When Will Baby Learn to Entertain Herself?

Q: It was a lot easier to keep my baby entertained when she was happy being carried around in the baby sling. Now that she wants to be on the floor playing, she's constantly relying on me to keep her entertained. The thing is I really don't know what to do with an eight-month-old baby. And if I don't play with her all the time, she gets really whiney. When will she start entertaining herself?

A: Most parents find that they continue to be their baby's "favorite toy" well into the toddler years. It's part of the job description of being someone's mom or dad. But you'll probably find that your baby becomes able to entertain herself for little bursts of time—say for five to ten minutes or so—as she begins to master new skills like crawling, standing, and walking.

Until then, she's likely to be highly reliant on you for entertainment because she'll want you to intervene if a toy that she's playing with gets stuck somewhere and she needs help retrieving it. Besides you're so much more fun to her than her toys. At this stage of her development, she doesn't have a particularly long attention span, so you provide the continuity in her play as she moves from one activity to another.

If you've played pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo ten million times, and you've sung every nursery rhyme song you can remember from your own childhood, you're no doubt ready for some new ideas. You may want to try

• -looking at picture books together (tip: create a photo album featuring photos of people, places, and objects that will be familiar to your baby)
• -dancing to music, something that can be a great workout and stress-buster for you and great fun for baby (tip: make a playlist of your favorite "baby dance tunes")
• -getting together with some of the other moms and babies from prenatal class, baby gym, or playgroup. It's always fun to hang out with other moms who have babies around the same age.