Are there signs to tell you that your baby is going through a leap? Should we use the EDD or the birth date to gauge when is the leap? Does it mean that the child don't go through growth spurts or leaps after the 10th leap?

Hi Cherie, Thank you for your question! This was answered by Dr Frans on our live stream: In the book, in every chapter, there is a box that has signs that show your baby is growing - summarizing the chapter for you. You should use the EDD, as development starts at conception, and not at birth :) Whether you are giving birth early or late, does not speed up or slow down your baby's brain development. Your child will definitely go through leaps after the 10th leap, but in The Wonder Weeks only studies development of babies up until the 10th week. In child development literature, major leaps have been described fully by brain measurements. So yes, they are there. There is a PHD Student in Scotland who is studying the period from 20 months to 5 years. Because the developmental transitions have been described in child development studies, but not the difficult periods. We are finding out now by questioning and observing parents when these difficult periods occur at later stages. When she is ready, we will publish her findings. You can watch a recorded version of Dr Frans' live Ask The Expert Session here: https://www.facebook.com/parenttown/videos/1258235770909093/

When a baby is going through a leap, he/she may be fussier, require more attention and cuddles from his/her caregiver, appear to drink more and sleep may be affected as well. As a guide, you can use the EDD to gauge. That being said, I have a friend whose baby was born 4 weeks earlier and her baby appears to go through the leaps slightly earlier than predicted (when based on EDD). So It appeared that her girl will go through a leap between the actual birthdate and EDD. After the 10th leap, it will be transition into "toddlerhood". This is when parents can start laying down some ground rules and your son should be capable of understanding them. It will be the time where your child learns to exerts his/her autonomy, and starts to be more skillful with things and language, imitates others, role-plays daily life, practices emotions etc etc. This is the time to introduce the concept of "rules" to him/her and teach him/her to keep to them.