10 month old not even babbling

[Brightongirllovesgin]

i have a beautiful healthy DS who will be 11 months next week. He's been crawling and cruising for months, smiles at everyone, recognises his name, drinks from a cup - all the usual milestones covered...all except babbling or making any distinguishable sounds. All he does is blow raspberries and say "mmmmmm". My daughter was so different to this and I'm wondering if there is something wrong or if he is just too busy being physical to focus on talking. It's giving me sleepless nights as I feel responsible. When he was 4 months old ( and already pulling himself to standing) he stood up heldmy hands and then let go, falling back onto a plastic changing surface. I keep thinking this may have caused something, even though he has obviously progressed greatly since then.. Am I being over paranoid?

Yes you are being over paranoid! There's a reason babies have such hard skulls [ouch]. The thump onto some sort of hard surface is the 4 month classic - ds rolled off a high bed while i was watching the Olympics [guilt].

Now, the babbling. the raspberries and sound making are a good sign, but it would be worth getting his hearing checked? In the meantime, IMO just make sure you raspberry/mmm back at him when he does it.

I'll get in touch with HV today to book in for hearing appt, though he seems very responsive and alert in this area. He responds to any sounds nearby immediately

I would also double check his ears, just to be on the safe side. My now 2.6 year old didn't speak much at that age either but it was just that he had nothing to say! Can barely shut him up now!!

See, my 10mo dd babbles a lot, but has only just started dragging herself around. They're all different and there's always sth to worry about, it seems. I reckon she's just inherited my talk a lot and avoid exercise genes .

The fact that he is blowing raspberries and making 'mmm' sounds is great, ds sees a speech and language therapist because he is delayed in all areas, and she recommends playing with their lips, looking and pointing to simple pictures in books, lots of singing and makaton (baby signing). He really does sound as though he is doing fine though.

Thankyou I think I've got to get over the fact that I let him bump his head at such an early age and stop connecting it with any "problems" he may have. He was clapping at 6 months but stopped that by 8m and he was so noisy for a while but the past 2 m he's been so silent - in my paranoid state that means he's going backwards.. He's a dreadful sleeper and I'm getting about 4 hrs a night which isn't helping.

I also meant to say this morning, I actually dropped my son when he was 3 weeks and he cracked his skull. So yours falling backwards at 4 months is nothing!

Also, I have heard that having an older sibling can delay speech as the older one speaks for them. No idea if that's true, though!

DS fell off the bed about the same age, maybe a bit older. Seriously, they pretty much bounce for the first couple of years - good job considering the amount of mischief they get up to.

I spoke to the HV about something similar at about 8/9 months i recall because DS wasn't babbling consonants, only vowels. She asked me if he knew how to get my attention (which he did, by screeching) and told me it's only really a concern if a baby is not babbling at all by 12 months. DS is beginning to get some recognisable words out now at 14 months - 'mumum', 'dadad', 'nonono' (his current favourite) and 'wah dah?' (what's that?) and 'ta'. Yesterday i could have sworn he said 'hiya day-ee' (to our cat Daisy) but at that age it's anyone's guess still really.

Could it be teething? I read that babble can often reduce if teething is happening. The excess saliva, pain etc.

As other posters said, see the HV just to relax yourself and book in a hearing test.