November 2012 Moms
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3.5 week old not "cooing" or smiling intentionally
Hello!
My 3.5 week old is not "cooing" yet or smiling intentionally. She grunts a lot, and smiles when she's pooping or passing gas. Is this normal? I read that she should be doing both by 1 month, which is just a few days away.
Thanks!!
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Re: 3.5 week old not "cooing" or smiling intentionally
I really don't think many babies are smiling intentionally at this stage. Remember milestones that you read about are just "guesstimates".
This site (https://www.babycenter.com/0_milestone-chart-1-to-6-months_1496585.bc) says a few baby's can smile at one month and about half can at two months. Usually they don't start worrying about development problems like autism until 6 months. So don't worry about it.
My baby started smiling intentionally at about 3.5 weeks, but that's early and every baby is different.
"A new baby is like the beginning of all things--wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."
Don't worry - intentional smiling isn't something developmental experts expect until 2 months and even that is just an average - some babies so it earlier and some later and it's all normal. Same with cooing.
I've worked w/ a lot of early intervention specialists (in my former professional life) and from what I've seen they would ask you if she is interested in people and interacting. Does she look at you? Respond when people interact with her?
Sure she's fine, don't let the 'milestone' numbers get to you!
Yeah, a lot of milestones are pretty iffy - more like vague guidelines really. If your kid doesn't smile intentionally until 3mo, there's nothing wrong with her. DD1 was a very serious baby - took a long time to smile, coo and laugh. But eventually she did. She's just very sensitive and a lot of things that other babies liked scared/overwhelmed her. She's still on the sensitive side, but completely normal.
Also, when you go to your 1mo checkup, your pedi will probably ask a boatload of questions about is she doing X, has she done Y? Some of those will be milestones for this month, some will be milestones for next month and she's trying to see where your baby might be ahead. So don't be freaked out if you find that you're saying no to a lot of the pedi's questions.