2-Week-Old Baby Milestones
Your baby will still have poor eyesight at this age. They can mostly only see black and white colors and can’t focus on anything farther than about 8 to 20 inches. But what you might start to notice this week is that your baby far prefers looking at human faces than anything else, including your own!7
As Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, MD pediatrician and consultant for Mom Loves Best, describes it, your baby may be responsive to your face, and the more animated you can be, the better. She suggests holding your baby about 8-10 inches from your face and then sticking your tongue out.
“You might notice that they will stick their tongue out in response,” Dr. Poinsett says. They may also track with their eyes for a few seconds at a time.”
In addition to being able to interact with you a little more and tracking your face when you hold your baby, Dr. Poinsett says that you may notice your baby being able to lift their head a little more during tummy time.2
Yes, even at this age, you can start “tummy time,” which is basically placing your baby on their tummy on a soft, safe surface for a few minutes (3-5 minutes is fine at this age). You should only do this when your baby is awake. Tummy time helps your baby exercise and strengthen their muscles.8
Additional Behaviors
Other baby behaviors and milestones you might notice at two weeks include:
- Your baby should be responding to loud noises and the sound of your voice.2
- Any scrapes or bruising from birth should be diminishing at this age.9
- If your baby has any birthmarks, you may notice them now; a strawberry hemangioma is a type of birthmark that may appear a few weeks after birth.10
If your baby doesn’t seem to respond to loud noises, you can contact your pediatrician, as your baby may have a hearing issue.11 You should also contact your pediatrician if your baby isn’t waking for feedings at this age, or is crying inconsolably.12
2-Week-Old Baby Food
Feeding your baby is still a pretty all-consuming experience, and it’s normal to feel overwhelmed by this at times. At two weeks, your baby should still be feeding frequently. Siz to 8 feedings per day are common for formula fed babies. Breastfed babies will nurse 8 to 12 times in 24 hours, which may amount to every 1 to 3 hours.2
Right now, it’s best to go with the flow when it comes to a feeding schedule, and continue to feed your baby when they show signs of hunger. By two weeks, you will start to become more attuned to your baby’s hunger cues and can start to feed them before they become too upset.13 If you wait too long to feed your baby, they may end up crying, which will make it more difficult for them to feed.
The Academy of American Pediatrics (AAP) recommends practicing “responsive feeding” at this age, which is where you learn to recognize your baby’s hunger cues and feed them on demand.13 Some of the hunger cues you may be able to recognize at two weeks include your baby putting their fingers in their mouth, moving their head from side to side, or making suckling motions with their mouth.13 These are perfect opportunities to offer your baby the breast or bottle.
Another defining characteristic of feeding at this age is that your baby begins to do some cluster feeding, which is when they tend to nurse very frequently, usually during the evening hours.12 Cluster feeding usually times during growth spurts, and two weeks is a prime time for this.1
According to Dr. Poinsett, signs that your baby is having a growth spurt and doing some cluster feeding is that they may be more wakeful, sleeping only an hour or two at a time. They will also seem to want to feed all the time. Cluster feeding can be stressful for parents, not to mention totally exhausting. But it’s all for a good cause: helping your baby grow and stay healthy.
“Cluster feeds in breast-fed babies help to increase their mother's milk supply,” Dr. Poinsett explains, adding, “Cluster feeds in formula-fed babies are a cue to their parents to raise their feeding volume.”
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