Anyone with a left handed baby? Or left handed adults?

[Reallytired]

I think my daughter is left handed. She always sucks the thumb on her left hand. She uses her left hand to pick up things. The hand grip of her left hand is stronger than her right hand. My husband thinks I am nuts as she is only 16 weeks old.

When did you spot that your child was left handed. I think I was fairly sure by six months my son was right handed.

Is there anything that a right handed mum should know about left handed people? The only person in my family who is left handed is my father in law. He tells me not to punish her for using her left hand as it made no difference to him.

[PerfectPrefect]

I ouldn't read too much into it at 16m.

My personal experience with 3 thumb suckers is that the preference they have for thumb sucking means that there other hand becomes dominant for everything else. I have 2 right hand thumb suckers who are left handers for everything else. And my Left hand thumb sucker is right handed for everthing else.

[juuule]

Preference for left or right-handedness doesn't settle until children are around 3yo. Before that time they tend to use either.

[lynniep]

Crikey, its been a long time since punishments were handed out for being LH'd isnt it? I think my nanna was forced into being RH'd - that was back in about 1915!

I dont think you need to worry about it tbh. She may be predominantly LHJ - in which case further down the line you might need to start to think about special scissors etc. Or she may be like me - predominantly right handed but I write with my left hand - so scissors, instruments, holding cutlery or a bat etc all done in right hand.

Writing I never had an issue with either, always just wrote at an angle so my hand didnt drag through the ink.

In answer to your first question though - I think DS is left-handed, but he seems to chop and change (hes 2) - really think it depends on the child - some definately tend towards one hand in particular, some, like mine, just gravitate eventually towards a preference.

[PerfectPrefect]

[juuule]

Perfect, the baby is 16 weeks, But definitely agree far too young to have a preference.

[memoo]

My DS now 8 is left handed, and I knew from when he was about 5/6 months old, like your DD he showed a huge preference for using his left hand for picking things up, sucking thumb etc.

It only started to impact on him when he was 2/3 and started using sissors, had to buy him some left handed ones. He also struggles a little with his handwriting, mainly because he hand is covering up what he has written as he moves along the page.

Apart from this he hasn't had any problems at all

this is a good website for when your DD is a bit older

[juuule]

My left-handed son never needed any special treatment for his left-handedness. Just got on with it.

[shinyshoes]

Same as Juuule. My 12 yo gets on with it, he never complained that he can't use the scissors at home etc. I haven't made any special allowances for him or bought him any special equipment.

He can't use the potato peeler, but then he dosen't realy cook.

[ChildOfThe70s]

My DS2 (5 1/2) is left handed, it was obvious from really early on that he preferred using his left hand for eating, drawing etc. Definitely by the time he started nursery at 3 anyway. The nursery and school have never said anything and it really isn't an issue, although he does smudge his writing a bit. I've noticed he also favours his left foot when kicking a ball etc - don't know if that is typical. DH is left handed and was made to play sports and guitar right handed, which he still does, but was "allowed" to write left handed (it was the early 70s when he was at school!). there are a few websites for left handed stuff but I must admit I've never bought anything special for DS, he has Aspergers and so I didn't want to make it into an issue for him.

[BigGobMum]

Both dcs are left handed and have caused no problems at all except dd2 wrote mirror image at first but this stopped shortly after starting school.

[aendr]

As a left handed adult, also a Guide leader used to dealing with both right and left handed children, these are the tips I have:

Don't force a preference, either way. They might not settle for years, so ask childcarers or teachers not to too.

Make sure any child (left or right) has plenty of space when writing, drawing or painting. With the left hander, find out how to position the paper at an angle (see already posted link) and help them to do so.
Remind carers and school teachers about this (space and angle) and remind the child too, as they get older they can insist for themselves. Putting a righty to the left of a lefty is asking for elbow fights.

Be aware, when it comes to tool use as they grow up, that scissors, peelers, sharpeners, serrated knives and can openers are usually "handed" and can be harder and sometimes more dangerous to use. Decide whether you want to get the lefty tool, ambidextrous (where possible) or teach them to be aware of and use righty ones correctly and safely... You can also get pens and pencils which support good pencil grip - lefties often have very awkward looking grips and get finger cramps easily.

