Late babbler

[Babadoo]

Hi,

My niece turns 1 at the end of May and as of yet doesn't babble. I've heard her say "Ma-ma-ma" when crying, but doesn't at any other time. My son, who's now nearly 2, I'm sure was babbling away and saying Mama, Dada, Baba and Gaga by 8 months. She responds to her name when called and she can't see you, so she doesn't have a hearing problem. She is cruising around holding onto furniture, so is developing physically well. She's very sociable and smiles constantly. Her mother still feeds her jars of baby food for 4-6 month olds, which we have all told her is nutritionally inappropriate and doesn't help with the whole chewing-talking development aspect. They also watch a lot of TV (both CBeebies and Adult). My niece will also be trying to understand 2 languages. Can anyone offer any advice?

My son still has jars of food for 4-6 month olds and he is one. He has trouble with lumps still sometimes so unless I give him pureed food he will just vomit it all up.
Why is it nutritionally innapropriate?

badadoo -I understand your concerns - but it's very hard to do anything in this situation, because you don't really have proof that there is a problem.

all you can do is gently suggest to her mother that maybe your niece should be babbling more - and ask what the HV has said - but it's very hard to do that without appearing as if you're sticking your nose in. and the mother may get very defensive if you do this.

My dd was a late babbler and didn't say mama / dada until over a year. Now she's 2 her speech is excellent and she has caught up. Not sure about the jar situation as she was eating proper food at that age (but I have heard there is a connection between poor speech and lack of chewing)

Did she have a developmental check at 8-10 months? That's one of the the things they look at. My dd never babbled at all. She had a speech delay, but now at 3 is talking well and is 'within normal limits' apparently.

And she never had purees at all - finger food from 6 months.

My ds was a late talker, and I put a lot of it down to the fact that his teeth didn't start coming through until 16.5 months. Because of that, he was always way behind others with his food and really couldn't manage lumpy or hard stuff until much later than most.

We eventually went for speech therapy (once he was talking - typical!) and the consultant confirmed this. She said that chewing made a big difference and because he hadn't done so much of it as others, then that was why his jaw and tongue muscles weren't so well developed for speech.

He's now up there with his peers in terms of speech (just a couple of things he mis-pronounces, but that's common) and he really started catching up quickly at around 2.6 (he's 3.5 now).

ds2 has mild speech delay and is only now beginning to babble at 2.

If you spoke to me like that about what fod i was feeding mychild i would think you rude tbh.

Also with having dual language input, that often delays normal speech development by a few months, but will have loads of benefits when she is older.
Both mine were several months behind their peers with their speech because they understand/speak 2 languages

My older two didn't babble at all. I could hold conversations with dd at 2, and ds didn't say his first word until he was 3. I really don't think the food is anything to do with it, and it might not be ideal but it isn't going to do her any harm.

If she is learning two languages, her speech might be slightly later to come too. My 2yo dts are hopefully becomign bilingual, and with being twins as well, are slightly delayed. I think at this age I think it is a bit early to worry.

I think you might have misunderstood the link between chewing and speech development. It's not that a child can't speak because they aren't used to chewing lumpy food. It's usually that being unable to use their mouth properly (for whatever reason) means that they can't chew lumps, talk etc.

19 month old DD has three languages she is currently sorting through. She has been saying 'baba' ('daddy' in Turkish), 'mama' ('maman' = 'mother' in French), and 'boumboo' for 'balik' ('fish' in Turkish). She recently started saying 'bubble', 'Bob' (the Builder), and 'dede' ('grandfather' in Turkish). And that is her entire vocabulary for now.

I am not worried, as I know that children who start with multiple languages start speaking later. We live in the southeastern corner of France, 15 min from Italy, and almost all the kids I see live in multilanguage environments. None of them were saying anything that I heard by the time they were 12 months.

When I had talked to her pediatrician about this, she had said "It's OK as long as she says ONE word".

Does your niece understand both languages? When you tell her simple things like "Give me the bottle", "take this to daddy", etc does she do them?

I never fed DD the jars but I think the earlier ones don't have any meat or fish in them. If that is right, it might be a good idea to tell her mother it is time to give little one some chicken, fish, red meat, etc. It's OK if she mixes them into a puree at first, but they are nutritionally very important.

I'm quite surprised that you are concerned to be honest.

My son is also 11 months. He is ahead of his peers speech wise (behind on other things!). He only says "Mama" when distressed. Dada sometimes has meaning but is mostly a general babble. He has one definite word (duck) - none of his friends do yet. He was late-ish becoming mobile. All his peers who are advanced being mobile babble a lot less. Some are only just starting to babble. Some are ok with lumpy food, some throw the whole lot back up. It's very very early days and babies all develop at different rates. Just because your DS was babbling lots of different sounds at 8 months doesn't mean there is anything wrong with your niece's development at all, it sounds perfectly within the normal range to me.

I understand she is your neice and therefore you care for her well-being and are concerned but I really think she sounds like a normal happy healthy 11 month old.

Thank you for all your responses.

I meant the jars were nutritionally inappropriate because she's only on the vegetable ones, not the meat or fish ones, so I was worried about the lack of protein.

I've just spent the weekend saying Baba and Dada etc to her and occasionally she'll let out a horn-sounding Da or Ba. I have noticed that her older brother, who is 2 and a half, hardly speaks as well, but is very naughty!

You're all right though, I shouldn't interfere and I have now taken a back seat.

PS I found the naughty older brother tied at the hands to the bed with a woollen cardigan belt this weekend for hitting his Grandmother. I didn't say anything (taking a back seat n' all) but what do people think of this?