Baby has a fever, I don't remember Lore being sick until much older on account of quarantine from COVID. What am I allowed to give a three month old medicine wise?
3 months is right on the edge of when you can give infant Tylenol without a doctor consult. It's mainly based on weight thought, dosages start when they're 11-12ish pounds.
He was 14 pounds a month ago so no issues there. We called the nurses line for our pediatrician and she said we could give a tiny amount of acetaminophen and to monitor to make sure his temp didn't go much higher. He seems in decent spirits otherwise fortunately.
Possibly too late now, but is it just a fever, or is it accompanied by a lot more uncomfortableness? I'm just going to throw out that treating a fever doesn't really help treat what's causing it.
Treating for comfort is totally understandable, though! And if it's high enough, you should not only treat it but seek medical attention, of course. The Mayo article gives good guidelines on when to make the call to go to the doctor.
I read this advice (and also a later-debunked study linking acetaminophen use in children to increased risk for asthma) when our kids were infants/toddlers. I almost never give my kids anything if they're otherwise okay. They run around just fine with 101 degree fevers.
Sorry for the double post, but I know in the past people have mentioned a book that helped navigate the "where do babies come from" conversation, and Sapling is very insistent that we explain it to her.
It's Not the Stork is highly recommended by most people I know. I haven't read it myself, but that's the current go-to.
We just told our daughter straight up how babies are made (usually it's a mom and a dad, things are stuck into other things, sperms and eggs etc). But only grown-ups do that and can have babies, ok? Sure!
Some months later she comes back with "Dad, if only grown-ups can have babies. Who had the first baby!?"
And that's how we ended up spending an afternoon explaining evolution to our 3-year old. Including the families of the animal kingdom as she pointed out that our dog couldn't have come from a monkey...
I love it when she asks the right questions, it means we are doing something right at least.
The wife was having a hard few weeks at work and her anxiety was super high. Having tried the usual stuff, I asked her what she was listening to while doing her work upstairs. She said it was some YT videos and occasionally a few Glee songs.
"Nah man, fuck that. There's your problem. You're listening to garbage. You wanna feel better? Open an 80s Rock playlist on Spotify."
"What? That's stupid."
"Just try it, trust me."
"Ugh, fine!"
*30 minutes later*
"How is this working? Why do I feel so much better listening to these old ass songs?"
"You see, music from post-2000 is great. Easy to sing along to, hum, or just enjoy in the background. But rock from the 70s and 80s demands a part of your soul gets excited and it refuses to leave you alone until it gets what it wants."
For context, my wife was born in China and didn't come to America until the mid-90s. She's hardly heard any rock from the 70s or 80s unless it was in a movie or tv show. Like, a lot of awful Glee remixes (ugh!). While she's not a hardcore fan, that playlist has been up and running on her second monitor ever since. Never underestimate the power of hype/uplifting/actiony rock to knock you out of a funk.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
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Sorry for the double post, but I know in the past people have mentioned a book that helped navigate the "where do babies come from" conversation, and Sapling is very insistent that we explain it to her.
It's Not the Stork is highly recommended by most people I know. I haven't read it myself, but that's the current go-to.
We just told our daughter straight up how babies are made (usually it's a mom and a dad, things are stuck into other things, sperms and eggs etc). But only grown-ups do that and can have babies, ok? Sure!
Some months later she comes back with "Dad, if only grown-ups can have babies. Who had the first baby!?"
And that's how we ended up spending an afternoon explaining evolution to our 3-year old. Including the families of the animal kingdom as she pointed out that our dog couldn't have come from a monkey...
I love it when she asks the right questions, it means we are doing something right at least.
I love that it shows that as far as your daughter knows, your dog is part of the family. Pack bond is humanity's super power.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Sorry for the double post, but I know in the past people have mentioned a book that helped navigate the "where do babies come from" conversation, and Sapling is very insistent that we explain it to her.
It's Not the Stork is highly recommended by most people I know. I haven't read it myself, but that's the current go-to.
We just told our daughter straight up how babies are made (usually it's a mom and a dad, things are stuck into other things, sperms and eggs etc). But only grown-ups do that and can have babies, ok? Sure!
