Babies and reading?

joyfullyfound · November 2012

Ok, so I love books and can't wait to read bedtime stories with DD. Some of the women on my BMB talk about how that's already part of their bedtime routine, but at this point DD has absolutely no interest in books (other than wanting to suck on them). I know it's helpful to have books that are more interactive, with various textures and fun things like that, and I have some, but she'll only pay attention to them for a few seconds. I'm not worried about it, but I am excited for when we can read together...

Sooo... When did your LO start enjoying reading with you? How did you start/any tips? Thanks

Jessica1232 · November 2012

Lol! I know! To be honest, it's not part of our routine. I'm just happy if he STTN! I love books and he has plenty but they are the least of my concern at this stage.

duffmaker · November 2012

We honestly started super early. I would read her books at night, right after her bath and before we had our final nursing session... this started at 3months, maybe earlier... no definitely earlier because our Christmas tree was still up.

I think such an early start was more for me than her. She probably started actually enjoying it around 6 months, we read a few books a night but always ended with the same one (Night Night Little Pookie) and she would/still does get so excited when I pull that one out! She loves books and has for a while, being an avid reader (and FI being the complete opposite), I am thrilled! I think repetition is a big deal, the ones I read over and over again are absolutely her favorites (Little Pookie, Ten Apples Up On Top, Rainbow Fish).

It's never too late to start, in fact right about now is probably a great time! Go with books that are very vividly colored so they catch her attention, when M starts to get distracted I can generally get her attention back by pointing to each individual word and enunciating it more than I normally would. Make it fun, during certain parts of certain books I'll sway side to side, bounce M up and down on my lap, shake and shimmy with her or use funny voices and she LOVES it! Like I said before, repetition is key... little ones like pattern!

gatogrrl · November 2012

Our DD2 is totally in the sucking stage. But we do read one story to her every night, just as part of her winding down routine. We did this with DD1 too, so when that light switch went on, our routine was already in place. It's so cool when it happens. I can't remember for sure, but I think she started staring at the pages, rather than grabbing at them, pretty near to your DD's age.

Mrs.Hizzo · November 2012

I started with DS#1 when he was four months old. That probably sounds absurd, but he seemed to enjoy it. We would snuggle in the rocker and read very simple books, like Goodnight Moon and That's Not My Dinosaur and he always seemed to focus on what I was doing. DS#2 was harder. I didn't start reading regularly to him until later, probably over a year, and then he was all over the map, squirming and not paying attention. He loves to be read to now, but I always wondered if I should have started with him when he was very little, to get him into the habit. Or then again, maybe he just wasn't as into books.

dizzycooks · November 2012

We started immediately. DH has always read books to DD at bedtime and I use to read to her while she screamed all day. I needed to listen to something other than her scream. Now, she will sit and listen, but doesn't always watch. It's more about hearing a variety of language than anything else right now.

pastalady · November 2012

Don't worry. Like pp said there will come a day when you hide the books she wants you to read, over and over again lol!

I think close to a year DD really loved being read to. A little bit after she could prompt me with a word, etc. She loved Dr. Seuss at that age. Silly rhyming stuff.

ElatedMom2B · November 2012

It really does depend on the kiddo. I started reading at bedtime to both kids, as soon as they were in their own crib - around 3 months. DD#1 would sit but was never that interested, but now she has to have her books at bed. DD#2, however, has always loved them. She really likes the Karen Katz books that have peek-a-boo pages. I would really exaggerate the peek-a-boo and she would laugh. Now she's into any book that I read her and loves it. She pulls books out all day and brings them to me to read to her - love it, love a moment to snuggle with a book! I would say just keep at it, even if you just point out certain items in the book and not really read - I always imagined that, to them, it sounded like one of my high school history teachers who just read, in a monotone voice, directly out of his book for 42 minutes of class....it was SO BORING!

Cherryblossoms07 · November 2012

As soon as my kids started sleeping through the night (or at least close b/c it took DS forever to sleep through the night) I made it part of our routine to read to them (DD 3 months, DS about 10 months). With DD I was able to easily read longer bedtime stories to her, but DS doesn't like to sit still very long so I read shorter board books to him - Guess How Much I Love You, Good Night Moon, etc.

mrswright2006 · November 2012

DD was almost 18 months before she would sit for an entire story. DS still isn't much of a story reader, but at the rate he is going, by 2 we should have bedtime story time down. Right now, he will occasionally sit for a book, but most of the time we get 1-2 pages into it, and he either wants to throw it, or get down and play. I am not worried, I have years of "But Mommy, I want FOUR books tonight" ahead of me, if his sister is any indication.

