my baby wont laugh

[haleymom07]

my daughter is a very mellow and happy baby. but at 7 months old she hardly ever laughs. i know that by the time my nephew was this age he would have us all laughing so hard we would cry because all he ever did was laugh. i dont know if maybe i am reading too much into this but it disturbs me like she isnt really happy or something.

[ra11en]

Does she smile a lot and seem to recognize you and Daddy?

My DD didn't start laughing laughing until around 1 yr. She would smile a lot, but hardly ever laughed. I started to believe she just didn't like us that much, hehehehehe. I also feared that she was going to be a generally unhappy kid/person. Luckily that wasn't the case, she just hadn't learned how to do it. I think the few time she had done it were 'accidentally' at first. I would give it some more time if I were you, and keep finding different things that seem to make her smile the most. Keep doing those things and I bet before you know it she'll be laughing her head off.

If she doesn't really smile or recognize you/Daddy, then I would definitely speak to your pediatrician. But since you say she seems to be mellow and happy, I tend to think she smiles often. You can always bring it up to the pediatrican anyways! If she wasn't really happy, I can almost guarantee you would KNOW - you wouldn't be worried about her not laughing, you would be worried that all she did was cry! :)

[haleymom07]

she does smile a lot and nothing makes her happier than when me or her daddy walk into the room. (thats the best feeling in the world) she has laughed a handful of times but not much at all. i will give it a while longer. its so easy to think that as a mom i have done something wrong that she hates me for but i think every mom has anxiety about their parenting. thanks for the reply it really made me feel better

[ra11en]

She's adorable in your avatar picture by the way!!

If she is lighting up and recognizing you and Daddy I think you're good to go. Yeah, no better feeling than that. :) Just wait until she can go running to you when you walk in the room and shouts "Mommy Mommy" and throws her arms around your neck, you're gonna melt!!

It is way to easy to think you've done something wrong, but from the sounds of it you've done it right so far. I seriously doubt she 'hates' you by any stretch of the imagination. :) Keep getting her to smile (peak-a-boo, tickling, etc) and she's on her way to laughing like a crazy girl.

[haleymom07]

thank you that picture is sooo old i just need to update them on my computer. she was like 3 months old. wow i dont know where the time has gone she is already sooo big next thing you know she will be in kindergarten.

[ra11en]

Shhhhh! Don't say that! LOL I'm trying to find a magic pill that will keep my DD miniature forever and ever. :)

My biggest 'regret' is thinking back to her newborn days and not fully relishing them the way I should have, I didn't realize how fast those days go by and are gone forever! I kept looking forward to her walking and talking, wanting it to happen faster and now I wish I could just slow it down!

[haleymom07]

my major regret is that i didnt enjoy breastfeeding as much as i should have, i would get so frustrated and want to give up but now that she is a bottle baby i wish i could go back. and not totally enjoying her being that tiny for that short amount of time is sad i know i should have relaxed more, let the house go a little more and just spend hours taking in that sweet baby!

[ra11en]

I'm right there with you!! While our BF experience was good, we had to stop at 6wks due to her colic/gas. It was sad! But I too wished I had let the house go more and worried less about 'doing it all' and proving I was superwoman. Next time (if there is) most days will be spent laying around with the newborn, just enjoying those short lived days. :)

Don't beat yourself up about her being a bottle baby! There are some definite advantages to bottle over breast. Sure, breast is best, we all know it. But you did start off BFing, and that counts for something!!

[haleymom07]

i have a question, how old is your baby and was it an easy transition from bottle to sippy cup? because i have been working with her on sippy cups and she just looks at me like im crazy! i wish it would all just come easy but that will never happen!

[ra11en]

My DD is 22mo. Yeah, the sippy cup transition was pretty easy for her. But, I started giving her a sippy cup of water around 7mo just to play with. Then around 10 mo I picked her easiest bottle and replaced with a sippy - for her it was her night time bottle. We had already replaced her night night bottle (one before bed time) with diluted juice anyway, and then we replaced it with just a sippy of water and let her keep it in bed with her. From there it naturally progressed to replacing one bottle every other week with a sippy until there were no more bottles.

Easiest way to help her learn the sippy was to not put a valve in at first. When she was first playing with it I kept a valve in so she wouldn't spill it everywhere, but when I got serious about her drinking out of it I removed the valve so she wouldn't have to learn to suck so hard while transititioning. That seemed like too much on her at once. The free flow helped her learn to drink out of it.

Nuby makes a great starter sippy that is pretty nipple like. We picked up a bunch of different sippy cups and let her figure out which ones she liked the best. And those favorites changed over time. Fun fun!! :)

[kaiya23]

After I got over the fact that BFing wasn't going to work, I appreciated bottle feeding. I could tell the doctor exactly how many ounces of formula she took in, I could feed her wherever and whenever and the schedule of her bottles were in perfect time with our meals and transitioned to sippy cups and solid food so easily. Sippy cups...we didn't use the Nubi, but I think she used one at daycare. They'd be really good if you have trouble with the sippy cup transition. I found the Gerber transition cups to work the best, the kind with the blue soft flat "nipple". I refused to ever put milk into a bottle. Formula only. And when bottles were dirty, (after about 6 months), I'd use a sippy cup. Her feeding between lunch and dinner became diluted juice in a sippy at about 8 months. And I never had to remove a valve, but I know it can help if she has trouble transitioning.

As for the laughing, I distinctly remember my daughter starting to laugh while she sat on my belly. We have a futon, which is a little deeper and more angled back than a regular couch, and I was able to pull my knees up (feet on the couch) to create a "seat" made of mommy. She'd lean against my knees sitting up and I'd play with her. She starting laughing when I'd laugh and use my abdominal muscles to bounce her. She got a giggle and I got a workout :). I'm sure you're already doing stuff like this, but I know it's what got my little girl giggling. I'm sure she's fine.

[haleymom07]

thank you for your reply, i have tried all kinds of sippy cups and the ones that she is kinda ok with are just the plain old tupperware kind, but she tends to get really frustrated when i give them to her, i dont know if she just doesnt understand how to work them or if she is just extra irritable since she is teething but it is a huge headache.