DS started smiling at 6 weeks and it was pretty easy to get him to smile at me and my husband. At 8 weeks he discovered the ceiling fan after his 8 week developmental leap and would smile at it a lot. He would also smile at lots of other colorful interesting objects around the house. Lately I feel like it has become harder and harder to get DS to smile at me. He will smile at the ceiling fan and at the lights, and the colorful art on the walls, but when I try to get him to smile at me it is SO much harder, I think he is going through a 12 week developmental leap right now and he seems laser focused on grabbing objects. He just turned 3 months on the 4th. I'm starting to get a little freaked out, and I don't have very much experience with other babies, but all the books say that your baby should smile back at you when you smile at them and I haven't been able to get DS to do it consistently. His eye contact is also not very good. He turns away from me a lot of the time, but he will follow me around the room if he is on the ground and I am walking around. Help? Any have any insight?
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He’s so little! We joked for over a year that you were special if you could get DD1 to smile. You probably have a pediatrician appointment coming up soon and I would just ask then.
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My daughter started smiling early, but at that age her social smiling and eye contact weren't so good either. I think she was too busy taking in things that weren't people. She's now 2.5 and very social - will pick up the smallest expressions on others' faces. But she's also still totally fascinated with all the little things around her, and cannot walk a block without picking up every rock, twig and flower.
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I think it can be related to personality as well. My first son who is a wild child, spitfire, mile a minute kid was smiling, cooing, engaging, squealing from six weeks on just nonstop.
DS2 met the six week milestone but his smiles are harder to come by and we have to WORK to get this kid to laugh. He is by comparison a calmer, more relaxed baby who is generally just very content.
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Dang my son didn't crack a smile til he was 5 months. It was horrible.
I'd say 12 weeks is pretty young to consistently smile but also as a mommy your instinct is rarely wrong. -
DD is just shy of 12 weeks and she smiles a ton at the ceiling and lights (i find it so funny) and at stuffed animals/toys. She also smiles at us but not nearly as much. I’d say she smiles at new people more than at at DH or me. I’ve heard this is pretty normal as long as she sometimes smiles at people and makes eye contact.
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@Tionn3: I think it's a little early to be worried but just keep an eye on it, so to speak. I noticed with each of my babies that when they would go through a leap or become more aware, especially coming out of that newborn stage, they'd get easily overstimulated and esp my younger two would turn away. Can't look at them while feeding them! So since he has socially smiled before I would be wondering if it's just a phase.
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Oh and my four month old is smiling at us but she also smiles at objects.
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Thanks for all the insight. Today was better and I got more smiles and eye contact when I was standing over DS when he was on the floor. Maybe I was just getting too up close to him before. He also smiled at DH spontaneously 2 times in the evening. I'll probably mention something to the pediatrician in June though just to be safe.
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@Tionn3: Do you take your child to any mommy and me groups? One thing that I did when my son was small was to bring him around groups of babies his own age, it helped me to check my son's progress on certain things relative to others.
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@Tionn3: i think its quite early too be worried. DD didnt smile much til about 5 months. It was always hard to get her to smile at first but it all worked out. Personality definitely plays a role
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