8 month old won't respond to his name

[littlebloom]

Hello mums,
I am writing here because I am loosing my sleep over the fact that my DS seems to ignore me calling him. From what I've read this could be an early indicator of autism and I'm freaking out.
He has good eye contact and is very smiley sociable baby.
He will turn towards me if I call him from across the room, but NEVER if I'm behind him.
He babbles and squeels a lot but rarely as a mean of communication with me.
He's not interested in games like peek-a-boo (except if someone else is holding him and I am hiding behind their shoulders, he will try to find me and laugh heartly)
Also he's not interested at all in solids, I have to trick him into eating by distracting him with a toy.
Sometimes when I rock him to sleep he will wiggle his fingers ( stimming?!), and likes to look at his hands when there's nothing better to do.
I really need to hear from mothers who went through this and their baby turned out to be fine. I am quite an anxious person and I really hope it's just my insecurity thinking.
Please help!

Your expectations of his age are unrealistic.
Worry about this when his nearer 18 months not 8!

How mobile is he? A baby would find it much harder to physically move their head so that they could see the person behind them than look at a person across the room.

If you have concerns about hearing then consult your GP but Ashe responds to you from across the room it sounds fine.

Wiggling fingers doesn't sound like stimming. Think about your hand movements. Do you ever stretch them out, wiggle them because they are a little stiff?

If your child turns out to be autistic then it'll be clearer by age 2.

Not playing Peekaboo is definitely not a concern. None of my kids were particularly bothered by it.

It's normal for 8 month olds to squeal just because they can. It's unusual for them to communicate. In the next few months you could see pointing, babbling etc but he's only 8 months. Stop worrying and enjoy him.

This is all totally normal. Watching their hands and wriggling fingers is actually a development stage (it used to be listed as one in my red book)
Even the typical flappy hand motion is considered normal until 2/3yo (my ds did it a lot)

Thank you so much for your responses!
I know that probably I sound crazy with my concerns and I hope from the bottom of my heart that it will turn out to be nothing.
I never thought that anything is wrong with him untill I started googling...I am confused as I read somewhere that responding to name is a 6 months milestone, and most babies do it by 8 months.
Regarding the babbling as a mean of communicating with me, of course I am not unrealistic to expect conversations with him...what I wanted to say is that there's no really back and forth exchanging of sounds, he seems to babble more towards toys than to myself.
I knew that watching hands is a normal thing for them to do, but isn't it for much younger babies? I thought that he would be over it by now.

Re responding to name, This is different from the ability to localise sounds which is what you’re talking about. At six months you’d expect him to respond, but nine months is the average for being able to localise sounds above and below ear level. Also at nine months you would expect a baby to hear but still not be able to localise sounds at the midline. So he can hear you, and knows you’re calling him, but he doesn’t know where to look to find you yet. Pretty cute really :-)

Most people wouldn’t even notice this. You’re just paying way more attention than most of us do to exactly what he can and can’t do. Maybe because of your anxiety? :-)

I have a 7 & a half month old baby. He looks at his hands and flexes them (especially when I'm trying to get him to nap or sleep), he sometimes responds to his name, but other times he doesn't. He babbles and has taken to high pitched babbling lol but he hasn't said mama or dada or anything like that. Up until a couple of weeks ago, he wasn't interested much in solids, but I introduced finger foods as well as spoon foods and he is a lot more interested now. I think it's natural to worry. I also have anxiety and I worry a great deal, but I just keep reminding myself of how little he still is and how much he is trying to learn. I don't know if this helps? Also, Google can be useful but when you have anxiety on any level, it just exacerbates things. X

It's crucial to remember that the root of "autism" is "auto" = "self." The idea originally when autism was named is that autistic children never evolved beyond the baby/toddler stage of being totally self-obsessed.

Many behaviors that would be very abnormal in preschoolers are 100% normal with babies because their selves are their whole world, and they are too wrapped up in their own perspective and feelings to care in the slightest what yours are.

Stimming is a very natural thing for babies to do. Typically, we expect children to grow out of most kinds of stimming by 4 or 5 because it's a social norm that we don't fidget in public and by that age most of us are capable of controlling it for the sake of social conformity.

These just aren't signs of autism yet. Your baby is far too young. A lot of this early awareness stuff has just got a lot of parents worried about their baby's developmentally normal stages and making themselves sick with anxiety over a baby who's doing great.

Hello! Was Wondering How your Little one turned out? My 8mo is exactly the way you desdcribed.

Hi, yes same here @IonelaStefanescu if I say his name loudly he totally ignores it! Nearly 9 months

My DS didn't respond to him name until 12 months. The NHS list it as a 1 year milestone so plenty of time. He's three now and not remotely autistic :)

@Foreverbaffled thanks that’s v reassuring

Just curious @foreverbaffled my baby boy is also 71/2 months and I’m growing so anxious of reading all this over and over. Similar story to the one that lead me hear. We use his name often. Did your just ignore you often and I mean a lot at this age?

@littlebloom did your little guy ever gain this skill? I’m in the same boat as you may have been then and feeling overwhelmed. I’m hopeful you may run across this and remember what it was like seeking out information and you would be so kind to give an update?

