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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

At what age do babies laugh?

12 replies

MummyBuzz · 07/09/2011 19:20

MY DD is 17 weeks and an incredibly happy, content and laid back baby. She smiles all of the time at us (well, at anyone really who pays her attention!) and when she does find something funny will give an enourmous grin and her body language suggests she is laughing but there is no noise if that makes any sense!? She is very vocal with other noises and things so I'm a bit puzzled.

Other parents I've met at toddler groups etc. say that their children give proper giggles and I've seen other children of this age proper belly laughing. Any suggestions?

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twotesttickles · 07/09/2011 19:42

From recollection it averages 4 - 6 months. Please do not worry, kids do not develop in a linear pattern. Very soon she will start chuckling away. :)

happygilmore · 07/09/2011 19:47

I think it varies, we were never asked about laughing by the GP though, just smiling. DD was 11 weeks, which I think is quite early, but it doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about.

fraktious · 07/09/2011 19:49

I thought DS was choking the first few times he laughed. It was sort of like hiccups? Around 15 weeks I think because we were in our old flat.

happygilmore · 07/09/2011 19:55

best tip I saw on here - pretend to sneeze, a huge fake sneeze - babies find them hilarious. DD is 15 months and still thinks it is the funniest thing ever.

Beaurevage · 07/09/2011 20:41

my little guy (24weeks) has been giving the odd laugh for about 4 weeks now. Very difficult to extract it from him! But today I did what Happy suggested and started to do really high pitched sneezes and it sent him into fits. It was fantastic! I even managed to turn crying imediately into laughter with it!

islandbaby · 08/09/2011 02:35

The sneeze thing works with my DS too :)

happygilmore · 08/09/2011 07:54

Can't take the credit, like I say I saw it on here. DD thinks it is hilarious!

emmyloo2 · 08/09/2011 08:04

I think my DS first started to laugh around 12-13 weeks...however it was very sporadic.

Even now he laughs but still sometimes hard to extract it from him. He sometimes does this laugh which sounds more like a wheeze then a laugh.

And the sneeze thing might backfire! If we sneeze, our DS sometimes burst into tears as if he is terrified. Coughing he finds funny though. Go figure!

But a real cackle is the best sound in the world! When I first heard my son laugh it made all the crap of new motherhood worthwhile. I almost cried.

naturalbaby · 08/09/2011 09:39

i just give my baby a good tickle under the arms! he's 7months.

lonesomeBiscuit · 08/09/2011 22:16

I wouldn't worry. I wondered this too. The fake sneeze (which I also read on here) never worked for us.

My DS (just turned 10 months) only started doing a proper laugh a couple of weeks ago. Before that, from quite early on, he'd do a huge wide-open grin, but the only noise was a very occasional pterodactyl-like squawk, if he was really delighted. He now has a wonderful little chuckle. So long as he's happy and delighting in the world, I guess the noise is less important.

southeastastra · 08/09/2011 22:16

about 23

Original poster

MummyBuzz · 09/09/2011 18:29

This is all reassuring, thank you. I've tried the fake sneezing to no avail but she continues to be a happy, grinning little monkey so I'm happy that she's happy. I second what you say 'lonesomeBiscuit', the noise is less important I than I thought.

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