Baby Stopped Cooing and Burbling

[Anonymous]

Our daughter was cooing and burbling a lot at three months. But for the last three weeks she's gone silent except for giggling and occasional squealing. Her stopping coincided with a two-week trip to visit family and then her starting daycare a week ago. My husband asked about it at her wellness visit yesterday but the doctor apparently gave the mandatory doctor answer: "Oh, it's normal." Which is 0 percent helpful. Can anyone share if you had this experience please?

[Anonymous]

It's normal. They get bored with certain things, move onto others, then pick up old habits again later. She might be, for example, more enthralled with physical activity right now. Or just watching things, since there's a lot to watch at day care in particular. She'll likely start up again and/or go to babbling.

[Anonymous]

Relax, mom.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you 21:47. And 23:25, thank you for the awesome input.

[Anonymous]

Does she seem to hear ok? My baby had a build up of wax in her ears which was the cause of her getting much more quiet. We used over the counter Debrox to dissolve it.

Try to play imitation games, going back and forth making faces, souds, etc and see if she will imitate. Lots of singing can also be good.

I wouldn't totally freak, but I would definitely keep an eye on it. I agree that peds are pretty dismissive of many dev concerns. Was she ill at all around the time of getting more quiet? Any vaccines or medications?

[Anonymous]

My baby was starting to coo and get "chatty" at around 3 months; he was "quiet" or relatively quiet from about 4 weeks to 5.5 months old. Now he's starting to chat and coo again and even blow raspberries. As long as your child seems generally content and is doing well at the well baby visits, I wouldn't worry about it (although, honestly, I was worried and anxious when DS started getting quiet too).

[Anonymous]

How is "it's normal" 0 percent helpful when it's the truth? Would you rather he made up some mumbo-jumbo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is "it's normal" 0 percent helpful when it's the truth? Would you rather he made up some mumbo-jumbo?

You must not be a detail-oriented person. If you were, you'd understand why a short explanation of "it's normal" doesn't cut it.

[Anonymous]

If "it's normal" wasn't enough detail for you, why didn't you ask your pediatrician for more of an explanation? No need for your nastiness, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If "it's normal" wasn't enough detail for you, why didn't you ask your pediatrician for more of an explanation? No need for your nastiness, OP.

I'm not the OP. Her husband was at the pedi, not the OP. Do you have a problem with reading comprehension?

[Anonymous]

OP here, "It's normal" was the exact same thing said to a friend whose baby was in the initial hours of bacterial meningitis infectio and is now brain damaged so I'm not one to take kindly to a lecture that all doctors know what they're talking about when they say "It's normal."

And yes, my husband went, not I. So I was hearing about this after the fact when I got home from work.

Thank you to those who suggested the wax and the imitation games. Will explore both of those suggestions and keep an eye on the situation. Can't imagine there's a vaccine connection as that was several weeks prior (and I tend to be skeptical of such a connection.) More likely it was going from maternity leave at the house to two weeks on vacation away from home and then right into daycare.

In general may I say that the sniping responses to my query are silly and disheartening. I am now firmly convinced that a mother seeking input from others in this forum is pretty much dead in the water if she hopes to get honest, helpful feedback on even the most innocuous topic without also suffering bitchiness. Frankly, I'm starting to wonder if the drawbacks of this forum outweigh the benefits.

[Anonymous]

I really wouldn't worry. My DS did the same thing- a lot of cooing around 3 months. Then he stopped, and didn't start really babbling until 9 months (and I kind of freaked out in between!). Now he is 15 months and has about 10 words and babbles all the time.

[Anonymous]

OP: Perhaps you'd be better served by calling your pediatrician and having a conversation with him/her than posting on an anonymous forum asking for advice from people who don't know your baby or your situation. You seem to have decided what the answer is anyway and are being quite dismissive of the responses that aren't in line with what you're thinking.