10 Month Old Baby: Cruising, Pointing and Self-Feeding

Your Baby at 10 Months Old

A 10 month old baby is often cruising along furniture, pulling up to stand, and using a thumb-and-finger pincer grasp to pick up small pieces of food — skills the Canadian Paediatric Society lists at 12 to 14 months, which many babies begin earlier. Solids continue alongside breast milk or formula, with iron-rich foods at least twice a day. Total sleep is around 12–16 hours with about two naps.

Your 10 month old baby is a determined little explorer — pulling up, cruising the furniture, picking up the tiniest crumb with new precision, and starting to understand more of what you say. The first steps aren’t far off.

This guide covers what’s normal this month: the surge in standing and cruising, the pincer grasp and self-feeding, first words on the horizon, and how feeding, iron and sleep fit together.

Your Life This Month: The Parent Experience

Your baby understands more than they can say now — pointing, gestures and a few sounds do a lot of the talking. Narrate your day, name what they point at, and read together; it all feeds language.

With cruising comes tumbles and the odd bump. A safe, cleared space and a lowered crib mattress keep the stakes low. It’s also a good time to think ahead to walking shoes only once your baby is walking outdoors — bare feet indoors are fine for building strength.

If low mood or anxiety has been lingering, please tell your doctor or public health nurse — postpartum depression can develop across the first year and is treatable, the Canadian Paediatric Society notes.

Feeding Your 10 Month Old Baby

At 10 months, breast milk or infant formula still provides your baby’s main nutrition, with solids a bigger part of each day. Keep breastfeeding as long as it’s comfortable, the Canadian Paediatric Society notes, or keep formula feeding. Use the package instructions for how to prepare each bottle, but let your baby decide how much to take.

Feed your baby sitting upright in a high chair, and stay with them the whole meal — never propped, lying back or in a car seat. Offer water in an open cup with meals, in small amounts. Keep salt and sugar out, and introduce common allergens one at a time, a few days apart — but don’t hold them back, since offering them early and keeping them in the diet regularly is what lowers allergy risk.

Iron stays front and centre — about 11 mg a day for 7 to 12 months, per the Canadian Paediatric Society. Keep iron-rich foods coming at least twice daily, paired with vitamin C foods, alongside vegetables, fruit and full-fat dairy in a variety of textures. The pincer grasp makes small, soft finger foods easier — offer them supervised, sliced and softened to reduce choking risk. Whole cow’s milk (3.25% M.F.) can be introduced between 9 and 12 months, once your baby is eating iron-rich foods regularly.

If breastfeeding isn’t an option, the CPS advises a store-bought, iron-fortified, cow-milk-based infant formula until 9 to 12 months, when whole cow’s milk can take over.

A note on formula this month. Iron leads at this stage — the Canadian Paediatric Society sets the 7–12 month need at about 11 mg a day and advises an iron-fortified formula if you formula feed. MOF’s organic HiPP Dutch Stage 2 is a follow-on formula designed for 6 to 12 months, iron-fortified to provide iron, DHA and vitamin D alongside your baby’s iron-rich solids. Formula is a good choice whenever it’s the right one for your family.

Sleep at 10 Months: What’s Normal & How to Help

A 10 month old baby usually sleeps around 12–16 hours in total across nights and typically two naps, in the range the Canadian Paediatric Society gives for infants aged 4 to 12 months (average around 14 hours). Night waking still happens and is normal.

Standing and cruising can spill into the crib — some babies pull up at bedtime and need help lying back down for a while. It usually settles. A consistent daily rhythm and calm wind-down help; the Canadian Paediatric Society suggests keeping a regular sleep schedule as much as possible, and putting your baby down drowsy but awake so they can practise settling.

Safe sleep reminder: always place your baby on their back for sleep, on a firm flat mattress with a tightly fitted sheet and no loose, soft items, in a crib. If your baby rolls onto their front on their own, you don’t need to turn them back. Keep the mattress on its lowest setting now that your baby can pull up, and check that nothing near the crib can be reached and pulled in — blind cords, mobiles, anything on a nearby shelf. Keep the sleep space bare: no bumpers, positioners, pillows, or infant nests and loungers. Car seats, strollers, carriers, bouncers and swings aren’t safe sleep surfaces; if your baby falls asleep in one, move them to their crib as soon as you can. The Canadian Paediatric Society advises back sleeping lowers the risk of SIDS.