My 13-mo-old says Dada consistently for Daddy and says mum mum for food (Chinese baby slang for food) but not Mom. He says baba every time I say Mommy or Mama. It's not like he doesn't have the M sound so I don't know why he wouldn't call me Mama? Any ideas why?i was worried that it would be something wrong with his hearing but since he says mum mum consistently, it shouldn't be the case.
When did your baby first said Mom/Dad?
- Thread starter mamapanda
- Start date
Babies are just rude! My 15-moth-old does not say Mama or Mummy yet though he says Dada. I think Dada is just easier to pronounce. And my husband spent some time coaching him.
My baby's first would was'this' though, and then 'car' though at 13 months, followed by 'ba' for bus. Clearly his priorities are not his parents. At 13 months, I checked with the ped because at the time he was only saying 'this' and 'car' and the latter quite randomly and my ped said not to worry. I mentioned he wasn't saying mamma-dada and he said it's fine. As long as my son was responding he was not deaf and that kids develop at their own pace, with boys lagging slightly when starting speech.
My baby's first would was'this' though, and then 'car' though at 13 months, followed by 'ba' for bus. Clearly his priorities are not his parents. At 13 months, I checked with the ped because at the time he was only saying 'this' and 'car' and the latter quite randomly and my ped said not to worry. I mentioned he wasn't saying mamma-dada and he said it's fine. As long as my son was responding he was not deaf and that kids develop at their own pace, with boys lagging slightly when starting speech.
nicolejoy
Registered User
My 20 month old is delayed in speech and says only a handful of words. She is rare in that she says "mama" and not "dada". In addition to "mama", she can somewhat say "hi" and "no", and a few other words if you stretch the imagination a bit 
She does have medical reasons for her delayed speech but the pediatricians, developmental neurologist and speech therapists are not concerned at the moment and are positive that she will be able to catch up since she is not cognitively delayed. We'll see... being a mum, I still worry about it a bit - but at this stage, there's not that much we can do anyway.
She does have medical reasons for her delayed speech but the pediatricians, developmental neurologist and speech therapists are not concerned at the moment and are positive that she will be able to catch up since she is not cognitively delayed. We'll see... being a mum, I still worry about it a bit - but at this stage, there's not that much we can do anyway.Nothing wrong with your child's hearing based on what you described. Children choose what they want to say and when they want to say it--I always jokingly say when I try to get my son or daughter to say or do something I know they can do (like "blow us a kiss") and they refuse to...I always say, "Ah, so you're not a trained circus monkey, huh?" They really aren't.
I really don't remember when my son first said Mama and Dadda. One of his first words was apple and after that it was ball. After that he liked to say, "Gai gai" as in "hui gai gai" ("go out for a walk"--Cantonese).
My daughter LOVES to say both "Dadda" and her brother's name (also two syllables). Next to that she loves to say "bye bye", "bei" ("give"-Cantonese) and "mum mum" (for eating) and "milk" (for breastfeeding time). She rarely says "Mama." She's 12-months-old. I'm not worried about it at all. Doesn't mean she loves me less.
The sound 'mama' seems harder to make. My baby started saying 'mamamamama' at around 8 months old, but as far as I could tell she is not calling me, but just a sound she's learned to make. 'Dadada' came much earlier around 5 months. 'Baba' started recently at around 9 months, but again I think it's just sounds she's making, as much as we like to think she's calling us!