My baby isn't laughing at 5 months

[Negina90]

My baby turned 5 months yesterday and I'm a bit concerned she hasn't giggled yet. She smiles a lot and does a little squeal when she gets excited, but when she goes to inhale with what I think will be a laugh, its silent with a large smile.

Has anyone ever experienced this? She is verbal and makes sounds but definitely not close to a laugh.

She does have silent reflux and sometimes she coughs when she inhales which I think stops her from laughing or making sounds but that could just be in over analysing everything she does!

TIA

My theory is that some babies just aren't as giggly as others... my first two babies were quite giggly, but we have to work really hard to make my third baby giggle, despite her being the most happy and content overall! I think she first giggled properly around 6 months old (she's now 8 months old). She only giggles if she's tickled or if her brothers are being particularly silly/amusing (adults just aren't that amusing to her... 🤷‍♀️🤣).

My five month old belly laughed nonstop for an evening a few weeks ago. Since then, not even a hint that she knows how to laugh. She’s clearly amused by us but apparently we are not laugh material despite doing the same bit that made her laugh uproariously before. Babies are odd creatures, I wouldn’t stress it yet.

My DS has had an odd sense of humour since a baby. Scary things made him laugh. So I managed to make him laugh once at 5ish months by accidentally going quickly and very close to him while he was on the play mat and he found it funny. Then he didn’t laugh for 2-3 weeks after that. His main first laugh though was at 6 months old- again it was a scary thing- it was DHs birthday so my mum had bought him a baloon. I tied it to Ds’ playmat and started moving it around, and tugging on it. It came very close to his face quite quickly and he had a belly laugh. So I kept doing that for a few days and it was the funniest thing in the world to him.

So we could then make him laugh by surprising him and jumping infront of him out of nowhere, he had a moment of surprise and then just laughter. To me it sounds scary but he loved it.

He is now 21 months old and he laughs quite a bit, mostly if we are running after him (again surely that’s scary) or if we try to tickle him.

Yes agree with this. It's about intensity of personality I think.

Our DC1 cried most of the time, was a very unsettled baby, and at 6 is a very emotional personality still. However did learn to laugh quite early and had frequent hysterical fits of giggles too in between the many many hours of screaming. Still laughs a lot but still cries a lot too.

DC2 a much more settled baby, didn't cry anywhere near as much, smiled much more - hardly ever laughed and when they did, it was almost always due to DC1! And at 3 is still like this, very smiley child but very rarely laughs and it's usually when playing with DC1.

Have you tried singing baby got back……old friends quote I will see myself to the door

blow up a bloon n let it go...

my eldest didn’t laugh for a good year, and I figured it was her personality as she is a very serious toddler now! My youngest laughed from very young as a baby and is a very giggly toddler now, so in our case it was down to personality, if you’re worried though you could ask health visitor?

DD1 was a right sour puss 🤣
It took so much effort to get her to smile or giggle as a baby when I had friends with babies who seemed to chuckle away constantly.
She was a very giggly toddler though and is now a healthy happy 4.5 year old.