The only trick I had was not to push the issue. The more I tried the less they wanted to read at that age. I always have a few books in the playroom, an in his room for nap time, and sometimes he will bring it to me and want me to read it, which is more important to me at this age than getting him to read for 30 solid minutes each day.

melissa0726 · November 2012

We started ready early on, during playtime. For months, DD would just play on her own and I would read aloud to her. Then she went through a phase where she would rip the book out of my hands so she could chew on it. I would just grab another book and start reading from that one. And finally, one day right around 10-11 months, she plopped down in my lap and listened to an entire story. It was magical!

Now, she loves books, and she'll bring me her favorites for me to read over and over again. I stopped BFing around 12 months, so that's when we really switched up the routine to include reading right before bedtime. It was actually a really helpful distraction during the weaning process. She sits next to me with her cup of milk and I offer three choices of books. She picks one, and I read to her while she drinks her milk and gets settled down. We usually end up reading a couple, but she really likes to pick them out herself

sbevmc09 · November 2012

We just kind of started. DS has always been pretty interested in books so really as soon as he could sit up in my lap we started reading simple board books. I remember him not yet being a year old and he had a favorite book that he'd constantly bring to us to read. We just did it periodically throughout the day when the mood struck.

With that said, we didn't start bedtime reading until DS was weaned. We replaced his nap/night feeding with books before bed.

Dochas · November 2012

We started very early, earlier than 8 months. My husband does the reading and he did not want to do it - but I really insisted that he try. He thanks me continuously for making him stick with it. Our son LOVES books and wants to be read to all the time. And when someone else puts him to bed he just melts into them for story time. I think it makes bed time much easier and has really made him love books.

kacelle · November 2012

DD is obsessed with books and will flip through them for hours. However, she does not want to be read to--she wants to "read" them out loud herself. So I'm still waiting for the bedtime stories too!

I don't think she was very interested in looking at books until after one year.

ETA: We did read bedtime stories when she was really little as part of the bedtime routine. Now she just takes books away and talks about them.

nosoup4u · November 2012

I think DS1 was close to a year before he really was interested in having a book read to him. I have no idea how old DS2 was when he started really paying attention, but he was probably about the same? Don't stress about it if it's not part of your routine right now.

NHbride129 · November 2012

I'm glad you posted this. My DD is 12 months and still has no interest in books so we aren't really reading to her yet. When I try she acutally swats at the book and cries. It makes me feel bad because we always read to my oldest, but I don't want to push it either and make her hate books. So for now I just let her look at them and play with them.

toadstool · November 2012

We started doing it from birth. DH and I like to put her to bed together whenever possible, so one of us would feed her a bottle and the other would read. Now we don't do a bottle at bed, but she will sit in a lap as one of us reads. She has always been very interested in books and she will sit and listen to a whole story most nights.

I don't know about your DH's work hours, but maybe he could start helping you at night so that one of you can read while the other changes LO's diaper and puts the pjs on. After a while LO may get used to the routine and may eventually be interested in sitting and listening to the story at night

kcisthebombdotcom · November 2012

We started from birth. Under 1 we did simple board books with bright colors and 1 picture/word per page. If LO ate the book or wanted to turn the pages more than listening it was fine, but we still reinforced it as an activity. Around 1 the kids started bringing me books to sit and read to them.

bridein08 · November 2012

We started at birTh. DS started turning the pages at about 6 months... It is his favorite part of the day when we read try some of the DK giant flap books (gives them something to turn and feel- it has different textures on each page). We only do board books at this point.

Also look up indestructible books- they are made for LO to chew, suck and crumble. You theow is the dishwasher and they are good as new- they are also IMPOSSIBLE to ruin or tear.

Ms Molly · November 2012

We've done it ever since we started establishing a night time routine (around 8 weeks). I read that it's beneficial developmentally on a few levels: language, social, etc. Obviously DS is only 4 months old and he doesn't 'get' it, but we try to read at least one short board book each night and then end with "Llama Llama Nighty Night".. We wanted to have that one every night as a tradition. If he's in a good mood or not tired, we might read 3 books. He usually tried to grab and chew on them, but so far we enjoy it.

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