Baby smiling while feeding

When do babies smile?

Is it a real smile or just gas? Here's when to expect your baby to break out her first genuine smile.

Photo: iStock/FG Trade

From the moment they’re born, infants are working on their social lives. They’re learning about who they can rely on, how to have a conversation and how to interact with those around them.

Smiles—one of the major social milestones—tend to show up after the first few months of non-stop breastfeeding, spotty sleeping and general exhaustion. (In other words, just when you need them most.) “The first time they smile when you’re looking at them or talking to them, that’s a beautiful moment,” says parenting educator Andrea Nair. After that, watch for baby to mimic the sounds and movements you make; these are early attempts at communication. This is also where the sock-removal prowess comes in. It’s not about warm or cold feet—it’s about play and movement.

A demanding baby is a healthy baby. As paediatrician Janice Heard says, “Babies require a lot of attention. They want to be held and talked to; they want to see things.” A lack of social interaction—which can include eye contact or reaching for you—that persists past six months to a year is a clue that a child may be on the autism spectrum, which is usually not diagnosed until the age of 18 months.

What to watch for

Smiling (three to eight months): It’s true: If you think you see smiles before the six-week mark, it’s most likely gas. But after that, you’re in genuine smile country.

They’ll be grinning when you grin at them, but also spontaneously. And by eight months, most babies will smile at the baby they see staring back at them in the mirror—not because they recognize themselves, but because they’re learning that smiling is a social act.

As part of the continuous formation of neural pathways that’s happening in their brains, babies are quick to read social cues from those around them and test them out. In one study out of the University of New Hampshire, babies as young as six months looked for the reactions their parents had when witnessing the same absurd or silly events. By 12 months, they internalized this ability—they know that a weird noise, absurd movements or a silly face is indeed funny and will no longer check on their parents’ reaction before laughing.

Copying body movements (three months): You are your baby’s first and most influential teacher. She is always watching you, and while she may not nail them, she is trying to copy your body movements—including those cheesy Drake moves you do while making coffee.

By 12 months, babies copy the behaviours of others while they play—and they’ll not only imitate your moves but also the more mundane acts such as, well, making that coffee. I once thought I had a mini-barista in the house, but I really had a mini-me who was well on his way to being a social butterfly.

What parents can do

Want to ensure your child learns how to pick up on social cues? Pick up on hers. She’s looking to you to answer her when she’s hungry, tired or needs a hug. Interact with your baby as much as you can, even during something as routine as a diaper change—say, “Let me count your toes,” and respond to the looks on your baby’s face, says Heard.

The CPS says responding “warmly and predictably” when your baby reaches out will help her feel not only safe but heard. And it can be fun, too. Even a silly shared gesture like a raspberry can be a precursor to having a conversation, says Nair. “They learn it, then it’s a back and forth conversation: I do it, and then you do it,” she says.

Reading and singing are key here, too, in a way that goes beyond language. When you’re singing a song your kid knows, pause and watch for him to get excited about the next line. “They just want you to do the next step. These are all important parts of social language,” says Nair.

The first year is full of firsts! Check out our guide to all those fun milestones—plus a print out you can put on your fridge.

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FILED UNDER: Baby 0-3 months baby development March 2016 Milestones

My Baby Smiles While Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is a happy moment for babies and creates a strong bond between a mother and the baby. It is normal to see babies showing different gestures during breastfeeding. Some babies do giggle, while others smile.

As a mother, you must be asking yourself why your baby always smiles during breastfeeding. And does this happen just to your baby or to other breastfeeding kids too? Well, to have a deeper understanding of this topic, this is the article to read. It has all the necessary information.

Why Babies Smile While Breastfeeding

When a two-month-old baby flushes a smile at you while nursing, you are likely to feel cynical, this gesture may leave you wondering what that means. You can’t stop but ask yourself if that is really normal.

Note that babies are tiny little beings with a social life too. Since they can’t express love and appreciation by word of mouth, they will smile or giggle at you. This type of social gesture is more common during breastfeeding time.

The best you can do as a mother is to smile back as a sign of acknowledgment. Doing this cements your relationship with your baby. Social smile, as child experts call it, is common among breastfeeding babies.

Is This Behavior Normal?

Most newborns smile unconsciously, but those who are two months and older do it for a reason. In most cases, it is a way of communicating their emotions because they can’t speak. Babies can express their emotions anytime, including breastfeeding time. So, if your baby smiles during nursing, you should consider this normal.

Does It Happen to All Babies?

The answer to this question is yes. Note that babies who have not yet developed the skill of speaking express their needs and emotions using gestures. And one of these gestures is smiling.

So, smiling when nursing is common and happens to all breastfeeding babies. Note that so long as the baby is comfortable and does not have any health issues, he or she will express it through smiling, giggling, or laughing. It is a way of telling you that everything is okay.

What are the implications?

Though smiling is a healthy gesture among babies during breastfeeding, it distracts their feeding. However, this behavior does have some effect not just on the baby but on the mother too.

Smiling causes distraction during breastfeeding. For instance, it causes shorter and frequent nursing, which interferes with the supply of breast milk. So, if you encourage this type of breastfeeding, there will be no enough milk to nurse your baby.

