How many months is 16 week old baby / How do u calculate how many months old ur baby is?

[mamtojaz]

I have this running debate with friends and family on how everyone calculates their babies number of months they are. Today jaz ( my first baby ) is 16 weeks old, i assumed that meant she was 4 months old however my friend who has a baby born 3 days after mine ( 27th feb ) goes by the 27th of every month. i couldn't find much online if there was a right or wrong answer so i thot id pop on here for more opinions. Do you go by the same date of each month, or the weeks? ( apologies if that didn't make much sense i'm still suffering from severe baby brain!! )

It sounds like they're counting a month every 4 weeks
I.e baby was born a Saturday - 4 Saturdays later 1mo ... 4 Saturdays later again 2mo

Feel like I've entered the twilight zone reading this 🤣

Seriously though, after 10-14 weeks, please refer to child's age in months. And after 18 months, please use years.

It makes me cringe when I hear people say "my 26 month old" or "my 25 week old". 🙃

Well my baby was born on the 15th of February, so she was 4 months old yesterday. In weeks she is 17 weeks, It’s not hard to figure out.

this was one of the worries i had!! becuase i kept wondering well how do i know if shes ahead/on/behind development stages ?! or things like when should i start weaning…

6 months pass from 15th Dec to 15th June so baby is exactly 6 months old. They might be slightly less than 1/2 year old because some months are longer than other but that’s neither here nor there.

Well I'd consider it six months, but technically as it's exactly 26 weeks and a year is 52 weeks and one (or two) days, then they are not half a year old until the next day.

You either count in months or weeks. They're not the same. 6 months is 6 months.
That people are genuinely confused about this has blown my mind.

also, one of my confusions was when talking about pregnancy months u dont go by the calander month - u go by the weeks ( 20 weeks ur 5 months preg… ) so i was wondering well is it the same after birth? sorry if im sounding stupid :(

But they ARE six months old. Maybe not exactly 26 weeks to the day, maybe not exactly half a year to the day, but 15th Dec to 15th June is exactly six months.

6 months pass from 15th Dec to 15th June so baby is exactly 6 months old. They might be slightly less than 1/2 year old because some months are longer than other but that’s neither here nor there.
I was trying to work out what the poster could mean by six months but older by weeks!

Don't let other posters make you feel bad OP, it's a really common misconception that there are exactly 4 weeks in a month.

It's one if the reasons women worry about being 10 months pregnant at 40 weeks.

I mean the fact that there are approx 4.33 weeks in a month (except Feb, of course) is just not something most people really think about. Why would you?

And why on earth aren't there 13 4-week months in a year? It would make life so much easier!

Well I'd consider it six months, but technically as it's exactly 26 weeks and a year is 52 weeks and one (or two) days, then they are not half a year old until the next day

So a year is 12 months but 6 months isn't half of a year?

It's meaningless nonsense to mix up the number of days in a year with the number of months, who does that?

Are some people being purposely obtuse or something?

OP it’s your friend that’s in the right. I originally thought the same as you when I had my first DD last year but my mum corrected me. For example, DS is born on 20th of April. He was 8 weeks old yesterday but still isn’t two months old yet as you go by the date they were born. So even though he’s 8 weeks old, he’ll officially be two month old on Monday as the date is Monday 20th.

you count in months if you want to use months - and count in weeks if you want to use weeks

Basically this^ and as another poster said, ‘there aren’t exactly four weeks in every month so 16 weeks might not be exactly four months’

But they ARE six months old. Maybe not exactly 26 weeks to the day, maybe not exactly half a year to the day, but 15th Dec to 15th June is exactly six months.
I was just trying to work out what could be meant by six months but older by weeks! Six months could only be from 26 weeks to 26 weeks and two days depending on the month length, so nothing in it.

it's a really common misconception that there are exactly 4 weeks in a month

Is it? I must live in a parallel universe, I've never heard this in real life although I did once read a similar thread on here.

i know i wish this too hahaha! i guess my question is then when talking about development / weaning do i go by weeks or months?xx

It’s not that serious though.

It’s not like you have to start weaning the exact day they turn 6 months old. It’s not like they have to reach certain milestones the exact day that they turn 10/11/12 month old.

Whether you go by weeks and your baby is 24 weeks old. They’ll officially be 6 months old in less than a week so it really doesn’t matter too much

I was just trying to work out what@GreenIsle could possibly have meant and got caught up!

I cross posted but go with whatever you want. It really doesn’t make any difference at all…

Months. 6 months or 26 weeks.

My DS1 is 929 weeks old. Or 213 months if you prefer

Generally we tell people he's nearly 18 though. Much easier!

Yes, 24 weeks is five and a half months not six!

But 20 weeks pregnant isn't 5 months. If it was we'd say an average pregnancy was 10 months.

You can use either, but remember that there are generally 4.33 weeks in a month.

So 4 months is not 16 weeks, it's more like 17 and a half weeks. Five months is 21 weeks and 5 days. And six months is 26 weeks. All approximate. And depends on whether Feb is in the mix too. It is tricky.

It's easier to count dates for development milestones in months for this reason. So count from the date they were born.

Nothing is set in stone, OP. You don't have to wean at exactly 6 months on the day, you don't have to take the bottle away and give cows milk to baby on the very day of their first birthdays. A couple of weeks give or take will not make any difference whatsoever.

I think you are overthinking this a little...