Hellobee Boards

The LO I nanny had zero interest until she was just over a year old (and they read to her a lot). Now, at 19 months, she is obsessed.

Six months. She learned to turn the pages and might enjoy doing that as much as the pictures or anything else (she's almost 9 months now).

11 months? One day she just started to sit in our lap while we would read. Honestly I didn't even start reading to her before 8 months because she had zero interest.

I'm so sick of reading to her sometimes now lol! Now she wants The Nose Book ten times in a row. It'll come

My DD has always liked looking at them and touching the pages even when really really young like a few weeks old, but she really got into them at about 11 months when she started bringing them to me to read all the time! I've read to her everyday since she was a newborn (used to do it during tummy time to get her to stop crying) and now at 16 months she wants to read all the time, and even "reads" to our cats.

Sounds like what your LO is doing is normal - sometimes they are really focused on new things like crawling or something new they found. I found that reading while she was eating or relaxed or while she was in her play gym got the best focus haha.

My LO is just a few weeks older than yours and genuinely loves books. It probably just depends on the baby. One of his favorites is "The Babies on the Bus" board book. It's brightly colored & I sing the song (like The Wheels on the Bus). I just ordered a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star board book for him for Christmas because that's his favorite song. We usually read in bed in the morning after his first bottle and before his first nap.

My DD is 10.5 months and she's loved to play with books for a few months now...but she doesn't like listening to us read them. She'll sit through maybe 2-3 pages and then be done. On her own, she'll pick a book up, turn pages, flip it around, etc. Around 9.5 months, she became obsessed with touch-and-feel books, but she couldn't care less about hearing the words.

DD1 has always been into books. I started reading to her at a few weeks old and she would lay there happily for up to an hour at a time whilst I read to her. Have you tried laying your DD down on the floor and laying next to her, holding the book above you both whilst you read? I'm fairly sure my DD would not have been happy to be held that whole time, but on the floor she could kick around and chew things whilst still looking at the pictures and listening.

DD2 isn't as into books but to be fair, I haven't read to her specifically as much as I did with DD1 - she more gets the byproducts of me reading to my book obsessed DD1 throughout the day. At 8.5 months old though, she is now starting to take a much stronger interest once I start reading and will stop what she's doing to look at a story.

@Mae: we didn't do bedtime books until she was after a year old.

At 4/5/6 months I used to lay on the floor with her and read board books. Our favorites were moo Ba la la la, you are my sunshine.... Anything Sandra boynton, really. They were quick, fun reads and I'd point out the silly pictures and the colors. They were long enough that I'd have things to talk about but short enough that it kept her attention span.

But by no means did we truly sit down and snuggle to read at that age!

DS has had the patience for a bedtime story after his bottle since about 7 months. During the day he has just started bringing them to me at 10 months, but still will often decide the books need to be closed before I've finished! He is not a cuddly baby and trying to get him to sit on my lap never worked, I just sit by where he is playing and show him the pages.

Starting around 5 months old he really took to the touch & feel books. Now, at 10 months, he loves anything that makes noise and will crawl into our laps to sit and let us read to him - this usually means he is batting at the pages or pushing buttons, but he enjoys it!

I have a cute picture of LO propped up on the couch "reading" her all time favorite book at about 4 months old. She always sat for the whole book and still does. But that's the only book she sits through in entirety. We've been reading to her since she was a month or two old. Around 9-10 months she started getting books from the basket or end table and bringing them to us to sit in our lap and read. Some of the longer books she just wants to flip the pages and point out pictures. Other times she wants the whole book read. She's 12 months now and we read frequently throughout the day.

Lorelei was a little over a year when she started to tolerate them, by 18 months she had favorites and would sometimes ask to be read to, and now at 2.5 is a book LOVER. You will get there. I actually did a post about encouraging reluctant readers (I think it was called "Reading is the New Black"). I learned a ton trying to get Lorelei interested in books! I think the best points I took away were, 1)Don't force it-- if they are miserable, just let it go (and yes, in the early months it meant we had some book-free days on multiple occasions), 2)Experiment with illustration style, topics, and book types (black and white pictures? flaps? touch-and-feel?) to get an idea of their preferences, 3)Use times of the day when they are more likely to be receptive (maybe if she's doing tummy time? sitting in a bouncer? just woke up from nap?), 4)Keep books handy around the house. We have baskets in most rooms that we spend time in.