Some months later she comes back with "Dad, if only grown-ups can have babies. Who had the first baby!?"
And that's how we ended up spending an afternoon explaining evolution to our 3-year old. Including the families of the animal kingdom as she pointed out that our dog couldn't have come from a monkey...
I love it when she asks the right questions, it means we are doing something right at least.
Haha. Sapling had almost exactly the same question half way through the book. I figured we'd give it a couple of weeks before I start diving into evolution, trying to avoid hitting a flash point with my religious parents for as long as possible.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
Meanwhile, I'm setting up some Punnet Squares for Ellie because she has some *interesting* thoughts about why her friends have brown eyes and/or green eyes
So the mom of the family has brown eyes and is older than the dad who has green eyes. And the older kid has brown eyes and the young kid at green eyes so *obviously* the eye colour has to do with age.
So yeah, time for my 6 year old to learn some basics on Dominant and Recessive genes.
You can even get advanced, as brown > green > blue!
Edit: And then I start talking to my son about it, and he asks questions, and I find out eye pigmentation is WAY more complicated.
Reminds me of how I learned the complexities of the fusion cycle in stars by accident.
Edit: Lithium does not come after helium in the stellar fusion cycle, and that confused the heck out of me.
I usually use a pretty static chart to explain it and then weave in the other complexities later:
Hydrogen plus Hydrogen produces helium
Helium Triple-alpha (three helium-4) produce Carbon
Carbon plus helium produces oxygen.
Oxygen plus helium produces neon.
Neon plus helium produces magnesium.
Magnesium plus helium produces silicon.
Silicon plus helium produces sulfur.
Sulfur plus helium produces argon.
Argon plus helium produces calcium.
Calcium plus helium produces titanium.
Titanium plus helium produces chromium.
Chromium plus helium produces iron.
The basic gist is what is produced from helium onward is heavier elements but only those with even numbers of protons until iron. It stops at iron because iron is so tightly bound there is no energy extraction that can occur, fusion of it only happens if other forces overcome nuclear bonds to push it that way on to the more explosive, collapsing-type ends.
Lithium does have an interesting part in fusion but it’s a thing happening in brown dwarfs and not standard fusion.
Does anyone have any tips on getting a little one to talk? Lately I've started kind of worrying about our 16 month old's speech.
The little dude babbles like crazy. He's always mumbling to himself and quite often stands there and orders me around with a series of points and grunts. But I can not get him to say a word, or repeat anything I say to him.
He's incredibly communicative, but outside of "mama" and "Dada" (the latter of which he has kind of stopped saying), he doesn't say any actual words. When I said "do you want to go out? Can you say out?" He simply walks to the door and starts pulling on the knob. When I said "Can you say goodbye?" he waves. When I say "Lets say Thank You" he does the sign language. Same with "Would you like more?", he does the sign language for more.
So he understands me, and he communicates back, but I can not figure out how to get him to repeat anything back to me. I know he understands "Can you say..." because if I ask, can you say mama, he does it immediately. But if I say, "Can you say hi?", it's always a hand wave.
Any ideas, or should I just not worry about it?
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
I think you don’t really need to worry about it until much later but you should ask your pediatrician if you’re really concerned. Anecdotally, boys start talking later than girls, but 16 months is still early.
My daughter didn't really start using words until around 18 or so months. She also didn't walk until around the same time. Then out of nowhere a switch happened and 9 years later she doesn't stop talking lol
Is he around other children his age? Maybe it would help.
Also, if they are the firstborn or only child, (especially if they don't attend daycare) talking often comes later simply because they don't have an example to follow. Don't worry, he'll learn, even though it will feel like it will take forever.
Awesome - of course, as with all things, I saw some chart that was like "By 14 months they should have 3 words" and I was like, oh shit. WHAT HAVE I DONE?
They are the first, and thanks to COVID they're also kind of stuck with mom and dad only for 90% of their time.
He has started dancing, so until the talking starts I'm going to enjoy his patented right foot stop while left arm swings wildly. His grandparents gave him this "Tonie" box that has little NFC figures you can pop on it that do different things, and he's learned the little dog means its time to get the Wheels on the Bus party started.
