3.5 month old stopped babbling.

[Kmxxx14]

My DD is 14 weeks old. She was babbling & seemed to be trying to hold a conversation from very early on. She laughed at 9 weeks old when my OH sneezed and does laugh quite regular.

The thing that worries me is that for the last 3 weeks she has completely stopped babbling. She's very very quiet & hardly makes a noise all day - only when tired or hungry. She still smiles when I speak to her but she makes no attempts at making any noises anymore. Just complete silence. I speak to her and sing as often as possible but still I'm getting nothing back.

Should I be concerned?

If she turns her head towards you when you speak then I wouldn't worry. I bet she is turning her attention to a new "trick" like finding her fingers, rolling... Babbling at 3.5 months sounds very early to me. If I recall correctly the only sounds that my kids made at that age were squeals, yells, burps and farts. Babbling came around the time that they were weaned and their tongues were stronger.

No, don't worry. 3.5 months is very early. She'll be concentrating on something else. Like her toes.

Thanks for the replies. I know I'm probably worrying about nothing but she just seems so quiet for a baby. With my son I remember he was very loud and active from a young age where as with my daughter she seems to just lie there most of the time without making much noise or movement. I know this may be her temperament, maybe she will be quiet but it just concerns me.

She may be working on new skills but I don't know she doesn't seem keen to move around or roll or find her feet. Most of the time when I lay her down to play on the floor she just lies there looking at the ceiling or wall.

I think I may have confused babbling with cooing - she used to coo all the time when spoken to. Now she doesn't. I'm not sure if there's a big difference between babbling and cooing but she used to try to imitate sounds back to me but now she won't.

I think you know your baby and are noticing a difference so it's understandable to be concerned.

Cant imagine there is much to be done though at this early stage other than to monitor what babies 'should' be doing.

Mine are older now so not sure if its still the same but in our red book you could record things like babbling, smiling etc and what age and that would help you monitor her progress?

3.5 months is very young to babble! I would say 6-9 months average. Similarly 5-7 months for finding feet.

Still no cooing and I went to my GP today and she referred her to a specialist.

I'm beside myself with worry. She doesn't turn her head when I shout on her, she scratches surfaces a lot and now no cooing.

I've spent ever waking hour interacting with her for two days. She started screeching today really loudly. I'm happy she's finally making noises but still not cooing so I'm not sure whether this is reassuring or not.

Is Shrieking and screeching a sign of anything bad (autism)?