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Happy Baby! How Smiles Develop
Those first gummy grins are actually just a reflex, but over the course of the next 12 months your baby will start to smile as a way of expressing pleasure, communicating with you, and, finally, developing a sense of humor. We'll take you through the stages.
You'll spot your newborn's first grin when he's asleep. You'll see him twitch, startle, and -- is that a smile? "During REM sleep your baby's body goes through physiological changes that activate certain reflexes, and one of those is a smile," says Pamela Garcy, PhD, a clinical psychologist in Dallas. At this point it's probably just a physical reaction, not an emotional sign.
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My son is 6 weeks old and he doesnt really smile or giggle. He coos but thats about it. Does that mean something is wrong?
7/13/2011 02:03:45 PM Report AbuseIt doesn't matter who's 100% correct, or who's 50% wrong. No matter what age, or who a baby knows or doesn't know. The feeling of those first (and continous) smiles, give any mom an undescribable feeling of love and happiness, and makes it all worthwhile:)
2/21/2011 03:30:44 PM Report AbuseMy Daughter is almost 7 weeks old.There were reflex smiles at first.But now her eyes light up when I talk to her and her smiles are huge open mouth grins and she just glows.She seems very advanced,more then her brothers when they were small.Plus how can she not know me yet? I am the only one that can sooth her and feed her.When I nurse her and she pulls off just to look in my eyes and grin,I know she knows I'm mom!
9/30/2010 05:52:07 PM Report Abusemy babay smiles at the sounds of the familliar voices she hear throughout the hpuse. Yes, there were reflex smiles, but there is a big difference between the reflex smiles and the genuine smiles. The genuine smiles are done with eye contact with baby searching for your voice, and once found, baby immediately smiles and giggles from excitement. All babies born in this era are more advance than ten years ago. they'll be even more advanced as the years roll by
8/6/2010 07:41:26 AM Report AbuseMy son is almost 7 weeks and smiles and laughs. He smiles when he sees me, his dad and when his sisters get home from school. We don't have to smile at him to have him give a big toothless grin to us. I think there's a lot even pediatricians don't know about babies...
6/2/2010 12:52:38 PM Report Abusemy daughter was smiling at 5 weeks. When we went to see her dad off for deployment, she would smile at him every time he would talk to her or walk into the room. I've seen the reflex smile, and this one was different.
5/7/2010 02:47:00 PM Report AbuseI don't agree with this pediatrician at all. My 7 wk old clearly knows when I come home from work after not being there all day. He will turn to see where my voice is coming from. Once he sees me smiling at him, he's all mushy and giggles and grins. Either this pediatrician hasn't had kids of her own and experienced falling in love every day with the light of a baby's smile, or she needs to go back to school...
4/10/2010 09:08:40 AM Report Abuse