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
My daughter didn't really start using words until around 18 or so months. [...] Then out of nowhere a switch happened and 9 years later she doesn't stop talking lol
That's what my mom has said about me. Repeatedly.
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Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
Awesome - of course, as with all things, I saw some chart that was like "By 14 months they should have 3 words" and I was like, oh shit. WHAT HAVE I DONE?
They are the first, and thanks to COVID they're also kind of stuck with mom and dad only for 90% of their time.
He has started dancing, so until the talking starts I'm going to enjoy his patented right foot stop while left arm swings wildly. His grandparents gave him this "Tonie" box that has little NFC figures you can pop on it that do different things, and he's learned the little dog means its time to get the Wheels on the Bus party started.
Anecdotally our pediatrician told us that since COVID kids are a little slower to develop verbally than they used to be because they aren't around as many talking people as before but it's not so much slower as to be a concern.
Also, to keep in mind for those "should have x words by y age" things; you count as a "word" anything that they do consistently to communicate a concept to you. For example, if your kid knows the baby sign for 'more' and uses it at dinner to ask for more food that's a word even if it's not out loud. Likewise it doesn't even have to be the right word if it's out loud, if they say 'boose' and give you their cup and you know they want more juice because 'boose' is what they call juice that's a word.
Edit: damn you drafts feature you got me again.
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Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
edited June 2022
To update on sick baby because I had a leftover draft that I forgot to post; he recovered after about 18 hours and 4 enormous poops so we're guessing he had a bit of upset stomach. He even slept okay last night which is good because Mrs. Red Robe had to hold him all night the previous night for him to sleep at all and she really didn't want to do that again.
Also, to keep in mind for those "should have x words by y age" things; you count as a "word" anything that they do consistently to communicate a concept to you.
My son's first "word" was "dis". It meant "cat". Near as we could figure out, he was picking up us saying "What's THIS?" and one thing led to another...
Also, he fairly early called me "Dah." After he started doing that, it was like a month or two and he still hadn't called his mom anything. He had picked up all kinds of other words, like "banana." At one point, he called her "manana" and we went with that. She was "manana" for quite a while before he finally picked up "mah" or something.
Of course, I should point out he is autistic. However, he's extremely talkative so that might just be coincidental. Sometimes he talks like a Victorian gentleman. Yesterday he asked his sister, "Shall I do it?"
Also, to keep in mind for those "should have x words by y age" things; you count as a "word" anything that they do consistently to communicate a concept to you.
My son's first "word" was "dis". It meant "cat". Near as we could figure out, he was picking up us saying "What's THIS?" and one thing led to another...
Also, he fairly early called me "Dah." After he started doing that, it was like a month or two and he still hadn't called his mom anything. He had picked up all kinds of other words, like "banana." At one point, he called her "manana" and we went with that. She was "manana" for quite a while before he finally picked up "mah" or something.
Of course, I should point out he is autistic. However, he's extremely talkative so that might just be coincidental. Sometimes he talks like a Victorian gentleman. Yesterday he asked his sister, "Shall I do it?"
Neither of my boys started talking much beyond mama/baba and maybe 3-4 more things until they were older than 2. But, we have a bilingual household and that apparently delays things. They're now 2.5/4.5 and talk constantly.
Yeah my daughter didn't talk to the point that our pediatrician got us set up with early intervention, and she still didn't really talk, and everyone was panicking, and my dad was like "Enjoy it, in a year she won't shut up" and lo and behold a year later all the words that were dammed up were released in a giant flood that has yet to subside.
Obviously talk to your pediatrician and such, but I'm another data point on the "baby didn't talk until suddenly ALL THE TALKING" scale.
Our daughter didn't start speaking by the typical times expected, so we started going down the intervention path. We had a zoom call with the team because she was around 18 months May/June 2020 and everything was on lockdown. Luckily for us, the team said her hearing seemed fine (she would look when we called her name or made a clap or other sound outside her vision) and she would try to do some of the sign language so they thought she was just a little slow on the speech development, which was relatively common on premature babies (she was born at 36 weeks). Probably 2 weeks after that session, her first word was uttered, "bubbles" and we haven't been able to get her to be quiet ever since
My son's first "word" was "dis". It meant "cat". Near as we could figure out, he was picking up us saying "What's THIS?" and one thing led to another...
