7 months old not babbling, ped. suggested he may be slow?

[E m i c h i e e]

My son will be 7 months on the 19th, and has hit most milestones very early. Mostly when it comes to body strength. he was able lift his head since birth and perfectly hold it at one month, a few weeks later he was able to stand with his arms being held, he lifted his upper body when on his tummy and he has been able to see into the distance, and react to things since forever. He hates being on his tummy but seems to make good progress crawling when he is (he can't get anywhere yet but wiggles or goes backwards). He sits securely and passes items between his hands, hits things on the floor, or hits two things against each other (currently a spoon and a beaded necklace).

His speech development was also going well, he started cooing early, laughed out loud a few times at 2 months, at 3 months he added words like a-chr, ab-su and lots of simple aaaa's and oooo's.

But ever since, he has not really added anything much different to his vocabulary, especially not the babbling everyone says babies will start at 4-6 months.

His vocabulary is more like this:

aaaaaaaa!

gu!

hiya!

iya!

hyja iya 

usshh!

ut-seh!

Um-ne! , that is how he calls me

Um-me!, sometimes it sounds like that but we can clearly see he only uses it when he wants me

- He also says weird things sometimes that I can not put in words....

And he loves to blow spit bubbles, they sound like farts. He also loves a ton, really really loud laughter.

The pediatrician was really concerned about him not saying ba ba or ga ga, but we wanted to wait another month and see if he will start. His hearing was not thoroughly checked, but as far as the doctor could tell his hearing is good. He also reacts to his name.

She suggested he might be "slow", as in mentally delayed...but he does not seem like it at all, rather the opposite.

The same pediatrician was concerned about his iron levels at 6 months because he is still ebf, saying he needs solids asap (his iron is good)...so I figured she may be wrong with this one too.

Anyhow, can anyone shed some light on this? Should we be worried, or does he just do things at his own weird pace? 

[Peony]

I would say that your pedi is jumping the gun a little, he is 6 months old! Yes, around 6 months they start babbling, but it sounds like he is doing quite a bit of that, just not doing reduplicative babbling yet, the ba ba, or ga ga. Guidelines are just that, guidelines. You watch for the child to met them somewhat around the suggested time but many are going to be early or late and the majority of that means nothing. For the record my 7 month old only still shrieks, laughs, and whines, no other babbling yet. And for her to suggest that he is mentally slow, I think I'd be finding a new pedi tomorrow. Even if he is slow in speech, which it is WAY to early to say at 6 months old, then delayed speech can mean nothing about cognitive ability. Einstein did not speak until age 3-4, and obviously he had decreased cognitive skills. 

Expressive speech and comprehensive are two entirely different things and I would seriously wonder about a pedi that didn't recognize that even though speech language development is not their speciality, they should know that and not be suggesting to parents that their child is slow. I do have a child that is speech delayed, about a year behind. By the time he was 12 months old and not babbling really at all, then we red flagged him and started speech therapy at 18 months which is the soonest our local EI will do ST. And guess what, despite limited verbal skills, that kid is smart as a whip. His first few words were naming his ABCs and counting, things that we were not teaching him because we were focusing on trying to teach him words that were more important. Even if your child was delayed in all areas, which is something that would be more likely if there were possible cognitive issues going on, then being later (and he is not late yet) on one milestone, then a pedi is still not qualified to suggest something to a parent at a 6 month visit. 

[Katie8681]

Um, "slow"?  Bye-bye pedi! 

[Stayseeliz]

DD3 was a little on the slower side when it came to babbling but she's a big "talker" now at 11mo. I wouldn't worry!

[alegna]

Dd was never a babbler.  Ds did babble, but I doubt it was perfectly on schedule like your ped seems to want.

Time for a new ped.

[E m i c h i e e]

Thanks everyone. We just needed to be reassured. Like I said, he is developing fast with most things (he hates tummy time, but oh well...), so it was like a slap in the face when she suggested he might be a bit slow. 

We decided not to see this pediatrician anymore since that one visit at 6 months, she seemed to be concerned with many stupid things. Like him grabbing his feet, he was not then but just a week later he started.

Oh and when she heard we were still ebf, she suggested to give him a chunk of bread to gnaw on ..great first baby food. 

And as far as her comment goes,- we live in Germany, and doctors (as well as other Germans), tend to be more rude, or too open with how they comment/ opinions/ advice etc. I'm German, and I'm even criticizing that. It is neither polite, nor professional. I remember doctors telling me to eat some more cake to fatten up, because I am thin.

Anyhow, we have a new pedi for next time, just hope she is better.

[Wendy Medina]

Funny thing My daughter is just 7 months and not babbling.  like your baby she screams and blows bubbles things like that but no Dada or gaga.  I have just read your post and I am shocked to   hear that the pedi said that to you that is just wrong like another mother said they cant determine that until later on in there life and as far as the bread goes all I can say is OMG when a baby is bf then the mothers diet needs to change in order to give the baby the correct vitamins not giving the baby bread. You also mentioned that you live in Germany one thing I can say is I don't care in what part of the world you are in Dr. need to follow a rule of ethic you need to report this pedi to the board of pediatric because they are totally out of line.  I cant even begin to imagine what you and your family went through talk about STRESS.  I'm glad you got  a new pedi and I'm sure your baby is just fine. Thank you for sharing you story I need to give my pedi a big hug she is such a great person and Dr.  always assures me that everything is just fine and she will develop at her own pace not to rush it.  

[diana73041]

hello.  I know this post is a few months old, But i was  hoping for an update.  My baby is doing the same thing plus not responding to his name all the time and im very nervous.  Any update would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance Diana.

[diana73041]

Hello Wendy   How is your baby doing?

[motherhendoula]

This is WAY TOO EARLY to tell ...and to call him 'slow'!  such bad manners!  She cant make that determination - she can urge you to see a hearing specialist ....she can refer you to other specialists ...who would probably laugh because its way too early to tell such a thing....plus from what you wrote it sounds like he IS babbling....

My son was a year old before he could consistantly say 'mah'   - i was worried about him....but my ped said hes fine, now hes 2 and still is not talking as well as many 2 yr olds....but no one has suggested that he is slow because of it - the ped still says he is just fine.