Your 18 Month Old Baby

Your 18 month old baby should be readily mobile now and able to get where he or she wants to go. With this physical freedom comes emotional ripple effects and probably some discomfort as the prospect of being an individual comes into full focus.

Emotional independence will be the task of your child for the next few years and the more practice they get, the easier it should be.

I think it makes sense to start out short and small, and gradually increase the duration and the stakes.

What I mean is this: give your child plenty of practice experiencing how it feels to explore on their own, while at the same time letting them feel the uncertainty of being away from you for short periods of time.

This could be 30 seconds to a few minutes while you're both in the house but in different rooms, or it could be when your child is with another family member for a set length of time, followed by reunification with you later.

Your 18 month old needs to experience this phase of development in order to move on to the next stages coming up in the near future.

As I mentioned, this long arc of emotional independence development will span the next few years until school begins.

As with anything, the more practice and repetition your child gets, the easier they will find it to overcome this next hurdle as they progress towards more and more independence.

The main contrast between the previous age range and now is that your 18 month old will feel the difference between being dependent on you for physical movement, versus being able to move about at will.

This registers with the notion that things can change quickly, and many children will extrapolate this to mean all change is expected to happen just as quickly.

Of course, this is not reality and this misconception can lead to frustration and even more challenges to your child's emotional wellbeing if not handled properly.

I am an advocate for letting kids experience the reality of the world. This means they are given the chance to feel their emotions and accept them while at the same time receiving encouragement and support.

If the foundation has been laid in your child's previous age range experiences, then they will be in a stronger position to withstand these ups and downs and come through them with a balanced perspective and a more reality based understanding.

As a 18 month old baby, safety issues become the primary concern both inside and outside your house. This is much more pronounced now than at 1 year of age.

It is obvious that in the blink of an eye your child can be across the room, across the house and down the street!

All of those things which are required to safeguard your child's environment are key components to help them navigate through this age range effectively.

The scope of their environment will continue to expand as the months and years go by. Depending on their degree of sensitivity, this can present some issues along with the continuous learning they will undergo just by being out in the world and exploring on their own.

Your 18 month old baby has their own blueprint that they are following.

This is an age when delving into the arena of prevention can be addressed. If your family history includes certain predispositions, this is an age when a discussion of those topics can be helpful as you look forward into the near future.

Taking preventative steps is always better than waiting and reacting to symptoms and conditions once they have already occurred.

Now that your child is in this age range, we should have a basic idea of what their underlying constitution and blueprint energy pattern is.

In this way we can account for the inherited, environmental, historical and current energy expenditures as part of your child's overall evaluation.

Your 18 month old baby's energy equation is working as shown below.

The long, medium and short arcs of energy development continue throughout your child's growing years.

As we move into the older age ranges, we will not emphasize these energy arcs as much. Just remember that they are still operating and determining your child's daily energy expenditures according to their own unique individual pattern.

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