Henry did something similar starting about 4 months. He'd point at something and say "sat". If you didn't respond, he'd do it again more insistently. If you answered he'd point to something else, "sat". Asking "what's that". His actual first word wasn't for another 6 months, when he said "duck" at 10 months old, but for those 6 months he never stopped asking what stuff was.
Generally, if it's a problem and they aren't interacting/ communicating in their own way,... then it's more of a concern. Could be hearing issues, or something else a doctor should be aware of to look at.
We took my son to speech therapy when he had a hard time communicating, and would have massive melt- downs due to not being understood. But if they're ok, and doctor thinks they're ok, then milestones really are just basic guidelines
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
First - early talker, full sentences by a year
Middle - basically normal, right on the average milestones
Last - didn't speak more than a few words until nearly 2, then jumped to fully formed sentences within a week.
First - early talker, full sentences by a year
Middle - basically normal, right on the average milestones
Last - didn't speak more than a few words until nearly 2, then jumped to fully formed sentences within a week.
I also wonder how much it has to do with siblings. You can make the argument that they hear more words and thus should be speaking earlier. But on the other hand, sometimes it's hard to get a word in edgewise, and siblings often take it upon themselves to speak for you.
Before I (youngest of three brothers, 3 and 4 years older) entered my "won't shut up" phase, I apparently would give very short responses to questions. Like "yes", "no", or "I don't like it". My mom said I understood everything and could talk, but just seemed to choose not to.
First - early talker, full sentences by a year
Middle - basically normal, right on the average milestones
Last - didn't speak more than a few words until nearly 2, then jumped to fully formed sentences within a week.
I also wonder how much it has to do with siblings. You can make the argument that they hear more words and thus should be speaking earlier. But on the other hand, sometimes it's hard to get a word in edgewise, and siblings often take it upon themselves to speak for you.
Before I (youngest of three brothers, 3 and 4 years older) entered my "won't shut up" phase, I apparently would give very short responses to questions. Like "yes", "no", or "I don't like it". My mom said I understood everything and could talk, but just seemed to choose not to.
Yeah, my older kid will kind of interpret what the younger one wants. So the younger one didn't need to actually "speak" as much.
Yeah my daughter didn't talk to the point that our pediatrician got us set up with early intervention, and she still didn't really talk, and everyone was panicking, and my dad was like "Enjoy it, in a year she won't shut up" and lo and behold a year later all the words that were dammed up were released in a giant flood that has yet to subside.
Obviously talk to your pediatrician and such, but I'm another data point on the "baby didn't talk until suddenly ALL THE TALKING" scale.
We qualified for early intervention for my daughter for both speech and walking. In the two weeks between the scheduling of the evaluation and the actual day of, she started not just walking, but running. We still did the speech sessions and it was fantastic. We obviously can’t know how she would have done without them, but she really improved dramatically and (mostly) loved them.
My second kid didn’t qualify, and we really wish he had.
Does anyone have any tips on getting a little one to talk? Lately I've started kind of worrying about our 16 month old's speech.
The little dude babbles like crazy. He's always mumbling to himself and quite often stands there and orders me around with a series of points and grunts. But I can not get him to say a word, or repeat anything I say to him.
He's incredibly communicative, but outside of "mama" and "Dada" (the latter of which he has kind of stopped saying), he doesn't say any actual words. When I said "do you want to go out? Can you say out?" He simply walks to the door and starts pulling on the knob. When I said "Can you say goodbye?" he waves. When I say "Lets say Thank You" he does the sign language. Same with "Would you like more?", he does the sign language for more.
So he understands me, and he communicates back, but I can not figure out how to get him to repeat anything back to me. I know he understands "Can you say..." because if I ask, can you say mama, he does it immediately. But if I say, "Can you say hi?", it's always a hand wave.
Any ideas, or should I just not worry about it?
According to my mom, I only babbled and didn't speak until I was 3 years old. My pediatrician told her there was obviously nothing wrong with my throat or voice, so nothing to worry about. Every child develop at their own pace, and I was just later than average when it came to speaking. Once I started talking, I basically skipped the entire baby-talk phase and caught up with the other 3 year olds.
