Expert: Jene Aviram - 8/9/2009

Question
Hi,
I am a first time mom so I don't have any other children to compare my baby with. Is this normal for a 4 month old baby, about to be 5 months? Sometimes I cannot get her attention, even when I get in her face and make noises. Sometimes I try to do funny things to make her smile and she just stares at me like I'm a crazy mommy. She pays attention to me most of the time when I speak to her and she smiles in response to me often, but it worries me when she ignores me. Also, I hardly have any pictures of her smiling! As soon as I get the camera out she stops smiling to look at the camera like, what is that thing? Not sure if that is related, but I get jealous of all the beautiful smiling baby pictures I see from other moms. :)
Thank you for your help.

Answer
Hi Bonnie,

I know it's hard not to worry.  Once we have babies, we worry about everything!  Your daughter is very young to detect autism.  Although some markers are present before, it's hard to diagnose a child before they are 18 months old.  

Your daughter is still developing her vision.  She's trying to take in everything around her.  Can you imagine how fascinating it is to see everything for the first time?  She is obviously very curious and thoughtful about the things around her.  Perhaps she'll grow up to be one of the greatest thinkers of our time.

She seems to be social and this is so important.  She pays attention to you and knows you are her mom.  As she grows, she will smile and laugh a lot more often.  And she will smile for the camera.  And trust me, people spend a LOT of time trying to make their babies smile for photos!  Especially at this age!  It does not sound to me like your daughter is at risk.  My guess is that she is going to be just fine.

I hope this has been of some help.

Jene Aviram
http://www.nlconcepts.com