There are many milestones that you and your baby will reach and
experience in the first year of your baby's life. Perhaps one of the
most rewarding milestones is your baby's first conscious smile
accompanied with a tiny giggle when seeing your face or recognizing your
voice. Smiling and laughing show that your baby not only can express
emotion but also proves that your baby understands emotion and empathy.
Since
all babies are different, there isn't a definite time when you can
expect your child to start smiling and laughing. When your baby is first
born, it will respond to various stimuli in their environment. For the
first few weeks of your baby's life, don't expect even a meaningful eye
contact, let alone a laugh or a smile. A smile at this age is only a gas
reflex and not an expression of emotion.
After about one month, you can
expect your child to start recognizing you and looking you in the eye,
which is a milestone all in itself. This signifies that your child
begins 'seeing' your face and knows where to look for you. As early as
five weeks of age you can see your baby's first smile as a reaction to
you playing with him or smiling at him or in a response to another
human, to a sound or to a certain movement and gesture.
In
addition to smiling, your child will also start making endearing silly
faces at you. Your baby will enjoy watching your face as if trying to
read it and will mimic your facial expressions and gestures as well.
After three months, your baby will still be spending most of their time
observing the world and watching what goes on around them. Around this
time, your baby will give their first real smile, not because they were
mimicking yours, but because they were genuinely happy. Your baby will
continue to "smile talk" for a few months.
After four months, your
child will finally have mastered the art of laughing. Whenever babies
meet a new person that they like, expect a sound of joy to come from
their mouth. New sounds, colors, interesting shapes can also trigger a
hearty giggle. However, your baby will reserve his best smiles for the
familiar faces and sounds of mom and dad. This is one of the first signs
of parent-child bonding and is a truly rewarding one.
At around
five months of age, your baby will have genuine laughs because he finds
something funny or entertaining. Tickles and facial expressions when
perceived as funny can cause a marathon of laughter. The same goes for
the presence of other babies, rhymes and certain songs - they can be
very amusing and can bring an avalanche of giggles and smiles.
Create positive excitement and joy for your baby; he will appreciate it and reward you with a smile to light up your heart.
Valentina Kaltchev is the founder of TheQuiltFairy.com, an online boutique for handmade baby quilts, baby crib bedding, nursery rugs and custom accessories in wide range of colors and themes to satisfy the most discriminating tastes.
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