How much can a 15 month old understand? Explaining new sibling

[melbourne65]

We have a 13 month old and our new baby is due next month. How can we explain to our baby in the simplest way possible? How much will they understand?

Mummy is growing your little brother / sister in her tummy.
we love you very much and soon the baby will be here to love you too.

And then also maybe a story book about baby brothers or sisters.

Congrats 😁

Just had a quick look on Amazon. My New Baby looks good.

I think that’s too young to understand, or if they do their speech is likely nowhere near the level that it would need to be for them to give you the impression they understand.

I would focus on getting them to understand the concept of gentle. You can practice this with teddies etc.

From here on they’ll grow up with a sibling and just learn when they go.

By all means read some simple books about it to prepare them. Our DS may have been around that age when he got the word baby. If you use signs aswell they could be really useful.

I’m 32 weeks and have a 14 month old. I say baby and point to my stomach. She does it now too. I also say gentle & pat pat pat when she’s maybe being a bit too rough with me😆 don’t think she gets it!

To give you an example my DS is just turning 2 and I’m pregnant with the next one. He understands what a baby is and that there is a baby in mommy’s tummy and one day the baby will be in our house will need lots of cuddles and will drink mommy milk and will talk about these things with us.

At 18 months he could maybe point out a baby in a book, he might have signed milk if he saw a baby drinking. But they develop so much in speech and understanding between 18 and 24 months.

Don’t worry about it though babies/toddlera are adaptable and will understand soon enough once the baby’s here!

We had the book "There's a house inside my mummy" (although we had to make up our own words for the last page as it talks about a little brother and I was having a girl). I don't think they can understand at that age in the sense of you explain it and they think "ah ha!" but they can come to understand through you talking about it over the months, reading stories, talking about other babies you know and babies you see around etc.