8 weeks old - how consistently should baby smile when you’re talking to them?

[cherryjam09]

We started to get flickers of smiles at six weeks or so, and then over the last two weeks we will get some proper smiles. However in terms of frequency it might just be one or two times a day.

Are babies supposed to smile every time you talk to them at this point? By eight weeks should we be getting smiles throughout the day?

At what age did your baby smile every time you talked to them?

Not very consistently. Babies are not robots and each one is different. 🙂

DD2 is same age and smiling exactly as you describe. I can’t remember when DD1 started smiling more often, but I’m sure it will come in time with DD2 and with your baby.

Your baby may be tired, hungry or settled and you moved them. They don't have to smile. So long as they can hear you and you're getting eye contact, it all sounds fine.

Please don't obsess over little things like this, you will truly ruin your parenting experience, the vast majority of children develop perfectly in their own good time and you can lose a lot of time and mental wellbeing fixating on perfectly normal things. Baby's smile when they smile just like older people often following the release of gas at that age.

Thanks all, I’m not worried because he is doing it, it’s just hard to elicit from the milestone guidelines if this is something that should be happening at every interaction or if just one or twice a day is enough/okay at this stage.

It's definitely not a should. It's very different from child to child. Developmental stages don't work like that - they're a broad generalisation.

As pp said, try to relax. 🙂

How often do you genuinely smile at people? Certainly not at every single interaction with them.

This ^

But first smiles are adorable 🥰 If you would like to encourage your baby to smile, make sure you are smiling when you interact with them so they respond by copying you. We don’t always smile naturally when we talk. Just to clarify, it’s not something you need to do so don’t go around forcing yourself into a rictus grin 😂 but if you want to enjoy some extra smiles, baby is more likely to smile if you are smiling 😁

Those first moments of communicating with your baby really are amazing. You might want to try sticking your tongue out too to see if baby will copy you, for fun.

My daughter didn't smile at all until 17-18 weeks! She didn't have anything to smile about as she just cried any moment she was awake. Once we sorted her reflux and allergies out she started smiling and engaging with the world.

My son was the same as above commenter. Just past 3 months got our first smile and then it was very few and far between until about 5-6 months.
Reflux and Allergy babies have a really hard time though.
Now my sons 2 and the silliest, smiliest boy. But still quick to cry.

Well I have to say, this weekend baby has been the smiliest little boy ever! DH and I are astonished as to how it happened overnight, and wondering if it will continue?! It’s been lovely 🥰

Try not to worry about the frequency. I think all babies are different. My first would only smile at me if I made an absolute dick out of myself (he made me work hard!), but my second was a bit freer with smiles (or just found my face funnier?). Both got more and more smiley as they got a bit older and by the time they were toddlers, I'd say they were both pretty much the same in terms of how smiley they were.