Also, when babies smile during breastfeeding, they are not able to feed correctly. So, they start feeling hungry after a short time. As a mother, it will force you to have many breastfeeding sessions. If you are not feeding the baby frequently, you will be prolonging the feeding session. This might not be convenient for a mother who is working on a schedule.

Generally, this kind of feeding is not suitable for the baby. Babies are supposed to have a nursing routine. It helps them develop appropriate feeding habits even as they grow older. Nursing the baby less frequently also helps him or her to sleep longer at night. It means that as a mother, you will also have enough time to rest.

How Do You Prevent This?

Since smiling while breastfeeding interferes with the baby’s feeding, here is what to do to prevent the destruction. Try nursing the baby when he or she is a bit sleepy or just woken up. At this time, they are usually less active, and smiling may not be present. Generally, babies breastfeed well when they are about to sleep or after waking up. At this time, they are less distracted by many things.

Also, the mother should nurse the baby in a lying down position. Note that mother-baby eye contact sometimes triggers smiling during breastfeeding. So, once you avoid eye contact, the baby won’t smile.

Conclusion

It is hard to control smiling because even mothers feel good when their babies smile. So, most of the time, you will find yourself smiling back at the baby. However, since this behavior interferes with nursing, you should find ways of preventing this to help your baby feed well. It might seem a bit technical to tame this behavior, but it is doable.

The first smile of a newborn: when to wait and why it is so important - Parents.ru

Baby

Photo: Petri Oeschger/Getty Images/Moment RF

child psychologist

There are reasons for everything

The smile doesn't come out of the blue either.

It is preceded by a rather long period of development of the baby in the mother's belly and some time after his birth.

Endocrine processes in the human body are closely related to mental ones: each emotion has its own hormone - joy, surprise, fear. Through the placenta, mother's hormones penetrate to the baby, and he experiences the same emotions as a pregnant woman. The future baby has a kind of memory that stores information about everything that happens. A child remembers good and bad, so if you want him to live with pleasure, make him laugh, pamper yourself. The baby feels the mood of the mother.

Three weeks after the birth of , children begin to look especially attentively at their mother and fix their eyes on her. At this time, try to smile at the baby as often as possible, say kind words to him, talk to him joyfully, sing songs. And by the end of the first month - the beginning of the second you will definitely see his smile.

By the way, a smile is not such a simple action for a little man starting to live, because in order for it to appear on his face, as many as 17 facial muscles are involved!

Most often, children are amused by grimaces addressed to them, games of hide and seek and "bumps". Smiles also appear at the sight of a smiling human face. By the way, it can be drawn. You can draw funny laughing faces on a sheet of paper and attach them above the crib.

From smile to laughter

When eye contact is established between mother and baby, the child develops the first social, i.e. aimed at the desire to communicate and like, a smile. A little later, it will be accompanied by iridescent throat sounds - attempts to laugh. When you realize that the child began to notice you (when approaching, he freezes for a moment and smiles), try to color your communication with him with positive emotions: laugh, smile, talk affectionately, express your love by touching, stroking, fingering, massage. The result of such communication will be a smile that invites communication, and laughter.

Photo: Carol Yepes/Getty Images/Moment RF

When the baby turns three months old , you will notice how his behavior has changed: the smile does not leave his face, the child coos happily, laughs, jerks his arms and legs. The emerging revival indicates the normal mental development of the baby.

Usually by the end of the first six months of the child begins to make attempts to understand the emotions of adults, especially the mother. Looking at his mother, touching her, listening to her voice, he learns the methods of research, which he will then need to communicate with the world. At this age, the child needs to read funny poems, listen to pleasant music, tickle him with fluffy pom-poms, show soap bubbles. To develop the ability to laugh in your child, try to encourage all the funny things that somehow appear in your life.

What if he doesn't smile?

Smiling is certainly an important stage in development, but you should not worry about its absence if:

the baby is less than 3 months old;
he holds his head;
focuses on objects and faces;
can focus on one thing.

However, if the baby is not smiling by 3 months, it is worth taking him to the pediatrician. He will decide whether the help of specialized specialists is required. Among the reasons why the baby may not smile: physiological and psycho-emotional disorders, impaired coordination of movements, inability to concentrate on a person or object.

Lyubov Prishlaya

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Baby at a psychoneurologist: why go and how to prepare for an appointment | Child health | Health

Anna Goryunova, a specialist in early childhood, Doctor of Medical Sciences, chief researcher at the National Center for Health and Human Development of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, .

Let's check the reflexes

First of all, the neuropsychiatrist will check whether the degree of maturity of the baby's nervous system corresponds to his age. He determines this maturity by the presence of certain reflexes.

The doctor will press the center of the palm of the month-old baby - the baby will open his mouth. Good. He puts his finger in the handle - the baby will grab it. Fine, there is a grasping reflex. The doctor will take the baby under the armpits and “put” it on the table. If the legs rest on the surface of the table and the baby sorts through them, as if walking, then there is a reflex of support and automatic walking.

