...to think our baby is left handed?

[ThreeWheelsGood]

Baby sucks her left thumb, grabs for things with left hand primarily, reaches forward with left hand. She is only 4 months old, can you tell handedness at such a young age?

DD1 was left handed from the first time she grabbed anything at a couple of months. No doubt at all. You can sometimes tell.

My daughter did everything with her left hand. Thumbsucking, holding spoons, throwing balls, etc. for years.

At 4 years old she naturally developed a preference to write with her right hand and this has remained permanent. She's now a teenager.

Children swap about until 2 or 3. You really cannot tell at 4 months.

Actually, babies change hand preference according to the growth stages they go through.

So according to the text books, it goes something like
left hand until 12 months, then right hand for 6 months, then left, then right for about 18 months

etc etc.

They don't settle until they are about 4.

Having said that. ds was right hand dominant from birth. He is also very left brain dominant (numbers and logic) and struggles with some parts of right brain activity (languages, and initially reading)

dd1 has been very ambidextrous since birth, and is very balanced - good and maths and languages.

Welcome to the genius club! Einstein was a leftie as am I! My ds showed signs of being a leftie from the start whereas my dd used her right like my dh. Although my dd uses her left to scribble & right for everything else.
My db is a leftie & is in great demand as a left handed batsman at cricket.

DD showed a right preference from early on.

DS2 has always been a leftie. Right from when he noticed his hands at teeny weeny age, (he only noticecd his left!) and now at nearly 5 he writes with his left. Never ever swapped or experimented with his right hand, apart from the briefest of moments when we'd pass something to him and place it in his right hand, eg a crayon, he'd give it a cursory wave at some paper then swap over to the left again!

He has no problems with his right hand- in the same way that right handed people don't have problems with their left hand- he's just left handed.

Interestingly, although he is so strongly left handed, when he plays football he is not left footed. Damn it, was planning on him being an amazing left footer and earning enough to keep me in the manner wot I want to be accustomed to.

Im a left hander and I agree with what fickwittery says. It's the hand of preference for what you do really. Picking things up, using a fork etc.

4 months is too early to be sure IMO.

DD showed a preference for left by the time she was 12 months, things like chunky crayons, finger food, musical instruments etc. She's 4.5 now and very definately left handed.

As a baby my eldest son rolled to his left side. I didn't really notice this as to us he was just rolling over. My father-in-law did notice (Fil in child based profession) and stated that my son would be left handed. My father-in-law was correct and my son is left handed!

DD is a left thumb sucker, but right handed. You could tell that she is right handed from about 1.

I wonder if DS is left handed - he's 18 months old and his current favourite thing is scribbling. He always does this with his left hand, if you put the crayon into his right it gets passed straight over! He tends to use his left hand for his spoon and fork too. I know it's to early to tell really, but I love seeing these little flashes of what he might be like when he's older.

Sorry meant to say son was only 11 weeks old when he started rolling (only thing he did do early!) My husband and I are both right handed.

Ds1 appeared to favour his left hand as a baby, but is right handed. Ds2, at 4.8, is either ambidextrous or hasn't yet opted for a preferred hand (which, according to his OT can take until they are 5 and a half). The other day at school he was using right handed scissors in his left hand, so the teacher gave him a pair of left handed ones, which he promptly started to use in his right hand

DS was seeing a pyshio at about 7mo for something totally unrelated and they got quite aerated when I cheerily suggested he looked like he was right handed. Apparently, 'handedness' (as others have suggested upthread) isn't supposed to appear until later.

Anyway, they said I had to encourage him to use the other side, reach for things on that side etc. Although having read other people's comments, wonder if they weren't making a bit of a fuss.

(He's absolutely fine, BTW, sure your DD is too!)