10 Months Old No Teeth And Refuses To Say Mama

by Kelly
(Cathedral City)

Is it normal for my 10 months olddaughter to only say dad,dadda,daddy,and shake her head NO profusely when asked to say mama?

It hurts my feelings.

Plus she doesn't have a sign of a tooth in her mouth.

She can say ba ba, bye bye but when it comes to mama the closest I can get is BOB. So for now I'm BOB. My seven year old girl calls me mom, my 10 year old step daughter calls me Kelly and my 10 month old calls me Bob. Sometimes I forget who I really am!

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Baby Help Line:

Stimulating Language Development For 10 Month Old

Hi Kelly (or should I say Bob?),

Good on you for having a giggle about it all!
Don't take it personally, sounds like Da Da and Ba Ba are the easiest to make. Your little girl is not learning language to please you or refusing to learn to hurt your feelings.

These things come in time and your baby is still very young to have much cognitive control over her language. She can understand a lot more, but is only just beginning to get control of her vocal chords and experiment with sounds. Most of her chatting, will be just cute babbling gibberish, with accidental words popping out. It may even just be coincidence that she says Dadda, it is an easy sound, and she may not even associate it with her father yet.

The most important thing is just have fun with her and talk as much as you can around her.

Studies have shown that babies that are exposed to lots of language, conversations and words excel in later life in many areas. So tell her what you are doing, even the boring things like vacuuming and washing dishes. Play naming games - pointing to things like cup, ball, toes, Mommy, milk etc. (You can find more game ideas for 10 month olds here.)

But don't feel your baby's language achievements are in anyway a reflection of her love for you, you will still be her primary attachment at this stage.

And as for her teeth - they will come in time. My grand-daughter is nearly one and only just has her two first teeth, whereas some babies get their first tooth before six months. They will most likely all pop out quickly in a short period of time!

Wishing you lots of fun with your children,
Annie Desantis

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