Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Behaviour/development

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

Flip

Original poster

Smiling babies

6 replies

hostelgirl74 · 26/01/2012 16:19

This sounds silly but can babies start smiling more gradually? My baby aged 7 weeks has just started smiling but rarely seems to do it despite my attempts to entertain him. This coupled with his behaviour (seems irritable alot) makes me wonder if I have just got one with a bit of a grumpy personality. I am probably being completely paranoid but other babies at the group i take him to always look more chilled out and calmer than he is. Please tell me it is all in my head. Will he smile more or is this it?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Timeoutofmind · 26/01/2012 17:02

Yes I found that my DD started smiling more the older she got. At first you really have to earn those smiles but when they get a bit older its great when they start smiling off their own back.

Janoschi · 26/01/2012 17:45

I thought I had a grumpy girl too. She was very late at smiling but now (8 months) she's a giggler.

Stick with it!

StickyGhost · 27/01/2012 00:30

I thought the same with my DS at the same age, you have to work so hard for even half a smile, but he's 13 wks now and is always smiling and laughing, often just to himself. The smiles will start to get more frequent now every week and around 10 wks I think is the breakthrough. It's well worth the wait, those smiles are worth every sleepless night!

matana · 27/01/2012 07:59

Yes, at first they smile gradually because they're learning to control their facial muscles and so can't necessarily do it all the time. Ime they start proper 'social' smiling (i.e. in response to your smiles) around 10 weeks. I remember it in my DS as like a light switching on. Literally one day we had very few smiles and the next he was beaming at us all the time! Fwiw he's the smiliest little boy i know at 14 months and everybody comments on it. He's a very happy, sociable little boy.

Iggly · 27/01/2012 08:02

Yep - DD is 8 weeks and sort of smiles - but it takes a lot to get one and then it's only one at a time. I vaguely remember DS being the same then he smiled all the time as he got a bit older.

My DD also seems pretty grumpy to me - she gets tired quite easily!

Snowboarder · 27/01/2012 11:58

I really worried about my DS because he smiled late and then not very often. He did have terrible reflux though so I can't blame him. He's 10 month now and grown out of the reflux, he won't smile for people he doesn't know but smiles for me all the time. In fact if I'm smiling he can't help himself but smile back, I can also make him laugh by laughing at him - it's lovely.

Flip