But the same reflex is evaluated differently at different ages. For example, if a child “walks” at a month or two, this is good, but at four, it is bad. After two months, the automatic walking reflex should fade.

The doctor will clap his hands - the baby will spread his arms from a sharp sound, and then cross them on his chest. Up to 4 months, such a reflex is the norm, and if it is observed at 6 months, this already indicates that the maturation of the emotional sphere is lagging behind.

At 3 months, the baby should hold his head well. If he “pecks” his head when he is picked up, moreover, he shrinks when he is placed on his stomach, this is bad. Such a baby is threatened with cerebral palsy. The doctor will definitely see if he has crossed legs. If the legs cross only at the level of the feet, there is nothing to worry about yet, worse if the cross goes at the level of the hips. Then the psychoneurologist must also examine the baby at 6 months: by this time, cerebral palsy is almost always already visible.

We look at the tone

The second thing that the psychoneurologist will look at during the first visit is the state of muscle tone.

In a newborn, the arms are pressed to the body, the fists are clenched, the legs are bent, in general, the muscle tone is increased. Up to a month and a half is the norm. Then the tone should weaken. So the doctor will look at how he became at 3 months old: normal (physiological, as doctors say), still elevated or, conversely, reduced.

Whether the intracranial pressure in an infant is normal or elevated, an experienced psychoneurologist will see better with ultrasound. The fact is that a difficult pregnancy, complications during childbirth lead to the fact that the brain, first of the fetus, and then of the baby, does not receive enough oxygen, and from this the cerebrospinal fluid is released into the ventricles of the brain more than necessary. The ventricles stretch and put pressure on those parts of the brain that are responsible for regulating the temperature in the body, for the absorption of food, for behavior ... Babies with increased intracranial pressure may be too excitable - sleep poorly, scream a lot, may spit up all the time after feeding .. .

If the fontanel does not bulge, but slightly sinks, if the sutures between the parietal bones and the frontal bone are not too stretched, then everything is fine with pressure.

I see my mother!

A neuropsychiatrist will check how your baby reacts to light, sound, and a person's face.

At the age of one and a half months, the baby should, at least for a minute, keep his eyes on the person who leaned towards him. At this age, complexes of attention and imitation already appear. Mom bends over to her child, raises his head, talks to him, and the baby looks at her intently. He sees a speaking mouth and also opens his mouth and even tries to portray something with his lips.

At 2 months old, the child should already follow the objects that move in front of his eyes, respond to sound and light: you clapped - he shuddered, blinked, you brought a flashlight to his face - he closed his eyes. He can already turn his head towards the source of light and sound, understand where, from which side the sound is coming, the light is falling...

And how is emotional development proceeding? This is also determined by the doctor at the first examination.

In a month and a half, a return smile appears. Some semblance of a smile could have flickered on the baby's face before, but it was not a conscious emotional reaction, but just a grimace, the ability to portray which is inherent in nature. Now he smiles at a human face. True, he will open his mouth and smile not only when his mother bends over him with gentle cooing, but also if you show him a human face painted on a piece of paper or a balloon ... He will smile at the doll too. But only up to 4 months. With a silent mask, a four-month-old baby can flirt: shake his head, babble, smile, call for communication ... And if there is no reaction, he will get angry and cry. Well done! Since you can’t deceive him with a mask, it means that he grows up, develops correctly.

Psychologists believe that babies have up to 70 types of different smiles, and the mother of a two-month-old baby can already distinguish many of them, understand from them what he wants, what pleases him.

At 4 months the baby starts to laugh.

Cognitive development also has its own stages. Starting from a month, the child monitors the surrounding objects. If you move a toy in front of his face to the right, then to the left, he follows it with his eyes. After 2 months, he does not let go of the toy that you lift up. At 3 months, visual coordination connects with motor coordination, and contemplation develops into action: the baby not only sees the toy, watches it, but can also hit it with arms or legs. At 3 months, he understands the tone in which his mother speaks to him - affectionate, strict, cheerful ... He loves some music, he does not like the other ...

"AiF Health" recommends

For the first meeting with a psychoneurologist, a mother needs to prepare - to think about what worries her, alarms her in the behavior of the baby. She should tell the doctor:

1. How does the baby sleep.

Newborns need to sleep 16-18 hours a day. But their sleep is superficial, with endless awakenings at night, with early waking up in the morning . .. The dream is still immature, its rhythm has not been formed. And yet, if the baby does not fall asleep well, confuses day and night, sleeps little, it is necessary to tell the neuropsychiatrist about this.

2. Do you cry a lot?

During the first month of life, a newborn is in a bad mood. If he does not sleep, then he cries, on his face he has a grimace of displeasure. And this is understandable. Having moved from fetal existence to our world, the baby experienced severe stress, and now he needs to adapt to a lot: both to a new way of eating - breastfeeding (and there are still few enzymes in the stomach, food in the stomach causes discomfort), and to independent bowel movements, and to the ambient temperature, and to the air, and to the noise around ... In short, how can you not cry? But endlessly and for no reason screaming baby should alert her mother.

3. Is he eating well?

A child's refusal to breastfeed is also a reason to talk to a neuropsychiatrist.