8 Month Old Baby: Sitting Solo and On the Move

Your Baby at 8 Months Old

An 8 month old baby can usually sit on their own, roll both ways, move objects hand to hand, babble and copy speech sounds, per the Canadian Paediatric Society’s end-of-8-months milestones. Many begin to crawl and pull up over the coming months, skills the CPS lists at 12 to 14 months. 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 to three naps.

Your 8 month old baby is right in the thick of the “everything changes fast” stage — sitting steadily, reaching and exploring, babbling away, and maybe starting to inch forward. Mealtimes are messier and more hands-on as self-feeding takes off.

This guide covers what’s normal this month: the milestones your baby is completing, the mobility that’s coming (and how to prepare), and how feeding, iron and sleep fit together.

Your Life This Month: The Parent Experience

A mobile baby changes the house. Before your baby is fully crawling, do a floor-level safety pass — the Canadian Paediatric Society specifically suggests keeping dangerous objects well out of reach before your baby starts crawling. Outlets, cords, stairs, small objects and unstable furniture all need attention now.

Mealtimes are a hands-on learning zone. Let your baby hold and mouth soft finger foods — big enough to hold in a fist with a bit sticking out, soft enough to squash between your finger and thumb. It’s messy, but it’s how they learn to eat. Keep it low-pressure and follow their cues.

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 8 Month Old Baby

At 8 months, solids and milk work together — breast milk or infant formula stays your baby’s main source of nutrition, with solids building alongside. 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 feed a baby who is lying back, propped or in a car seat.

Iron stays the priority. From 7 to 12 months, babies need about 11 mg of iron a day, the Canadian Paediatric Society notes — so keep iron-rich foods (meat, poultry, egg, fish, tofu, well-cooked legumes, iron-fortified cereal) coming at least twice daily, paired with vitamin C foods to help absorption. Alongside, offer vegetables, fruit and full-fat dairy foods like yogurt and cheese, in a variety of textures and soft finger foods. Whole cow’s milk as a drink isn’t recommended until 9 to 12 months, and then only 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 (3.25% M.F.) 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 8 Months: What’s Normal & How to Help

An 8 month old baby usually sleeps around 12–16 hours in total across nights and about two to three 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.

Big new skills — sitting up, pulling up, early crawling — and growing social awareness can briefly disrupt sleep as your baby practises or wakes wanting you. 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 when you can.

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. Keep starting your baby on their back even though they now roll and move — but if your baby rolls onto their front on their own, you don’t need to turn them back. That’s safe once they can get there under their own strength. Keep the sleep space bare — no bumpers, positioners, pillows, or infant nests and loungers. Lower the crib mattress before your baby can push up onto their hands and knees. 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.