Advice needed on my friends baby please. Not sure if I should say something.

[makemineaquadruple]

Afternoon everyone.

I've been posting a lot recently about me and dd recently, but today I have a rather different dilema and i'm really not sure what to do.

My best friend has a 5 month old baby girl. Absolutely gorgeous and I think she's probably the reason why i'm so broody. I do have a concern though and my friend has never mentioned it. Her dd is constantly sticking her tongue out and I mean constantly. She's starting to do all the other things she should such as giggle and has very good eye contact, but i'm not sure that at 5 months her tongue should still be doing this.

I remember worrying constantly about my dd because she did actually do the same, but that stopped when she was about 2 1/2 months.

I'm just not sure how to approach it. My friend seems to think it's funny. I love her to bits, so really don't want to upset her, but also feel that I should say something. I have no idea how though.

Am I completely wrong? I really do think 5 months is quite late to still be doing this. Does anyone agree or is it just me?

If you say something what will it achieve?

Just found a site that said it's a sign that she is overstimulated. What did you think it meant?

I really don't know what I thought it meant. I think it was just when my dd was doing the same thing and I took her to the doctors, he said that if she was still doing it at 3 months then I should be concerned.

I'm getting the impression you don't think I should say anything.

Say nothing.

How would you feel if a friend said something similar to you?

Lots of babies have a quirk of some sort, alone it's not an indicator for the baby having special needs.

Well I know how i'd feel, upset. But having said that a few people did mention things to me about my dd, which I was fully aware of anyway, but nevertheless, things were said. If they hadn't I may have just thought it was me being over the top and expecting too much from my dd. So in a way, it helped. I don't know what it's a sign of, but i'm only going on what the doctor said to me and that was that I should be concerned if it carried on.

I was simply looking for a little advice. I certainly don't want people thinking i'm being insensitive. I care about my friend and her dd very much and I only want the best for them.

Well, you can just point it out to your friend- as in "I've read that they really should stop sticking their tongue at 4 moths old, do you want to mention it to your HV?"- and then see what she tells you. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing that- although I must admit I have no idea what at king tongue actually means in health terms. Also, you can ask your paed/HV yourself and then pass on what they tell you to your friend.

At king??? Sticking of course. Stupid auto correction, sorry.

If it was Downs surely someone would have picked it up by now.
I personally wouldn't say anything.

I had a friend whose baby did this for at least 6 months or so. The baby also had a strange way of drinking from a bottle with tongue sticking out underneath. She does now talk with a pronounced lisp. Mum has never said she was worried about it so I never mentioned anything.

i would maybe mention it in passing, very light way. I always wished certain people had mentioned about dd1 behaviour earlier as i was very much head in the sand :(

Thanks for getting back everyone.

If I do mention anything, it will be in passing and very subtle like lisad said. leninGrad, I really don't think it's Down's Syndrome. As jandy said, someone would have picked that up before i'm sure.

Tbh I think i'm going on more of an instinct rather than anything else. Obviously she's not my baby so it probably doesn't count for much. Also, it could be the fact that I have a SN child (possibly) so i've been googling and researching like mad for years now, so maybe i'm just in that frame of mind iyswim. I hope that makes sense. Maybe i'm looking for something that's not there, I hope I am, but something's telling me something's not right.