When my 9 month old gets hold of a new object or toy she rotates it over and over using both hands. She literally flips it over and over, in the same motion, for several minutes. She doesn't seem to do this as much with toys that she is familiar with, but as soon as we hand her something "new" she starts with the flipping. I had initially thought this was her being cute and curious, but lately other people have noticed it too. She seems to be developing fine in other areas, makes eye contact, is engaging, etc....Has anyone else experienced this? I'm a first time mom and am not sure if I should be concerned or if this is "normal"..
Normal and a good sign.
Keep in mind - she's only been on the planet for 9 months. EVERYTHING is a new discovery to her. :)
This isn't just normal, this is awesome. Your daughter is discovering, examining, the object she's just encountered. Please believe me, she's just fine. She's also perhaps figuring out "what it is", "how could this be manipulated", etc. Smart little girl!
And yes, the repetition is part of the learning/working toward mastery process babies have. Just like when they are trying to 'practice' flipping over or crawling in their sleep. Don't worry, your little gal's just fine.
I think it's absolutely normal! She is examining, exploring and discovering something new to her world. You yourself said she doesn't do it as much with things she is familiar with. One of my grandsons did this with most everything we handed him, he'd flip them over to see if they had a tag, he LOVED tags, lol!
As far as other people "noticing" her doing this, just say something like, "Oh, yes, she does that!" and stop them in their tracks. She is YOUR child, not theirs, and ALL babies are different and won't do everything exactly the same way, ever. My sister used to compare my little guy and my nephew (7 years older) on everything, but when my guy was potty trained and began getting up at night to use the potty on his own (I would have been happy to continue diapering him at night) and stayed dry throughout the night, at 27 months, she herself had to acknowledge he was doing great ; )
Honestly, IF my child wasn't curious about new things at this age I would be concerned, so be happy for her curiosity!
it sounds like you are worried about autism? autism is more prevalent in boys. While kids with Autism tend to do repetitive stuff like that. This sort of thing is not what defines it. If she is engaging she's fine :)
I mean she's nine months old :) everything is A-mazing. to her right now. She can do that sort of thing over and over and over and over and over.... again and never get bored because it's just the COOLEST thing EVER. Plus i think a child with Autism would keep doing it like spinning the wheel of a toy car over and over again the same toy car all day long all week long all month long...
oh and i just thought of another thing... a 9 month old baby is still learning dexterity ! she is probably just TOTALLY AMAZED at it and practicing i think i saw someone else say something about how they practice rolling over in their sleep. YEAH it's probably like that. Each new toy and each new skill is really just TOTALLY AWESOME to a baby. you know my first child didn't do that very much.. she never seemed to concerned with learning... and she's 7 now and she's still not :( she has add lol my youngest child is 15 months and it's just awesome watching her try to learn new things because she's so involved in it. determination. it's a great thing.
J.,
It sounds perfectly normal and reasonable (and cute) for a 9 month old baby to examine new objects this way. If you are still concerned ask your pediatrician. One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that the Dr will probably ask if your child points to object of interest. This normally develops around 10-12 months, so your child may not do it yet, but look out for it.
All the best,
R.
Personally, I think she's fine...she's just checking it out, and sometimes they might be trying to figure out if something still will look the same if they go back to it. And when they learn a new skill, it's fun to do it again and again. You can always ask the pediatrician about it if you are concerned but she sounds like she's just really curious...which is a GOOD thing!
This sounds perfectly fine. She is investigating new things. The fact that she doens't do this as much with familiar objects means it's her way of checking things out. If she did it incessantly and habitually for ages on end, then it might be some kind of issue, but honestly it sounds like normal infant exploration to me. Be glad that she is actively exploring and handling new objects. Think about it this way: If you handed her new objects and she showed no interest, or dropped them after a few seconds, wouldn't you be equally or more worried? That would be of much greater concern than the curiosity she is showing, so look on this as positive rather than worrying.
I don't see anything to worry about. She's checking out her new acquisition. Who knows, maybe she'll end up being an engineer!
Embrace her curiosity!
My grandson, who is a little older than your daughter, gets something new and flips it several times, holds it with one hand and then the other (very interesting when the object is Jello), checks for any buttons to push (also very interesting with Jello), and picks something else up with the other hand and seems to weigh the two in the balance.
You can always ask your doctor. There are no stupid questions for doctors - everything is OK, and the doctor's office people have heard nearly all questions imaginable. So don't be embarrassed to ask.
However, this *could* be the way your daughter investigates things right now, and she might enjoy the flipping-over game. She may do it some other way next month.
totally normal. she is learning about the object. How bright!
