Overview: How your baby develops in 2 years

Height and weight

The average height of newborns is 50 to 52 centimeters. The length at birth depends on the parents' height, the timing of birth, the course of the pregnancy, and the child's sex – girls are often slightly smaller than boys. By the end of the 24th month most children are about 87 centimeters tall – and have therefore grown quite quickly. The average birth weight is around 3,400 grams. Within the first two years of life the weight almost quadruples. At that age girls weigh on average about 11.8 kilograms, slightly less than boys at 12.2 kilograms.

BMI percentile chart for children aged 0-2 years

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) are used by doctors during check-ups and provide parents with a rough guide for assessing their child's body mass index (BMI) – nothing more, nothing less. Fluctuations often occur, for example, due to slightly early or late growth spurts and should not immediately be a cause for concern. Whether a significant deviation actually exists can only be determined by a pediatrician. The percentage values given are percentiles. The curves indicate what percentage of babies and toddlers have a lower BMI than the specified percentile.

Example

The 15% percentile curve means that 15% of babies and toddlers of the same age and sex have a BMI below this curve and 85% are above it.

Sleep

In the first three months of life your baby will sleep a lot – about 16 to 18 hours, spread over several sleep phases. Even though it is very tiring for parents, it takes a long time before babies sleep through the night. At 12 months nearly half of all babies still wake their parents twice a night. The amount of sleep needed gradually decreases over the months – but don't worry: most of the sleep is usually made up during the day. At two years, babies need on average 13 to 14 hours of sleep.

Sight

When babies are born, they can only distinguish light-dark contrasts. Visual ability develops quite quickly, however: by five months most babies can perceive colors, contours, and distances. At one year visual acuity is about 50% developed and continues to improve in the following years.

Hearing

In full-term babies the auditory system is already fully functional at birth, but hearing matures mainly during the first years of life. Through sounds from the environment the baby learns to decode stimuli and make sense of them. However, young children still don't hear like adults: locating sounds in particular remains difficult for children until about eight years of age.

Facial expressions

As early as the second month many babies give their parents their first deliberate smile. They pick up facial movements and expressions from you. Even at only a few months old they can communicate their mood, for example by frowning or smiling. In the first two years facial expressions are an important way for babies to communicate with their parents, since they can't express themselves in words yet.

Motor skills

After birth babies are still very clumsy when it comes to coordinating their body parts. The lack of muscle strength also contributes to newborns being unable to stabilize their head on their own. But within a few months your child learns to reach deliberately, hold objects, and use body parts in such a way that it can eventually move around by crawling and walking.

Fine motor skills

Your baby also learns fine and precise hand movements in the first 24 months of life. While a newborn's hands are usually clenched into fists, they open up during the first months. At first the fingers often go into the mouth before they are used to grasp objects. Small-scale movements like drawing or molding are then no problem for most two-year-olds.

Language development

All parents wait for this – their child's first words. Language development starts much earlier: as early as four months many children already "respond" to their parents' voices. Speech development really progresses after the first birthday. After the first words are spoken, new words usually follow quickly.

Image credits:

Young family with two small children in the bedroom reading a book © Halfpoint - stock.adobe.com