I often realise an hour has gone by and i haven't said a thing to my 9mo ds. I feel really guilty for not talking to him more but to be honest it doesn't seem to come naturally to me. Is his speech going to be stunted because he has a rubbish mummy?

Ds is probably thrilled to have some peace & quiet

the same thing happens here aswell.kind of hard to make conversation with something which doesnt talk back

Don't worry. He will hear you talking on the phone, talking to friends, talking to your DP etc.

You can add it to the list of things to feel guilty about as a mother. Your pennance is five nursery rhymes.

Just think out loud. "Okay, kid, let's think about what I should make for dinner. Mmm, how about lasagna? Or maybe I should do the chicken daddy likes?" That kind of thing.

I worry about this sometimes, I don't speak much to DD first thing in the morning as I am not quite compis mentis! And if we are out and about and she is front facing in the stroller I don't really talk to her either. I feel bad about it sometimes. Once they do start speaking though you won't have much choice but to speak back and they will soon start complaining if you ignore them!

I can recommend a book called Babytalk by Sally Ward. It's a very parent-friendly book with explanations on speech and language development and lots of ideas.

I sometime zone out during nappy changes and realise that I am concentrating on not getting poo on me or dd instead of speaking to her. She now shouts at me when she wants attention so I presume that if I am not speaking and she is not shouting then she is a happy wee baby!

How fun is mothers guilt - ugh!

I worry about this too, its not that i dont know what yo say, just that i forget to keep talking

Sometimes, it's not so much that I forget to speak to DS, as just don;t know what to say.(He's also 9mths) I can talk to him for ages about a load of rubbish, but can spend the half hour or so that it takes to feed him in silence. It would be unnatural to talk to him all the time, so i just go with what feels right. nothing wrong with a bit of quiet time and as another poster said, your DS will hear you talk to other people. Just go with what feels right to you.

have you tried singing to him

Hello, I argree with cariboo, just think out loud. Tell your baby everything you are doing if you don't know what to say. They might not understand, but they will stilll listen.

I wouldn't worry bumperlicious about when they are in a forward facing buggy, this is a time I dont bother anyway, unless she is upset. She is probably enjoying taking everything in and having a good look around so too busy to listen anyway!

Thank you for your replies! I've just been telling him what an idiot biggins is so that's something! I just forget too.. Actually when we're out with the pushchair he is facing me so i tend to speak lots to him about everything, people look at me like i'm crazy! But in the house i can go into autopilot mode and get no with stuff and just simply forget to speak to him then feel really guilty. Perhaps i should "set" chat times or something.