23 Week Old Baby: More Social, On the Move and Almost Ready for Solids

Your Baby at 23 Weeks Old

A 23 week old baby is around 5 months old — more social and expressive, rolling, reaching and grabbing with control, and babbling. By 4 months, most babies need three naps a day, per the Canadian Paediatric Society, with total sleep around 14–16 hours. Solids are recommended around 6 months, starting with iron-rich foods.

Your 23 week old baby is a little more social every week — reading your face, responding to your tone, and babbling back like it’s a real conversation. With 6 months just ahead, solids are on the near horizon.

This guide covers what’s normal this week: the growing social and motor skills, and how to get ready for the first foods that are coming around 6 months.

Your Life This Week: The Parent Experience

Your baby’s growing social awareness is lovely to watch — and it can come with a little wariness of new faces or places. That’s a normal sign of development, not a problem. Extra cuddles and a calm, familiar routine help.

With solids close, it’s a good week to get set up: a sturdy high chair, a couple of small spoons, some easy iron-rich first foods in mind. No need to start yet — around 6 months is the mark.

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 23 Week Old Baby

A 23 week old baby feeds on cue. The Canadian Paediatric Society advises feeding on demand — whenever your baby is hungry. Amounts vary widely; for formula, follow the feeding chart on your formula’s packaging. Plenty of wet diapers, a content baby and steady weight gain show your baby is getting enough.

Solids are close. The Canadian Paediatric Society says most babies are ready around 6 months, when they can sit up with support and control their neck muscles, pick up food and bring it to the mouth, and show interest when others eat. When you start, begin with iron-rich foods — meat, poultry, cooked whole egg, fish, tofu, well-cooked legumes, or iron-fortified infant cereal — offered at least twice a day. Until then, breast milk or infant formula is all your baby needs.

If breastfeeding isn’t an option, the CPS advises a store-bought, iron-fortified, cow-milk-based infant formula.

A note on formula this week. Iron is a headline nutrient right now: the Canadian Paediatric Society advises starting solids with iron-rich foods, and using an iron-fortified formula if you formula feed. MOF’s organic Stage 1 formulas, such as HiPP Dutch Stage 1, are iron-fortified and suitable from birth to 6 months, providing the iron, DHA and vitamin D your baby needs alongside first foods. Formula is a good choice whenever it’s the right one for your family.

Sleep at 23 Weeks: What’s Normal & How to Help

A 23 week old baby’s sleep is usually in a pattern. By 4 months, the Canadian Paediatric Society notes, most babies need three naps a day — morning, afternoon and early evening — with total sleep around 14–16 hours across naps and nights. Night waking still happens and is normal.

Growing social awareness can make some babies harder to settle for a stretch, and a baby who rolls and moves in the crib may stir more. 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 every sleep, on a firm flat mattress with a tightly fitted sheet and no loose, soft items, in a crib, cradle or bassinet in your room for the first 6 months. Keep starting your baby on their back even once they can roll — 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. If you’re still swaddling, stop now. A swaddled baby who rolls onto their front can’t push up or free their arms — a sleep sack or fitted sleepwear gives the same contained feeling without restricting movement. Car seats, strollers, carriers, bouncers and swings aren’t safe sleep surfaces; if your baby falls asleep in one, move them to their crib, cradle or bassinet as soon as you can. 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, and check the weight and rolling limits on a bassinet — most say to stop once a baby can roll. The Canadian Paediatric Society advises this lowers the risk of SIDS.