Your Baby’s First Year in India: Month by Month

The first year moves in stages, and each one brings a different set of questions. At one month it is feeding and weight. At six it is solids. At twelve it is cow’s milk, walking and getting the bottle away.

This page follows that order, so you can read the bit you are in rather than all of it.

The months

Start wherever you are.

1 month — feeding frequency, weight gain, and what is normal

3 months — milestones and the first sleep questions

6 months — first foods, vaccines, and the gear that is now useful

9 months — finger foods, crawling, and the red flags

12 months — cow’s milk, first steps, and dropping the bottle

Feeding, in order

Milk, then solids, then opinions.

Bottles — anti-colic and BPA-free compared

Formula — the Indian brands compared on price and composition

Breast pumps — manual and electric, for going back to work or not

Introducing solids — when to start, and Indian first foods

The solids equipment — high chair, blender, nibbler and bowls, settled

Sleep

The year’s main negotiation.

Safe sleep — co-sleeping setups that are actually safe

Swaddles — muslin vs zip-up, and hip-safe technique

Health

The small kit, and the big appointments.

The IAP vaccination chart — the full schedule, birth to twelve years

Thermometers — which reading to trust

Baby massage — oil, technique and timing

Diaper rash — preventing it and treating it

What to buy, and when

Spread the spending across the year.

Newborn essentials — what to have ready before the birth

Diapers — cost per change, which is the number that matters

Carriers — tested in Indian heat

Strollers — tested on Indian roads and in Indian lifts

Rent or buy — for the items you only need a few months

The tool that goes with this

We built the vaccination schedule — put in the date of birth and it gives you every due date on the IAP schedule, so you are not working it out from a chart. It is free and there is no sign-up.