10 month old doesn't laugh

[Matchateadoughnutplease]

Hi
Just wanting other people's experiences, worrying whether my baby is showing signs of autism.
She's now 10 months old and has never laughed! She's generally a content baby and always has been. She smiled at 6 weeks and has continued to do so, however recently I've been noticing that she doesn't smile at strangers if they interact with her and other babies of her age do.
She's met the following milestones
Crawling and pulling up at 8 months
Clapping 9 months
She's starting to wave now 10 months
When she's on the floor she'll crawl to me and climb up my legs
She lifts her arms when I gesture to pick her up
She stands holding on to the sofa with one hand
She tries to share food with me
She's starting to look where I'm pointing to
She's babbling and making mumumu and dadada sounds

Am I worrying too much? I've read things that have said that babies should be laughing at 4-5 months and by this age giggling away! She seems quite serious when out and about especially.

Thanks

I know some places advise not tickling but if you do, does she giggle?

Have you mentioned it to your HV? It may be totally normal for it to take a while longer, but they can advise you if it’s something to have a think about. It sounds like she has lots of lovely social behaviours, so while she is a bit late to laugh it doesn’t sound too worrying as a stand-alone thing.

This sounds silly, but have you shown her how? My baby laughs most when you laugh at him, like you’re modelling it for him. If you haven’t already, you could try bouncing her on your lap and laughing to see if she copies you.

I couldn’t specifically say DC2 didn’t laugh at all when he was a baby but he certainly wasn’t giggly and I think would respond to a tickle with a smile or a ‘heh’ rather than a proper laugh (DC1 on the other hand was much more giggly).

DC2 is now a very happy 4 year old with a sunny disposition (DC1 takes everything rather more seriously!)

@FTEngineerM I have tried, she kind of looks at me with a smile like - what are you doing mum?
I blow raspberries on her tummy and that gets squeaks and squeals of delight but not laughter.

@CloudFormations we've tried laughing loads, I commented to my partner that maybe we don't laugh enough around her. So we try! I will mention to the health visitor but I don't have a lot of trust as they gave me some poor advice in the early days about breastfeeding.

Also meant to say that if we present laugh she sometimes does little coughs back. She finds it amusing coughing

I definitely think you should get it checked out but it might not be a sign of autism. DN was a premie and laughing takes a lot of muscle strength so he never did it (or sit up from his back) until he was much older - I seem to remember 2ish. But he did interact loads, asked questions (even if he just used babble with a questioning tone) and would look where you pointed.

@BobBobBobbin thank you, this is reassuring to me. Did problem comment that DC was serious at all?

He was quite smiley I think, though he did have a bit of a ‘resting bitch face’ so he did have nickname connected to him being grumpy.

I’ve just looked back at pics of him aged 10 months - plenty of him smiling, one video of him when I was belaying peekaboo and he was clearly amused (smiling, engaged) but just went “huh huh”, not laughing. I know that had at the same age DC1 had a proper infectious giggle.

@BobBobBobbin thanks. Yeah there are plenty of pics of DS smiling too. People always say she looks happy but I suppose I share the smiling pics!
Not sure if lockdown might have played a part too.
Hoping it's just this.
Do you remember when he started laughing?

Any more comments and persons stories would be greatly appreciated, stressing out a bit

Ime babies laugh at really random things

I remember ds' first laugh. I dropped a pair of socks down the stairs to his sibling because we were going out so I wanted them to put socks on. Cue hysterical laughter which continued while his sibling and I decided to play catch with the socks for a while. No idea why it was so funny but the laughter stopped when we offered the socks to him to see if he fancied throwing them.

@RedGoldAndGreene, yeah nothing like this has happened with my LO

@Matchateadoughnutplease how is your baby now

My daughter has never ever (ever!) smiled at a stranger and she's a very chatty lovely 3 year old. She's got a slow to warm up temperament. I wouldn't worry.

hi any update on your baby my girl isn’t laughing smiling but isn’t laughing now

Update
She's now 3 years old and doing fantastically. She did start laughing one day at a ball, I think it was about 11 months! And she didn't laugh all the time after that. She's not laugh a minute but is very funny and has lots of fun. She's joyful and wonderful. She's cautious, observant and loves to work others out. I hope this puts other minds at ease.