Your 28-Week-Old Baby
Your baby’s coordination is getting better. Here’s why hand-to-hand transfer matters and when it’s OK to start trying cups.
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By 28 weeks, your baby’s movements are starting to look more intentional, like they’re not just batting toys or dropping things by accident. Right around now, you may specifically notice baby grasping toys with a tighter, more confident grip and even switching objects between hands. Like all of their recent small but mighty skills, these are building blocks for future bigger milestones, like self-feeding and even putting on their own clothes.
This week, the focus is on hand-to-hand transfer is an important (yet sometimes overlooked) fine motor skill. And if you’re wondering whether baby’s increasing grip strength means they can handle a real cup soon, Dr. Mona Amin, board certified pediatrician, IBCLC and founder of PedsDocTalk, goes over what’s typical for cups versus bottles at this stage and how parents can support baby’s self-feeding development.
🚼 Baby’s Development
Hand-to-Hand Transfer
Remember way back in Week 11 when we talked about hand-to-mouth movements? It’s time for the next stage of hand coordination!
When your baby intentionally passes an object from one hand to the other, it may not seem super exciting from the outside, but it means really important (and honestly impressive) things are happening on the inside. Hand-to-hand transfer is a skill that requires both sides of the brain to work together, along with growing muscle control in their hands, wrists and arms.
Early on, babies tend to grab objects with just one hand at a time when playing with toys, usually whatever side the object is placed on (if you put a toy at their right side, they’ll grab it with their right hand and keep it there). As their fine motor coordination and spatial awareness improve, baby will eventually realize they can move an object to the other side of their body, releasing it from one hand and grasping it with the other.
Most babies don’t start transferring objects between hands until about five to seven months old; it’s a skill that takes months to slowly develop, since several physical and cognitive parts need to work in sync, including visual tracking and depth perception (baby needs to know where their other hand is in order to pass to it). Other upcoming developments that use those same skills: clapping, stacking toys and crawling—all coming up around nine months.
To help baby grow this skill, try offering lightweight toys that are easy to grasp (teething toys and rattles work wonders), placing objects at baby’s midline and giving them time to explore without rushing in to help if they hesitate. Experts emphasize that this stage is about exploration, not perfection—drops, misses and messy attempts are all part of how babies learn to coordinate their movements.
🧑🍼 Feeding Baby
When to Introduce a Sippy Cup or Open Cup
Your baby may have been practicing self-feeding for a few weeks now, and with the newfound skills of hand-to-hand transfer and using both hands simultaneously, you might be wondering if they’re ready to try drinking from a cup.
The short answer: It doesn’t hurt to try. Learning to drink from a cup, whether it’s a sippy cup or an open cup, is another skill that builds gradually. How do you know when baby is ready to try? When they’re sitting up independently and consistently bringing objects to their mouth, Dr. Mona says. Combined with coordinated hand movements, right now can be a great time to introduce cups.
Baby won’t be perfect at it right away, so don’t stop breastfeeding or throw out their bottles quite yet. “At this stage, it’s all about exposure and practice,” Dr. Mona says. “It’s not meant to replace their bottles or breastfeeding yet. The goal is to help them build different drinking skills early, making the transition away from bottles smoother as they near their first birthday.”
Wondering which type of cup to start with? Dr. Mona says either open cups or straw cups (or both) are fine. Both cup types support baby’s developing oral-motor skills, she says, including lip closure, tongue movement and all the muscle coordination needed to help with talking.
So once baby is ready, try offering a cup with one or two meals every day, while the majority of their feedings should still come from the breast or bottle.
👀 Looking Ahead
Bathtime 2.0: As your baby becomes more stable sitting up, bath time starts to look different—think more splashing, reaching and play (plus a few new safety considerations).
🛍️ Panic Order
Munchkin
Twisty Figure 8 Teether
Manhattan Toy
Toy Winkel Rattle
Infantino
Go Gaga! Balls, Blocks & Buddies
Babylist
Sippy Cup Box
Dr. Brown's
Wide-Neck Sippy Straw Bottle with Silicone Handles (2 Pack)
ezpz
Tiny Cup
Expert Sources
Babylist content uses high-quality subject matter experts to provide accurate and reliable information to our users. Sources for this story include:
Dr. Mona Amin, board certified pediatrician, IBCLC and founder of PedsDocTalk
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