11-week-old who rarely smiles and never giggles

[RebeccaJames]

Hello all. My DS2 is a very different baby to DS1 and that is already apparent. Once DS1 smiled (5 weeks) he was on full beam most of the time. dS2 smiled at 6 weeks but it's really only once a day. Literally a half-smile once a day.

Does this mean anything? I am not panicking about it but I am a bit sad about it. Also, someone told me that their baby I similar age giggles... That's not happened even once with DS2.

Opinions?!

11 weeks is still so early! And each baby is different. I really wouldn't worry. Maybe if your baby wasn't smiling and giggling by 6 months but this early? Doesn't ring any alarm bells for me.

Hi, don't be sad. My DD didn't smile regularly (and NEVER at anyone but me and her father) until she was 4+ months. It got quite embarrassing, actually, because friends and strangers were always trying to make her smile and she never would. Since 4 months (now just 1) she's absolutely charming, and smiles and laughs all the time. I just figured she was a thinker, like her dad, and now she's a smiler, like me!

Honestly, don't even think about it. My DD didn't smile until she was at least 5 months corrected (8 months actual, preemie) and I don't think she giggled until she was past 1. I kept panicking about it, now she is 2 she never stops laughing!!

My DD was the most frowns, solumn little think until about 12 weeks, despite having smiled first at about 4 weeks. She hardly ever smiled and certainly never giggled. Then at around 12 weeks she completely changed and since then (she's one this month) she's the jolliest, most cheery baby I know. Give it time and see if he changes.

Aw bless you. They are all so different, he probably just has a more reserved personality !

My ds is a very serious little soul. Some strangers make him smile, others make him frown, I like to think he has inherited my knack of taking to people .. Or not lol

He is 7 months now and smiles and laughs at the people he loves when they do something that he finds funny ... He is by no means what I would call a smiley baby even now. But he is interested in stuff, laughs like a trooper when he finds something funny and in lots of ways that feels much more rewarding to me.

He is still very small ... And not all grown ups like to laugh and smile all the time, no matter how happy they are inside.

I will try not to worry. I think when you are exhausted and your baby hardly ever smiles it is easy to think he isn't happy, or -in the middle of the night! - that he doesn't like you !

I would bet nearly every mum has felt like that, I remember handing colicky DD to DP after having been alone with her for 14 hours and her immediately stopping crying. I was sure she didn't like me!

My DS was a wee ball of fury from birth onwards - he smiled occasionally from 6weeks, but didn't giggle until about 5 months.

He is 4.5 now, and whilst he is still frequently furious, he is even more frequently giggling and grinning from ear to ear, and his teachers think he's great. Some kids just don't find the world as funny as others :o

DD was like this! Until many many months old. She's fine, now 12, very clever even, just a very frowny baby. We laugh about how sober & staring she was as a little one. Only her toddler brother could ever make her laugh.

I'm sure it is completely normal, but just to add my experience, dd didn't smile much or giggle until she was diagnosed with cows milk allergy and bad reflux and was put on the right milk and medication. She didn't scream like most reflux babies but just didn't smile and seemed so serious. She also stops smiling all together when she is teething or under the weather.

Is there anything else that concerns you at all? With dd there were many other problems so if this is the only thing I'm sure it's normal.

I completely understand how it makes you feel though because I constantly felt like she was unhappy and didn't like me and it made me really upset.