From what you describe, your son is intelligent, understands you fine and communicates well. He can vocalize, he's just not ready to do it as his main form of communication yet. Keep trying, but don't stress out, is my advice.
Talking about the dah/manana story above just made me have to hunt down this clip again. I think it's a good one for any parents of young children to watch. I'm not sure it actually helps, but maybe it lowers your expectations while also letting you know you're not along in your misery.
They'll just straight up tell you these things. Even though my son said "dah" first, I have been that man. Often kids will alternate over time.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I'll echo what others have said, don't panic.
Kiddo is doing fine with communication and letting you know their needs. Sign language is still communication.
You are still able to get through the majority of life tasks without the dreaded "I can't communicate what I want and it's super frustrating that the giant human doesn't understand me so I'm going to have a ridiculous tantrum because I lack basic communication skills" situation.
The amount of times I would utter the phrase "user your words" to Ellie was ridiculous. And she would get So Angry because obviously mommy understood what she wanted so why am I not just giving it to her FFS. "Use your words". Fiiiiinnneeee mommy, "cup". "Yes we can get a drink now. Good job!"
But then she was using sign when she was 5 months old? And talking non stop at a year (help me she still is talking. Help).
But yes, sign is still communication. Lean into it even, give them a second language and stick with it if you can.
My 4 year old is mostly clean. At daycare, at her grandparents, in public, she's fine. But at home she's careless and pees and even poops herself. She's also still wearing pull-ups to sleep, and peeing at night doesn't wake her up.
My 4 year old is mostly clean. At daycare, at her grandparents, in public, she's fine. But at home she's careless and pees and even poops herself. She's also still wearing pull-ups to sleep, and peeing at night doesn't wake her up.
How does that line up with people's experiences?
While nighttime poops were rare, I think it was probably until she was about 6 that our daughter still had wet nighttime pullups. We just went with the flow and figured it'd eventually work itself out. I think "mostly clean" at 4 years old is probably ahead of the curve.
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Possibly too late now, but is it just a fever, or is it accompanied by a lot more uncomfortableness? I'm just going to throw out that treating a fever doesn't really help treat what's causing it.
https://www.westchesterhealth.com/blog/why-in-most-cases-you-should-let-your-babys-fever-run-its-course/
https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=not-all-fevers-need-treatment-88-p11048
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fever/in-depth/fever/art-20050997
Treating for comfort is totally understandable, though! And if it's high enough, you should not only treat it but seek medical attention, of course. The Mayo article gives good guidelines on when to make the call to go to the doctor.
I read this advice (and also a later-debunked study linking acetaminophen use in children to increased risk for asthma) when our kids were infants/toddlers. I almost never give my kids anything if they're otherwise okay. They run around just fine with 101 degree fevers.
We just told our daughter straight up how babies are made (usually it's a mom and a dad, things are stuck into other things, sperms and eggs etc). But only grown-ups do that and can have babies, ok? Sure!
Some months later she comes back with "Dad, if only grown-ups can have babies. Who had the first baby!?"
And that's how we ended up spending an afternoon explaining evolution to our 3-year old. Including the families of the animal kingdom as she pointed out that our dog couldn't have come from a monkey...
I love it when she asks the right questions, it means we are doing something right at least.
What did the chicken say to the dinosaur?
"We're 'roar-lated'."
"Nah man, fuck that. There's your problem. You're listening to garbage. You wanna feel better? Open an 80s Rock playlist on Spotify."
"What? That's stupid."
"Just try it, trust me."
"Ugh, fine!"
*30 minutes later*
"How is this working? Why do I feel so much better listening to these old ass songs?"
"You see, music from post-2000 is great. Easy to sing along to, hum, or just enjoy in the background. But rock from the 70s and 80s demands a part of your soul gets excited and it refuses to leave you alone until it gets what it wants."
For context, my wife was born in China and didn't come to America until the mid-90s. She's hardly heard any rock from the 70s or 80s unless it was in a movie or tv show. Like, a lot of awful Glee remixes (ugh!). While she's not a hardcore fan, that playlist has been up and running on her second monitor ever since. Never underestimate the power of hype/uplifting/actiony rock to knock you out of a funk.
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I love that it shows that as far as your daughter knows, your dog is part of the family. Pack bond is humanity's super power.
