8 Month Old Not Babbling

The Children's Hospital here in Denver says to get them evaluated at 9 months if they're not babbling. Not sure what you have in your area, but they probably would say about the same. My daughter was not babbling at 8 mos. and I was very worried. (I'd love to have just one kid who doesn't need speech therapy!) At 9 months she started babbling right on cue. Now, at less than 10 months, she says "Dada", "Mmmmmma-mmmmmma" (not sure if that's acceptable or not), "Bu-Bu" for both "Buddy" and Bye-bye. She is also using several sign language signs which, although it helps develop language, can delay speech, although not always. I know our Children's Hospital was very helpful when I started calling for my daughter's problems. I really had a bunch of non-specific questions. They asked a lot of questions and got us set up for an evaluation. She's now in feeding therapy 2x a month, which should help with speech also. It doesn't hurt to call. You might just find out he's well within the norms. They'll know what to ask to assess that. GL!

I had gotten all stressed because my son wasn't "babbling" when he was supposed to. He made sounds, but when I read the definition of babbling, he wasn't doing it. He seemed fine otherwise at his 9 month check up and his doctor wasn't worried. At a year, he says Mamama, and other more "babbly" words, but is a real problem solver and seems advanced in that way. I know that there was a time where he did get quiet. I find that he will work on one thing, like crawling, for awhile, and then stop that while he works on something else, or teething, then goes back to it. I really wouldn't worry too much. Just let his ped know his development at 9 mos and 1 year. If you are truly worried, getting an evaluation can't hurt anything, but make sure that you don't let your son see your stress about his development.

I would also recommend going to a new mom group or at least finding a way to see other babies. My son held his own bottle at 4 months, but the girl a week younger didn't until 7 months. She now has 5 words, and my son has 1 or 2. They are all so different, and they always say boys are slower developers on some things.

Have the doctor check for fluid on the ears.

At ten months I finely got others to see that he was not making as many noises, sounds as he should, they did a hearing test which he passed, they said to come back in six months if he had not progressed. At 12 months he had his first ear infection. The doctor noted for the first time fluid on the ears, even when the infection was gone. He had three more infections before he was 16 months, at 16 months he got tubes put in both ears. With in two weeks he had three words, and many more sounds. I believe he had fluid on the ears since he was little and so things sounded like they were under water for him till the tubes.

good luck
S. Broadbent
www.homewithkai.com

This sounds just like my son who will be 3 in June. He wouldn't really make the sounds that the books said he should be making and really preferred people to toys. I was anxious about it but my husband kept telling me not to worry, he was communicating and interacting. Then at nine months he said his first word (the dog's name) and by a year he had a handful of words and now he is much further advanced in speech then other kids his age and talks nonstop. Supposedly Einstein didn't talk until he was three. I would say not to worry but keep a watch and best of luck.

My daughter didn't babble much either. She was actually very quiet and would often just kind of sneak up on us. She was mobile much earlier and just seemed to enjoy taking in the things going on around her. Some babies just prefer to study out the things around them first. When my daughter turned 20 months old just all the sudden starting talking like crazy about 2 weeks later she was stringing together 3 and 3 word sentences. Now at 26 months she talks all the time. The good thing is that your son is communicating with the people around him with his eye contact and his body. If your son still isn't speaking much by the age of 2 you might encourage him to use his words by pretending you don't understand his body language. Until then I wouldn't worry, especially if you have notices advances in other aspects of his development.

My daughter stopped babbling for a while around that age. Same as your son, she would just do mmmm-mmmmm-mmmm all the time. Turns out all she was teething. Once her teeth popped through she went back to babbling and on to yelling.
I hope that's all it is with your son.

Does your son have any eating issues? My son had to see a feeding therapist because he couldn't eat (gagged on everything, even purees). And he was also way behind on his speech--he didn't babble much even by 1 year. He never did the "ma-ma-ma" and "da-da-da" stuff like he should have. I am one of those moms that freaks out if my kids don't meet their milestones, so I called a couple places and had him evaluated, and he qualified for early speech help at 12 months. He is now 2.5 and has tested out of the program he was originally in, and is getting help from a private speech therapist 1 day a week. He is doing really well--his therapist says he basically where he should be for his age now. He has a really large vocabulary, and uses complex sentances. He can carry on a conversation with just about anybody, but just has some sounds that make him a little harder to understand (unfortunately, the 'T' sound comes out like an 'F', so "truck" sounds like a naughty word!). ANyway, I am so glad we got him help early, because I know if we hadn't, he wouldn't be where he is now! If you think your son is behind, get him evaluated. It can't hurt!