling up on furniture, all of which are normal routes to the same destination.

Floor time is the only "equipment" crawling needs. Bare feet are best indoors because the sole of the foot is full of nerve endings that feed balance and grip, and because toes need to flex to push off. Where feet need covering, outdoors, in a cold house or in a baby carrier, a soft-soled crib shoe or pre-walker keeps toes warm without stiffening the foot. Save structured, hard-soled shoes for confident walking many months from now.

Social and Emotional Development

At six months your baby's social world is rich. The CDC's three social items (knowing familiar people, enjoying the mirror, laughing) are the visible part of strong attachment to primary caregivers, and the flip side is that wariness of strangers often begins now. A baby who used to go happily to anyone and now buries their face in your shoulder is not regressing; they have learned who their people are.

Play becomes reciprocal. Your baby will push a ball back when you roll it, imitate simple actions like clapping or sticking out a tongue, and use vocalizations strategically to get your attention. A sense of humor appears, too: unexpected events, physical play like being gently bounced, and anything repeated three times with the same silly face will get a laugh. The most valuable play at this age costs nothing: face-to-face games, peekaboo, songs with actions, and narrating what the baby is looking at.

When to Talk to Your Pediatrician

The CDC's advice is to act early if your child is not meeting one or more milestones, has lost skills they once had, or if you have other concerns. Specific things worth raising at or before the 6-month checkup:

• Does not laugh or make squealing sounds, and does not take turns making sounds with you.
• Does not reach for toys or bring things to their mouth.
• Does not roll in either direction, or does not push up on straight arms during tummy time.
• Seems very stiff or very floppy, or does not use both sides of the body in roughly the same way.
• Has lost a skill they already had, such as babbling or rolling.

If your pediatrician shares your concern, the CDC's recommended next steps are a referral to a specialist who can evaluate your child in more detail, and a call to your state's early intervention program to find out whether your child qualifies for services; evaluation through early intervention is free in every state and does not require a diagnosis first. Pediatricians would much rather see you for a non-issue than late for a real one.

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