Haha. Sapling had almost exactly the same question half way through the book. I figured we'd give it a couple of weeks before I start diving into evolution, trying to avoid hitting a flash point with my religious parents for as long as possible.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
So the mom of the family has brown eyes and is older than the dad who has green eyes. And the older kid has brown eyes and the young kid at green eyes so *obviously* the eye colour has to do with age.
So yeah, time for my 6 year old to learn some basics on Dominant and Recessive genes.
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Edit: And then I start talking to my son about it, and he asks questions, and I find out eye pigmentation is WAY more complicated.
Reminds me of how I learned the complexities of the fusion cycle in stars by accident.
Edit: Lithium does not come after helium in the stellar fusion cycle, and that confused the heck out of me.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I usually use a pretty static chart to explain it and then weave in the other complexities later:
Hydrogen plus Hydrogen produces helium
Helium Triple-alpha (three helium-4) produce Carbon
Carbon plus helium produces oxygen.
Oxygen plus helium produces neon.
Neon plus helium produces magnesium.
Magnesium plus helium produces silicon.
Silicon plus helium produces sulfur.
Sulfur plus helium produces argon.
Argon plus helium produces calcium.
Calcium plus helium produces titanium.
Titanium plus helium produces chromium.
Chromium plus helium produces iron.
The basic gist is what is produced from helium onward is heavier elements but only those with even numbers of protons until iron. It stops at iron because iron is so tightly bound there is no energy extraction that can occur, fusion of it only happens if other forces overcome nuclear bonds to push it that way on to the more explosive, collapsing-type ends.
Lithium does have an interesting part in fusion but it’s a thing happening in brown dwarfs and not standard fusion.
The little dude babbles like crazy. He's always mumbling to himself and quite often stands there and orders me around with a series of points and grunts. But I can not get him to say a word, or repeat anything I say to him.
He's incredibly communicative, but outside of "mama" and "Dada" (the latter of which he has kind of stopped saying), he doesn't say any actual words. When I said "do you want to go out? Can you say out?" He simply walks to the door and starts pulling on the knob. When I said "Can you say goodbye?" he waves. When I say "Lets say Thank You" he does the sign language. Same with "Would you like more?", he does the sign language for more.
So he understands me, and he communicates back, but I can not figure out how to get him to repeat anything back to me. I know he understands "Can you say..." because if I ask, can you say mama, he does it immediately. But if I say, "Can you say hi?", it's always a hand wave.
Any ideas, or should I just not worry about it?
Is he around other children his age? Maybe it would help.
WoW
Dear Satan.....
They are the first, and thanks to COVID they're also kind of stuck with mom and dad only for 90% of their time.
He has started dancing, so until the talking starts I'm going to enjoy his patented right foot stop while left arm swings wildly. His grandparents gave him this "Tonie" box that has little NFC figures you can pop on it that do different things, and he's learned the little dog means its time to get the Wheels on the Bus party started.
That's what my mom has said about me. Repeatedly.
Anecdotally our pediatrician told us that since COVID kids are a little slower to develop verbally than they used to be because they aren't around as many talking people as before but it's not so much slower as to be a concern.
Also, to keep in mind for those "should have x words by y age" things; you count as a "word" anything that they do consistently to communicate a concept to you. For example, if your kid knows the baby sign for 'more' and uses it at dinner to ask for more food that's a word even if it's not out loud. Likewise it doesn't even have to be the right word if it's out loud, if they say 'boose' and give you their cup and you know they want more juice because 'boose' is what they call juice that's a word.
Edit: damn you drafts feature you got me again.
My son's first "word" was "dis". It meant "cat". Near as we could figure out, he was picking up us saying "What's THIS?" and one thing led to another...
Also, he fairly early called me "Dah." After he started doing that, it was like a month or two and he still hadn't called his mom anything. He had picked up all kinds of other words, like "banana." At one point, he called her "manana" and we went with that. She was "manana" for quite a while before he finally picked up "mah" or something.
Of course, I should point out he is autistic. However, he's extremely talkative so that might just be coincidental. Sometimes he talks like a Victorian gentleman. Yesterday he asked his sister, "Shall I do it?"
