8.5 months and not babbling - am I a paranoid first time mother?

[CL4DB]

I feel that I only post when my DD is worrying me but I am now pretty worried about her lack of sounds. She has just recovered from a bad stomach bug that really took it out of her. However I have noticed that now she is nearly 9 months that she is very quiet and doesn't really babble very much - all the books say she should be babbling, saying mama and dada and copying sounds. I have heard her say m words in the past, and a goo but not for a while and I am concerned that she doesn't copy me at all if I do sounds. She shows no interest at present in making any sound apart from the odd sound from her throat.

When she lies in her cot on her own she always has her thumb in her mouth (since her illness - which has been preceded by 4 other colds/fevers etc - she has her thumb in all the time) so doesn't babble then at all.

Am I being anxious - as she is a long way off from making words and repeating sounds? Developmentally she can sit, stand supported and walks supported (no crawling or rolling).

thanks for any advice

Ask for a referral to audiology (baby hearing test). She may have developed glue ear from all those colds.

Sounds normal to me. My friend's baby only started babbling and copying sounds at about 11 months. He's 16 months now and you can't shut him up! He has lots of words now and is very clever.

My ds is nearly 8 months and has only just started saying mama and baba, still no dada (much to dh's disgust!)

If you're worried then talk to your health visitor but it doesn't sound abnormal to me.

Worth checking hearing if she's had lots of colds, but my DS never babbled, he just started on words at about 1.

Does she respond to sounds? One thing they do at development checks is have one person holding them, while another sneaks up behind them and makes an interesting noise (not loud or anything, just a quiet rattly noise which you'd expect a baby that age to turn round and pay attention to). That might let you know if she's not hearing right after the colds.

hi
thanks for this. all good advice and very lovely to hear from other people.

i don't think she has a hearing problem although has never been tested. will stop and listen to the phone ringing or to the church bells ringing.

choccypig did you worry at all that your DS was ok? its reassuring to hear that other babies don't babble....

My dd1 didn't babble at all. She was sent for hearing tests (well someone shaking a rattle behind her ..hardly scientific ) but i knew that her hearing was fine.

She just went straight from being mute to talking. She spoke really clearly and with amazing content very early on. We joked that she couldn't be bothered to make a noise until she could hold a full intellectual conversation

Hope this helps somewhat

thanks bns. what age did she start talking? its good to hear your dd was a star!

She said her first words at around 11 months (we were lol) and then was speaking in sentences by the time she was 16/17 months old.

By sentences i mean things like "daddy gone work now?" and "me sit down with you mummy".

Got a great clip of her when she is around 18 months old and i'm asking her to do something. She tells me "nooooo don't want to, my a bit tired now"