He won't say mum

[Hesfamousforit]

I have a 13m old. Been talking and practicing words from 10m, has quite a few words now but one thing I cannot get lo to say is mum mumma mummy mumumum I have also noticed lo can say daddy but chooses to use daddy's actual name which lo can also say. Has started to say a few names. But never mum. What is going on here?? My others would say mum mummy etc.
(The words are not perfect but we can understand)

My early crystal clear talker that was saying short sentences by her first birthday and had LOADS of words...

Mummy and Daddy suddenly appeared at 14 months.

I do wonder if she used to practice in her sleep!

I'm not worried about speech but I feel it's a choice not to say mum. It's strange

First baby?

Its not a choice, its just rambling through words they know and playing with sounds and starting to associate them as labels.

By the time you get to #4 you will be begging them to say less

Sorry op bit your lo cannot play mind games with you
It's strange youre trying to make it sound like they are doing something wrong.

He will call you mum just wait and see

Presumably he hears you say things like daddy will be home soon, etc. And daddy is at work so he doesn't hear "where's mummy" in the same way or with the same frequency.

DH still calls his mother Joan. Has never called her mum. He's 60! It's a bit odd I grant you but she was, shall we say a little modern and aligned with Greenham Common.

I haven't made out he's doing something wrong @Horehound. He's done nothing wrong what so ever so I don't know how you got that impression from my posts.

Thank you for the other responses. I just find it all very interesting.

I feel your pain - DD said 'dada' at about 15 months, but didn't say 'mama' until 22 months - incidentally after I'd been away for the day for a family funeral, so perhaps when she'd clicked that I wasn't always there.

I think your projecting your insecurities with your dad on to your LO. He loves you if he doesn't say mum yet remember her 13 months old. Perhaps counselling might be an option if it really is upsetting you

The title of your thread is "he won't say mum" and the rest of your posts all point to the fact you think he is actively choosing not to say the word and if he is doing that then it's weird/strange/wrong to you.
He isn't, babies just don't think like that.
I honestly wouldn't worry or overthink it

One of my children was the same. Not saying 'mama' or any equivalent until well past 18 months, despite being an early talker and calling others by name. But he was always with me and was very much a 'mummy's boy'. I reached a very similar conclusion to a PP.... He just didn't need to say my name. I was always there, an extension of himself. He didn't need to get my attention as he always had it! He didn't need a word for me any more than he needed to name himself!

At the end of the day I know my own baby and I can make the judgements you can't because you've never met him and no idea what he's like. If his nana says to him dance then he will start shaking his booty dancing. If I say to him dance he will just ignore me like he doesn't know what I'm talking about. He's more than capable of choosing what words he says. Whether that is calling all animals a cat or all men dad(for example) Babies are aware they are using words for their purpose. Of course they will babble and develop speech but that is not what I'm talking about.
And to clarify I have no problem with the way my child is developing. I am interested and wanted to talk.

@Somethingsnappy I can understand this as my lo is also mummy's boy

I wouldn't worry. I'm still waiting to get mama or mummy at 22 months while dada and daddy have been in the vocabulary for flipping months and her vocab range is expanding by the day. I know I'll look back on these days wistfully after hearing mummy for the nth time that hour, but I still want to hear it just once.

I'm referred to as: daddy (as well), bebe or boobie. Don't know who taught her that last one, but it wasn't me.

[quote ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba]@SinkGirl

sorry, but you're incorrect. m is the easiest consonant to make actually. ( I studied speech development)

@Hesfamousforit

a lot of babies don't say "mama" as their first words because if the mother is the primary carer (ie with them most of the time) they don't see you as a separate person but an extension of themselves.
you are like an extra limb and nobody names their limbs!🤣

don't worry, at this age this is normal.
they will grow out of it.

most of mine said daddy/dad as their first word and used other words before they said mummy/mum.
it's perfectly normal[/quote]
Sink girl is right though. You might need to read up on speech development a bit more Zing vowels come first in normal speech development, hence lots of the babbling sounds babies make are largely vowels with the odd phoneme thrown in for good measure.
Nasal bilabial sounds take longer to develop than other plosives.
So at 13 months not having the /m/ sound is perfectly normal.

So chill out and don't take it personally OP, his articulators (tongue, lips teeth etc) just haven't got there yet! And it's perfectly normal.

She is taking it personally but we aren't allowed to say that because she gets upset
Sounds like she has issues to me.

This thread is absolute madness. Please don't project your insecurities onto your children.

My 11m old calls me bab! No problem with dad/dadda. Think the mmm sound is one of the trickier ones to form. Hoping bab doesn't stick 😅

My DS said daddy for ages. He could say penguin but couldn't say mammy! He started at about 18 months I think

My DD says dadada a lot more than mama (at the minute). Even in the night when crying, or holding her arms out. To put it into context I’m a single mum, she’s never met her dad as it’s been NC since early pregnancy, and there is no “father figure” as such. At this age they dont do things intentionally.