when do babies normally start saying mama and dada?

[Ouisie]

just wondering - my dd is 91/2 mths and still just "sings" ie. makes lots of vowel sounds but no consonants

that sounds about right, Ouisie. Mine is 9 mths and sings all the time, I think I can hear mamamamam but I may be listening too hard.
IME the singing is a great sign

Mine started with hello at 10m, then with mama, followed by the names of the dogs, no dada yet at 15m but I believe it is because the confussion between three languages, sometimes is Da, others is DADAy but no papa, dada, or dady yet.

Chandra 'they' always say that multilingual kids are three months behind the single language kids in speech.
My DS1 certainly was

Dd started saying 'dada' around 10 months but mama didn't come until sometime over 1.

Chandra, from my experience with lots of multi lingual friends with kids, although it may take a bit longer initially for them to start using a wide vocabulary, in the long term it's hugely beneficial. I dearly wish dp and I had another language to pass onto dd.

About oneish is fairly usual I think.

Maybe just my kids, but there's a difference between making "mamamammama", "dadadadadada...", sounds and making them meaningfully -- meaning 'mummy' & 'daddy'.

I suppose my kids made the sounds by 1yo, but they didn't use them to refer to us parents until nearly 2yo.

I'm with zebra here - all started noises like that before they were one, but with 16 month old twins definitely no association with us yet (although they are using other words), and with DS1 daddy came at about 20 months, mummy nearer 2 years.

First sounds were probably mumumumumum and dadadadadadada, and in the case of one uggghhhhh - which is still much in use at 16 months

ouisie - ds is 10 months and also doesn't say any consonants. Like suzywong, I think I hear mamamam, but I also think I am listening too hard.
HV told me it is too early to start worrying about speech
I would GUESS that the range for saying mama and dada is anywhere from 5 month to 24 months!!!! - They are all SO different

I wouldn't worry too much. The sluglet could say 'cheese' 'yog' 'choc choc' 'apple' and 'brie' before mum ever came out of her little mouth. Says something about her prioities I think

Dada came quite early for my DD (now 22months), at around 7.5 months. Mama was muccccccccch later (I got v paranoid and posted a thread on here), at around 13 months.

My dd says dada, gangan (grandad), gan (gran) but does not say mummy AT ALL . She is 19 months and on thin ice the little monkey, who carried her for 9 months eh?? eh???

my DS1 had what I called mummy blindness. He would name eveyone else in a photo, or if he couldn't name them he would point to them. If asked where's mummy he would look completely blank. Made me feel very strange for a while.

By 2 he was definitely using the word - I sometimes long for the days when he didn't

hmm my dd started with tea...
ds started with purple... dd at about 10 mths. ds much earlier (little smartass).
mama and dada became properly fixed to the rght person after her 1st birthdya, before then everything was either a mama or a dada, except for tea obviously.
now she has tons of words at 19mths, I understand most... I think...
my friends dd is same age as my dd is and bi lingual (swedish/englsih) and she still only says ball! no mama or dada yet!

ds (6 months) says bababa (when happy) and mamama (when getting impatient). I don' really remember my older ones babbling like this at all and dd1 was certainly not an early talker - don't think she said 'mama' until she was 18 months at least, now she is 4 and chats away confidently in English and German depending on whom she is talking to.

my twins did that - mamamamam is the were unhappy and dadadadada if they were happy - I think they got the words mixed up

I think my daughetr said dada at about 10 montsh - and she'd never met him

Ds uses Da to refer to both of us - but usually when confronted with a friendly stranger. He will point to us and say "Da", so it could very well mean "there" as in "that there is who I belong with thank you very much". Says "hello daddy" a lot, especially on the phone. DP said tonight "how does he know it's me on the phone?" Because we have a very sad existence and we're the only people who ever phone us!

Only ever says "mumumumum" as a tired unhappy sound.

My theory is that in evolutionary terms mummy is going to stick around whatever you do, whereas you need to work at it to stop daddy going off to spread his seed with a new mummy after a hard day's hunting and gathering!

Thanks everyone - I didn't know whether to start worrying or not (not that I need an excuse).....you've got a point fisil about why they say dada first!

DD has just started saying hhhaaaaa! and putting up her hand when someone comes into the room - she sounds like a little kungfu kid.

Oh, Ouisie, my dd used to do exactly the same, raise her hand up, palm facing out like a still wave and say 'haaa -aa' we thought it was to do with her saying something was hot as she'd often do it towards the radiator but perhaps it's also a rudimentary first kind of 'hello'. Dd then went on to say a rather sweet 'hee-loowww' and now says a kind of cheeky 'ello!

I also wonder when mispronounciations become the real words. Because now at 20 months dd can say all sorts fo things and little sentences even but she still calls a dog a dice which was her first word. Maybe the first ones sort of stick.