DD has never mixed with another child :(

[youremywonderwall]

DD is 8 months old.

She was born just before lockdown.

I feel really sad that she’s never played or mixed in close contact with another baby her age.

I don’t have any friends that have children and her cousins are all much older than her (10+) and of course we’ve all been distancing.

I have a lovely group of antenatal friends but we all made the decision to distance our babies when we met up(which at the minute we can’t do as there are 8 of us)

We go to a regular baby music class so she gets to see other babies but she’s never actually gotten close.

I worry about how this might affect her immune system, not mixing and picking up bugs from other babies.

She’s registered at a nursery but won’t be staring until March 2021 when I go back to work.

How much is this going to affect her? :(

My daughter was 10 months old when we started attending baby/toddler groups. I don’t think it makes much of a difference. She had only me and her dad for company for the longest time and she’s now 2.5 years and so sociable and great at making friends

Sorry posted too soon.
So don’t worry about her not having anyone her own age to play with. She’ll be fine

She will be just fine. I used to work with very rural children (Australian outback). Some of them didn't mix outside their families for months at a time even as older children!

Her immune system will have plenty to cope with just from crawling round the floor, interacting with adults, and putting things in her mouth.

I am also curious how distanced you really are at meet-ups/music class? Many illnesses can spread over several metres. Measles for example can be caught hours after the infected person has left the room. So your DD will have plenty of immune challenges and socially will be ok too.

I dont think my son knew what another baby was at 8 months so I presuming your child will be OK

The good news is that its not going to affect her at all - she’s way to young to need other kids.
In terms of her immune system- she’ll be fine, but likely will pick up loads of bugs when she starts nursery. Also, in my experience they mostly pick up bugs from older kids at that age (as most other 8 month olds aren’t exposed to that much, apart from the ones with older siblings), so I don’t think you need to worry.

Please don't over think this. Your baby is fine as long as she's having quality interactions with you. As the primary care-giver, YOU are the important factor at this age. Relax and enjoy your baby, there is plenty of time for socialising and germ mixing,

She will be completely fine. My first DC had minimal contact with other babies beyond 45 mins vague proximity at a weekly baby group but as she didn’t crawl till 11 months didn’t get up close. My second DC had her sister all up in her face from birth. DD2 had more illnesses younger but still went through the lurgy round at nursery when she started. Of course Covid is going to make you question everything but I think it’s quite normal for firstborns to have much less exposure to other kids.

My daughter is 8 months, and I know the worry.

She's playing with other babies at music, swimming ect. I've decided that for her, socialising is more important than social distancing.

(I say playing, I mean crawling over each other, but they seem to enjoy it).

It's what they'd be doing on nursery anyway.

Socially children don’t need to interact with other children until they are 2 years old and even then they play along side each other opposed to with each other.

I don’t think it will make much difference at that age; my first didn’t have that much contact with other babies until childcare as when I met up with other mum friends babies were either held or in prams. I didn’t attend groups and we didn’t meet places that we could really put them down

Let her get close to other babies... If she was in a nursery she would be. What's the difference?

My ds didn't catch any bugs to speak of until he was 3 and went to nursery. He's 14 now and all fine. At nursery, he had all sorts of illnesses: swine flu, norovirus, coughs, colds, chest infections, chickenpox! He was fine with all of them.

If you go to a baby group it won’t be long then, we go to one and all the babies that are crawling and walking do go off wandering around the space and come into contact with each other.

I don’t think they really care at that age anyway though.

She’s 8 months old. She’s grand.

8m olds only really care about mummy. If there was another baby the same age she might well just ignore it anyway. They dont "play together" until much older, they just poke at each other.

Personally I wouldn’t be keeping babies distanced from each other at antenatal group meet-ups anyway though but that’s just me. Babies young children are the lowest risk category. But anyway if you’re going to baby classes I think she’ll start taking matters into her own hands soon enough.

I know the teacher at our baby music class seems to be very pro letting the babies and toddlers roam together while the adults Lee to our socially distanced spots.

I thought you were going to say your child was 5 or something not only 8 months old! Honestly OP she won’t care.

Maybe you can take him for longish walks in the park every day so he can see people, kids, dogs etc running around and interacting with each other. And in terms of immune system, maybe you could give him things from nature to hold (and inevitably lick) like pine cones or something - we did that with ours and I have no idea if it actually helped his immune system at all, but it made us feel like we were at least doing something!

@022828MAN

Let her get close to other babies... If she was in a nursery she would be. What's the difference?

I can’t just put her next to other babies without parents consents!
I don’t have any friends with children expect my antenatal friends and non of them want their babies to mix, I have to respect that.

The other babies she sees are at our baby class where social distancing measures are in place!

Small children and babies don’t actually need interaction with other children in a social sense.
They need you for social interaction.
So chat to your baby and let them explore.
Your baby only worked out they had hands they could control about 5 months ago. Not playing with other babies isn’t going to have any effects.

Children only really parallel play til they are about 3. So play next to kids but not really with them.

At 8 months I spent the whole time making sure my dd’s weren’t biting, snatching, crawling over other babies, dd1 used to laugh when other babies cried (and at all other times was super serious so we thought we were raising a serial killer. She’s now a fairly normal 6 year old)

8 month olds don't play with other children. Honestly, it's just mum guilt. Your child will not be adversely affected x

Don’t overthink it OP. Many kids stay home until school so only see other kids in playgrounds and classes, and until DD was well past 2 she was only really playing alongside other kids not with them.

There is also absolutely nothing you can do about it, so don’t find things to beat yourself up about. I feel really bad for all kids - toddlers who have been missing out on interaction, all the way to GCSE and A Level kids heading off into the world without proper graduations etc.

They’re resilient, they will be fine, and she is getting human interaction from you! A lot of the studies on chronic lack of social interaction come from orphanages where kids had no interaction or love, so try to not let it worry you. At her age she really just needs mummy cuddles, milk and loads of love.

Don't worry, they don't really get any benefit from being around other babies at that age as they have no concept of playing together (that doesn't start until around 3 years old) and she'll get the immune system practice when she starts nursery, and of course what she gets already from the environment (let her play on the floor and lick dirt and suchlike if you're very worried)

I don't think it's true that they don't need interaction - babies develop by seeing other faces etc and in my experience they really love seeing other children.

BUT - Op - in some ways you are lucky - I think the harder age for not mixing is toddlers - who really do want to play with other kids.

An 8 month old is pretty much okay with mum - but if you want her to be with other children more could you start nursery early?

I think this is also a very hard time for mums of babies - as you aren't getting the mixing and socialising.

Socially children don’t need to interact with other children until they are 2 years old and even then they play along side each other opposed to with each other.

Where did you get this age from?

My 19 month old is the most sociable guy ever, just yesterday we was playing chase with a 2.5 year old girl in the park, screaming and running away. Then copying the little girl when she jumped etc. He plays all the time with his bro, and loves it.
He said hi and waves to other children all
The time.

OP, I wouldn’t worry about social interaction with other babies at 8 months old. Especially if baby is seeing other babies etc but just not touching them.