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

Your toddler understands far more than they can say, sometimes four or five times more.

At around 22 months, many toddlers speak 50–75 words clearly but understand 200 or more. They can follow two-step instructions like "please go upstairs and bring your shoes", and their pretend play is getting more elaborate: putting a doll to bed, sweeping with a toy broom, cooking in a play kitchen.

• Starting to pedal a small tricycle (feet-flat scooting often comes first)
• Balancing on one foot for a moment while holding on
• Kicking a ball with some direction
• Walking backwards a few steps

• Cut or mash these until at least 3 years old: whole grapes, cherry tomatoes, whole nuts, popcorn, hard candy, peanut butter in blobs, sausages in round slices, chunks of cheese, raw carrot and apple, gummy candies, marshmallows, raisins.

Stay close during meals. Teach your toddler to sit still while eating, no running around with food in the mouth. If your toddler is choking and can't cough or cry, use age-appropriate first aid (back blows and chest thrusts for under-1s; abdominal thrusts from 1 year up) and call for help.

• Pretend play with you, feed the bear, put the baby to sleep, ring-ring phone calls, builds language faster than any app.

• Loud snoring, gasping, or pauses in breathing during sleep are not normal at this age, flag at the next pediatrician visit.

• Soft khichdi with a spoonful of ghee, mashed roti dipped in dal, a small bowl of curd-rice with a pinch of jaggery, these go down easily and pack iron and fat in the right amounts.

Two-step instructions followed, a doll tucked tenderly into bed: your child's mind is racing ahead of their words. This gap between understanding and speaking is a beautiful stage of baby development, and your chatter fills it every day. Keep talking; every word you speak is being gathered like treasure.

Around 21 months. Your relationship with your own mother, easier or harder now that you are one.

The "now I understand" moment

• Many mums report that their relationship with their own mother shifts after having a baby. Sometimes warmer, sometimes more complicated. You see her choices through a different lens.

For mums whose relationship is good

• A weekly call or visit
• Asking for her advice (without obligation to follow it)
• Sharing photos and small wins
• Acknowledging what she did for you

For mums whose relationship is complicated

• Boundaries are okay
• You don't have to repeat patterns you didn't like
• A therapist can help untangle generational dynamics. "She did what she could with what she had" is a useful frame

For mums whose mother is no longer alive

• Grief surfaces in new ways during the baby years. Holding onto small rituals from her, a recipe, a song, a way of doing things, keeps her present in your toddler's life.

Indian-context note

• Joint families often involve constant negotiation with mothers and mothers-in-law. Some friction is structural, not personal. A weekly private moment with your partner to talk about the family dynamics keeps it from building up.

Eating well

• Three meals + two snacks.

Worth flagging

• If your relationship with your mother (or mother-in-law) is causing real distress, therapy with a family-systems lens is worth considering. Indian therapists trained in family dynamics (look for ones with trauma-informed backgrounds) understand the joint-family context.

Indian-context family note

• If your mother or mother-in-law lives with you or visits often, the relationship gets re-tested through the baby years. Honest small conversations, not blow-ups, work better. Your partner is a key ally; alignment between you two on big issues stops the relatives from triangulating.

Whether the bond with your own mother feels warmer, harder, or simply different now, being honest about it is a quiet act of mother self care. You are allowed to keep what nourished you and gently set down what did not. That, too, is a gift you pass on to your child.