Baby has stopped clapping and waving?

[LisaSimpsonsbff]

This is one of those things where I can't work out if I'm being a paranoid mother of a PFB, or whether it really is a concern - please be gentle if I'm being silly! Today DH and I were having a conversation about how, while he seems to have met all his physical milestones so far on time, DS (v nearly 10 months) seems a little behind all the other babies we know with communication. We were just saying it in a kind of 'ah, guess he's more into moving' way, it wasn't a concern. But then DH mentioned that DS does wave and clap - but I realised that I don't think he has in weeks, and when I asked DH he hadn't seen him do it either. I've tried on and off this evening to get him to wave or clap with no response. Is this normal? Or should we be concerned that he seems to have lost these skills?

I wouldn't be overly worried my little one went in stages of doing things then stopping etc if your worried speak to your Hv I'm guessing your 1 year check up will be coming up soon :)

At this age I wouldn't worry - it's still early, some babies aren't doing these things at all yet. He's probably just busy working on another skill!

I think if you are worried speak to your HV. I do remember, however, DS rolling over at 4mo - it was a weekend morning as DH was home, we filmed it (thank goodness!), felt so proud....I swear to god, he never did it again! It was so frustrating! But he was fine - now running around / climbing/ jumping like crazy at nearly 2yo so all is well!

Thanks all. I guess I should speak to a health visitor but I don't much rate our local system - you don't have a designated one, it's a pool, and the only contact I've had since the 6 week check is a couple of 'do you know how to plot the graph?' questions at weigh-in. People with slightly older DCs haven't been much impressed with the 1 year check - it's not done by a qualified health visitor, just someone on the 'healthy family team' and it's very tick-boxy, apparently. Is taking him to the GP instead an option, or will they just tell me to see the health visitor?

I would give it a bit longer before making appointments. My DC would practise a new skill for a while and then not for ages when they moved onto the next one. They often also had big leaps forward in development just around the time I was starting to worry, e.g. starting to speak all of a sudden when I thought they might be getting behind.

I've found with my dd that when shes working on a new skill, she tends to not do much of what she has already learned. For example, when she was getting ready to walk, she didn't talk or babble as much but once she mastered it then she went back to being a noise machine

I wouldn't be worried yet when my dd same age as yours is learning a new skill she seems to concentrate on that and then pick up the previous skills.

Always see HV or GP if concerned, but for what it's worth, mine seems to do the same. It's like right, I've mastered that now, tuck it away and get on with the next thing. And then the original thing comes back out of nowhere.

Thank you all - this is helpful and reassuring! I think I'll just hang on for the 1 year check (which will be at 11 months) and see how things are then, in particular with babbling and other communication. I don't think it seems necessary to dash off to the GP tomorrow as I initially thought when I wrote this post, for thanks for calming me down!

Hi, just read this posted. My son us 18 months and seems to have stopped doing things he has previously done. E.g. clapping, waving, joining in with actions of songs. He has only very recently started walking. Could it be he is just solely concentrating on that and that's why previous milestones have stopped. He only really babbles and doesn't really speak yet. He is my first baby and like the original post I don't know if I'm being completely paranoid.... thanks in advance. X

Hey I am steering same behavior with my 16 month son. He used to clap point at things when asked by 11 months .. he started walking on his first birthday... he don’t do much eye contact when keep calling ...he jus babble Manama dada... jus wanted to check what’s ssup with your son did he started picking up clap or eye contact .. am really worried looking for your response

Hi how’s your little one doing ? X