77 Week Old Baby: Your Baby's Development and Your Recovery This Week

Your toddler has jokes now, and it's delightful.

At around 18–19 months, you'll see the first real sense of humour, pulling pants over their head, wearing a bowl as a hat, making a funny face on purpose to get you to laugh. They're starting to notice when things are "wrong" too: a stuffed toy missing an eye, a picture upside down.

If your toddler is telling you before or after they go, pulling at a wet nappy, or showing real interest in the toilet, you can start introducing the potty. What helps:

• Let them watch you or an older sibling use the toilet. Modelling works.
• A small potty on the floor is less scary than a big toilet.
• Teach the little steps: pants down, sit, wipe, flush, wash hands.
• No scolding for accidents. Praise for sitting, even if nothing happens.
• Expect months, not days. Most toddlers are day-trained between 24 and 36 months, and night dryness comes later still.

• Pick a stretch of time with no big life changes (no new baby, no house move, no starting daycare).
• Start in warm weather if you can, easier laundry, fewer layers.

Laugh at their jokes. They're figuring out what's funny from your reactions.

• A steady squint, a white reflection in flash photos, or frequent bumping into things, worth getting a vision check.

That first giggle at their own joke is a sound you will want to bottle forever. Humour, pretending and noticing what looks odd are baby development wearing its most delightful face. Keep laughing together; your delight is the applause they are performing for.

Around 18 months. Toddler eating gets more interesting, and more frustrating.

The fussy-eater Indian-mum playbook

• Around 18 months, many toddlers narrow what they'll eat dramatically. The Indian-mum reaction often runs: panic → cooking 5 different things → trying to spoon-feed → giving up.

A different approach

• Serve the family meal, in a small portion. Toddler eats it or doesn't.
• No alternative menus. The toddler will not starve themselves.
• Continue offering rejected foods. Acceptance often takes 8–10 exposures.
• Eat with them. Toddlers learn from watching.

Sneaking in nutrition (Indian edition)

• Veggies hidden in dal, palak, methi, lauki, carrots
• Nuts and seeds ground into porridge or paratha dough
• Curd-rice with grated carrot
• Idli batter with grated palak or methi
• Multi-grain rotis (bajra, jowar, ragi mixed with wheat)

For mum's own eating

• Don't survive on your toddler's leftovers. Plate up your own real meal.

Indian thali for the family

• A balanced thali, dal, sabzi, roti, dahi, chawal, works for everyone. Your toddler picks what they want; you eat normally.

Worth flagging

• If your toddler has lost weight, gags severely on most foods, eats fewer than 10 different foods, or shows distress at meal times, talk to the pediatrician. Most "fussy" toddlers grow out of it; some benefit from feeding therapy.

A small Indian-meal tip

• Khichdi makes everything easier. One pot, balanced (carbs + protein + fat + fibre), digestible, satisfying. A spoon of ghee on top, a side of curd or pickle. Toddler-mum dinner sorted. Indian grandmothers were right about this one.

Indian-mum tradition kept

• A Sunday afternoon family lunch, the one meal everyone shows up for, where the whole thali is on the table, anchors the week. Toddler eats by watching. You eat by sitting. Family eats together. Worth protecting that one slot weekly.

A rejected roti is not a report card on your love, though it can feel that way by evening. Parenting a toddler means serving hope in a small katori again and again, and that patience is its own kind of devotion. Sit down, eat your own warm meal, and trust that you are enough.