Ambidextrous can openers are easy to use but leave a sharp edge, ambidextrous peelers I like a lot, sharpeners I've never even bothered with a righty one. My mother made sure I could use right handed scissors in my right hand (and left in my left) because there are a lot of times when you just don't have access to lefty scissors. My righty Guides used to grab the lefty scissors first and when I asked they said that the lefty scissors at school were usually the non-blunt ones because the righty ones got used first. Make sure the scissors you have either way are good enough for the job. Note that so called ambidextrous scissors merely have unshaped handles and are not actually ambidextrous - the handedness of scissors is decided by the way the blades cross. In the correct hand, the hand naturally presses the blades together when cutting - in the wrong hand, it pushes them apart. Serrated knives are, well, difficult (again see link). I learned how to use righty ones in my left hand, but I'm not convinced it is that good an idea as wedges of bread were rife for years. On the other hand, my lefty sharp knives are kept hidden from my husband.
Kettles on the round bases are good - means either of us can use them.

[VulpusinaWilfsuit]

16weeks!

Put your worries away for a while.

If she does end up a leftie, it will depend how dominant the left-ness is and how much practice she has becoming ambidextrous.

I am leftie but can do lots with my right hand. I have a 'normal' writing grip but means I can't see what I'm writing (can be hard when learning to write and a bit smudgy!) Very little real obstacle to lefties these days, except as mentioned things with blades which she won't need till she's older anyway.

[posieparkerinChina]

Is this a joke? Especially the bit about punishment. What would there be to know that could possibly affect your child?

Mother of one left handed and three right handed children.

[remembers to release dc1 after four hours kneeling punishment for crayoning with his left hand]

[Reallytired]

I am not worried about my daughter being left handed. I just find it interesting as both my husband and I are right handed. Its interesting in the same way wondering whether your child's eyes are going to change from blue to brown or any other genetics.

Sadly its not a joke that my poor father in law was punished over 70 years ago. Thankfully we have moved on since the 1930s

[DoThisDoThat]

DS2 is left handed. I always "knew" he was but it was clear at about age 2.5 that he definitely was. I have found no issue with it, just been advised to get left handed scissors for him for craft. That's it. My parents are both left handed but me and my brother are right handed. DH is right handed and his two siblings are too. Not sure if left handedness is recessive? Anybody know?

[stuffitlllama]

Two left handers. 16 weeks seems a bit early to know! but we knew at six months to eight months I'm sure. It's all the grabbing of spoons and food and so on. There was a distinct preference.

We tried left handed materials but gave up. Now they are left handed for writing, no question. But other stuff musical instruments and so on they seem more adaptable.

[stuffitlllama]

I like lefties. I think it's true that they have a lateral way about them.

[Wilts]

I am left handed. I use my right hand for most things though, scissors, veg peeler etc.

The only thing I really struggle with is tins of corned beef, with those stupid little keys. But as I am probably in the minority in liking corned beef I am sure it is unlikely to cause much of a problem for anyone else

[Leeka]

I am 30 now, and was made to write with my right hand when first at primary school - until my parents realised what was happening! So definitely happening more recently than 70 years ago.

I have never even considered using special equipment for my left-handedness, this talk of lefty and righty scissors leaves me confused as I've never had a problem or considered I might need them. I have quite neat handwriting too.

[skidoodle]

Both my parents are left handed, and so is my sister so I grew up in a majority left handed home. Then I married a left handed man, so by this stage being right handed makes me feel left out

I wonder what dd will be (16 mo) but no real clues yet. I don't suppose it matters, but it is interesting.

DH and DSis did try to blame poor performance in a wii game on right handed bias a couple of chistmases ago, which bil and I gave short shrift to

[19fran76]

I am left-handed with lovely neat handwriting . As a child I was given the use of left handed scissors by a teacher, however they were stiff through lack of use so I switched straight back to using an ordinary pair. Other than that I've no specialist experiences to report. I like being left-handed & enjoy all the associated ideas regarding increased creativity etc...

[AmazingBouncingFerret]

Im left-handed. But I use right-handed scissors. I can use either hand for sports. And one boring, rainy holiday when I was younger I taught myself to write with my right hand, alot slower but just as neat and once I got bored of that I tried drawing with my toes... It was a very boring holiday!
If she does end up left handed, it is far to early to tell yet, she shouldnt encounter any problems, just tell her to angle her paper differently when writing and she wont smudge it.

[MaggieBeauVirgo]

Yes, one of my children is left handed, I'm not but one of my parents is, and one of my x's parents is (and one of his siblings).

so i presume it's a hereditary thing.

anybody got a left handed child with NO history of left-handedness?

[MaggieBeauVirgo]

ps. I think my son was about 12 months old when I thought he was going to be left handed. he's coming up to four now, i was right.

OP, are neither of your parents, or your husband's parents left-handed????

I find that interesting.

[bruffin]

We knew DD was left handed by 2.3 because she burnt her left hand then. While she was bandaged and unable to use her right hand with no problems but went straight back to left as soon as she could use it.
I always thought I was right handed but discovered recently i actually do a lot of things left handed ie opening jars