My baby is 9 months old, and even though she isn’t saying ‘bye-bye’ explicitly, she says ‘ba-ba’ when socially prompted and spontaneously waves it when she’s saying goodbye to her toys or even for her poop in the potty. Does a word count even if it’s not pronounced correctly?
Yes, it definitely counts!
By the way, your baby is already potty trained at 9 months? Wow!
Vale said:
Yes, it definitely counts!
By the way, your baby is already potty trained at 9 months? Wow!
Yes! She has been poop potty trained since she was 4 months old. I’ve been practicing Elimination Communication since she was 3 weeks old. I usually go through 0-5 diapers each day, and they’ve only been pee for the last 5 months. It’s working out great; I highly recommend it!
Also, it’s amazing that ‘ba-ba’ counts as her first word. Bye-Bye was my first word too!
@Devi
Please, please share how you do that! I need to know your secrets!
Abi said:
@Devi
Please, please share how you do that! I need to know your secrets!
Check out r/ecers (Elimination Communication for Early Readers)!
Abi said:
@Devi
Please, please share how you do that! I need to know your secrets!
Look up Elimination Communication (EC) or Infant Natural Hygiene. To summarize, just like all mammals, human babies have instincts not to soil themselves. Parents need to tune into the cues when babies need to go. This was the norm for thousands of years before disposable diapers became mainstream in the 1950s. It’s still practiced in places where disposables aren’t accessible.
@Devi
I’ve read a lot, and I’ve been watching to learn my baby’s signals, but I feel like I’m falling short. My baby is 7 weeks old, and I can kind of tell when she’s going to poop, but not for peeing; it feels like a total surprise right now.
@Abi
You won’t feel confident in recognizing your baby’s cues until about 3 or 4 months. Just give it time for both of you to learn!
@Devi
I want to start, but my 7-month-old hates the potty. :c
@Devi
Same here! We’ve been doing EC since 4 months and regularly catch poops, though we’ve seen some regression since she started crawling and walking at 9 months. I consider my baby’s first word to be ‘maam’ to mean mom (and often, it also means food). I sometimes wonder if early milestones and EC are connected.
Yep! My son’s first words were ‘uh-oh!’ every time he intentionally threw his food on the floor.
Vic said:
Yep! My son’s first words were ‘uh-oh!’ every time he intentionally threw his food on the floor.
We had ‘ta’ for ‘thank you’ as the first but ‘uh-oh’ was a close second, thanks to the grandparents.
It worked out because if he fell, he’d just say ‘uh-oh’ instead of getting upset.
Vic said:
Yep! My son’s first words were ‘uh-oh!’ every time he intentionally threw his food on the floor.
Mine does that too, but with her water bottle. Now she says ‘go!!’ and throws her food.
Vic said:
Yep! My son’s first words were ‘uh-oh!’ every time he intentionally threw his food on the floor.
Yep, ‘uh-oh’ is the only word he says regularly, but I feel like he’s said ‘mama’ in context a few times.
Yes! Words said in the correct context count too, even if they aren’t pronounced perfectly.
Yes, it’s probably a word! It took us a while to realize my baby was saying ‘Hola’ whenever he saw anyone.
Yes, it counts! Also, if she says ‘ba-ba’ for both ‘bye-bye’ and for the bottle, that can count as two words!
Definitely a first word! Mine did the same.