Neither of my boys started talking much beyond mama/baba and maybe 3-4 more things until they were older than 2. But, we have a bilingual household and that apparently delays things. They're now 2.5/4.5 and talk constantly.
Obviously talk to your pediatrician and such, but I'm another data point on the "baby didn't talk until suddenly ALL THE TALKING" scale.
Henry did something similar starting about 4 months. He'd point at something and say "sat". If you didn't respond, he'd do it again more insistently. If you answered he'd point to something else, "sat". Asking "what's that". His actual first word wasn't for another 6 months, when he said "duck" at 10 months old, but for those 6 months he never stopped asking what stuff was.
We took my son to speech therapy when he had a hard time communicating, and would have massive melt- downs due to not being understood. But if they're ok, and doctor thinks they're ok, then milestones really are just basic guidelines
Middle - basically normal, right on the average milestones
Last - didn't speak more than a few words until nearly 2, then jumped to fully formed sentences within a week.
I also wonder how much it has to do with siblings. You can make the argument that they hear more words and thus should be speaking earlier. But on the other hand, sometimes it's hard to get a word in edgewise, and siblings often take it upon themselves to speak for you.
Before I (youngest of three brothers, 3 and 4 years older) entered my "won't shut up" phase, I apparently would give very short responses to questions. Like "yes", "no", or "I don't like it". My mom said I understood everything and could talk, but just seemed to choose not to.
Yeah, my older kid will kind of interpret what the younger one wants. So the younger one didn't need to actually "speak" as much.
We qualified for early intervention for my daughter for both speech and walking. In the two weeks between the scheduling of the evaluation and the actual day of, she started not just walking, but running. We still did the speech sessions and it was fantastic. We obviously can’t know how she would have done without them, but she really improved dramatically and (mostly) loved them.
My second kid didn’t qualify, and we really wish he had.
According to my mom, I only babbled and didn't speak until I was 3 years old. My pediatrician told her there was obviously nothing wrong with my throat or voice, so nothing to worry about. Every child develop at their own pace, and I was just later than average when it came to speaking. Once I started talking, I basically skipped the entire baby-talk phase and caught up with the other 3 year olds.
From what you describe, your son is intelligent, understands you fine and communicates well. He can vocalize, he's just not ready to do it as his main form of communication yet. Keep trying, but don't stress out, is my advice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vR0QAN9Jlw
They'll just straight up tell you these things. Even though my son said "dah" first, I have been that man. Often kids will alternate over time.
Kiddo is doing fine with communication and letting you know their needs. Sign language is still communication.
You are still able to get through the majority of life tasks without the dreaded "I can't communicate what I want and it's super frustrating that the giant human doesn't understand me so I'm going to have a ridiculous tantrum because I lack basic communication skills" situation.
The amount of times I would utter the phrase "user your words" to Ellie was ridiculous. And she would get So Angry because obviously mommy understood what she wanted so why am I not just giving it to her FFS. "Use your words". Fiiiiinnneeee mommy, "cup". "Yes we can get a drink now. Good job!"
But then she was using sign when she was 5 months old? And talking non stop at a year (help me she still is talking. Help).
But yes, sign is still communication. Lean into it even, give them a second language and stick with it if you can.
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My 4 year old is mostly clean. At daycare, at her grandparents, in public, she's fine. But at home she's careless and pees and even poops herself. She's also still wearing pull-ups to sleep, and peeing at night doesn't wake her up.
How does that line up with people's experiences?
Our daughter sometimes had an itch in her... pachina.
While nighttime poops were rare, I think it was probably until she was about 6 that our daughter still had wet nighttime pullups. We just went with the flow and figured it'd eventually work itself out. I think "mostly clean" at 4 years old is probably ahead of the curve.
I blame Minions.
After breakfast and we had erased it, Jaina wrote "fankx for the presnints Santa" back.
I burped and made a ribbit sound while doing so then looked at the 5 year old, gasped in astonishment, and said "mouth frogs!"
He promptly looked at his dad and tried to ask "mouth frogs?" except what he said was "mouvafuggehs?" which sounded way too much like "motherfuckers?"
His mom and I busted out laughing immediately while his dad just looked at me with a dead eyed stare and said "Thanks, Happy."