@MonRosey

Just curious *@foreverbaffled* my baby boy is also 71/2 months and I’m growing so anxious of reading all this over and over. Similar story to the one that lead me hear. We use his name often. Did your just ignore you often and I mean a lot at this age?

Oh try not to worry. I was in a total anxiety state about my son for the whole of his first year and spent hours researching this very issue (and starting numerous threads on forums about it.)

Anyway evidence shows that name response emerges between 7 and 9 months but won't be close to consistent until a year. It will slowly improve over this period. They also aren't expected to respond when you are sitting right next to them and it's suggested you don't call them more than 10 times a day or they will start tuning you out. I was told all this by some brilliant and experienced posters on the American babycenter board "Worried About Autism". They really know their stuff and it's all evidence based.

At 7.5 months my son didn't know his name. He responded sometimes when I called him but mainly ignored me. When he did turn I expect he was responding to my voice/the noise. I could have said any name on those occasions and he would have looked round. Similarly if I said his name in a funny voice etc he was more likely to respond - again because it was a new noise and nothing to do with him knowing it was his name I was calling. I don't think he remotely knew his name until 9/10 months and then it rapidly improved by 11/12. Not over testing him helped. My son was a very alert little boy who was always looking around/never still so I think that played a part. The world was far too interesting and mummy's voice was boring.

If your baby turns to noises and voices generally then I wouldn't worry. If there is no response by 9/10 months it might be worth checking in with your health visitor to check hearing. Enjoy your little one. I'm sure everything is okay

Well first of all thank you so much for even replying. I honestly have never posted on a thread and about didn’t even think to check because it was a total shit in the dark. Would you mind corresponding in some way outside this. I’m not sure how to, but I’m also not familiar with forums at all. And you sound quite knowledgeable about some things I’m completely unaware of.

@foreverbaffled I replied above. Like I said terrible at this. Idk if you will even see it. :( I didn’t know if I needed to tag you in some way

Hey dear mums,

I found this old thread of mine by accident, and thought it's a good opportunity to give an update.
Looking back I can see how my anxiety affected my thinking, I would give anything to go back and enjoy my little guy while he was a baby, God, time goes so fast.

My boy is four years old now and could not be more typical. He's a bright little man, sociable and loved by his peers and teachers. There's no sign of autism. It's true that he used to ignore me calling as a baby, I don't even remember when he started to improve, because as soon as I stopped obsessing over this, something else was clouding my judgement and I would start spinning again.
This alone is not an indicator of autism, they are so small still, give them time to develop. If at one year of age you see no improvement, look further into this, but until then please enjoy your little ones, it's too soon to presume something at this age.
I had him reviewed, not even professionals could convince me that there was nothing wrong with him.
I was the one that needed help. Stop googling because it will send you spiralling, it did so much damage to me.

He used to be a difficult baby, very demanding, we had problems weaning, he hardly accepted solids and that contributed to my anxiety.

Things got better after 12 months.
My bit of advice is to enjoy your babies while they are so small because it's such a precious time to waste worrying.
If you have any other questions, let me know!

Hey!!!
My son is 8 months now and I couldn’t relate any better!
He responds to his names sometimes only ofcourse it’s getting me worried.
Thing is though, when I call the cat or something like that he turns around and is so attentive actually waiting for the cat to appear 😂😂(like every single time)
My little mans knows the cats name more than his.
Anyway I’ll give it more time and see how it turns out!

I started an identical thread to this when my first DS was 8 months old. He was closer to a year before he properly responded and is a very NT three year old now! Don't worry.

Hello mommies!

I am really stressed thinking about my 8 month old Daughter.
She was doing lot of babbling, giving a lot of social smile specially towards whenever me and my husband used to call her she was straight away looking to us with big smile.But since last 3 weeks she try to avoid looking at us and babbling is rare insted she scream but shes not in pain.
She has stopped smiling to almost everyone including us.
Its only when I sing her favourite song she will look into my eyes and gives little bit of smile for short time. When i call her from distance she will look at me after calling few times. She loves to look at Mirror but now she look for a second turn away her head. Also i would like to mention that she sitting only while supported and shes teething as well
I am having so much anxiety and loosing my sleep thinking about this all time.
Please mums let me know if this is abnormal as i read that its either sign of Autism or something to do with neurological.
Should i contact paediatrician.
Many Thanks

I have an 8,5 month old who also doesn't respond to her name but also doesn't babble at all. I'm soo worried that she has autism.

@Sarah65886888797
Ah me too. Baby girl is 8.5 months. Sometimes answers to her name and sometimes doesn't. She's only now starting to make more sounds in the last week and a few babbling sounds in the last few days but they're few and far between! I understand your worries!

My 7.5 month old stop responding name from last week , he is teething as well , he say aah so loud all the time .. nthing else , need some reviews please ?

@Jikky

Sounds the exact same as Son! He was responding but now teething and just tends to ignore me. I have read that I'm testing his name too much so from tomorrow I'll tone it down a bit and lots say to not stress until 12 months