When babies start blowing raspberries, it’s the most adorable thing you will see! If you’re wondering what blowing raspberries means, it’s the thing babies do when they stick their tongue out and make a razzing sound while occasionally giggling away!
Once they learn it, they can almost not stop doing it! It’s adorable to watch and almost impossible to resist imitating the same. Most of us, parents, looking at babies spitting bubbles as a funny thing they do, but what I learnt during my son’s development as a baby is that blowing raspberries is an important and crucial milestone too.
Baby spit bubbles = lip workout
Most babies started blowing raspberries around 6 to 8 months of age but some may start doing it as early as 5 months old. My son started doing it when he was a little over 5 months old and my daughter – around 7 months old. Blowing raspberries sets the foundation to many significant skills such as motor skills, language skills, and social skills.
The noise and the jaw movements babies make when they spit bubbles helps their lips and facial muscles exercise. They slowly start learning how to navigate through their lips, tongue, and mouth. This helps them at near-future scenarios where they have to seal their lips to a spoon while eating or a cup while drinking.
The noise they make also teaches them how to control their volume, the pitch, and how to turn it on and off. Soon after they start blowing raspberries, babies will start developing their speech skills and you will hear then say their first ‘gugu’ and ‘babababa’.
Join in with your little one!
I’m sure if you’ve noticed your baby blowing raspberries, you instinctively started doing it too. It is said that this act produces oxytocin that helps the mom and baby bond. Older siblings usually love this stage because they find babies blowing raspberries hilarious. My son is only a year or so older than my daughter so he couldn’t enjoy this much but my daughter started blowing raspberries during one of the vacations when my niece and nephew were home. They couldn’t stop laughing at Aarna the whole time and Aarna had a great time too.
When we imitate babies when they blow raspberries, it encourages them to do it – which in turn improves their language, motor, and social skills. When you do this with your baby, it releases oxytocin which helps you bond with your baby. Match the sound that they make – while making eye contact – so that they understand they can change their environment based on the sound they make.
While making spit bubbles is common among babies, some may skip this stage altogether and this does not in any way impact your child’s development. However, if you feel that your child is taking too long to develop his or her language skills, do visit a doctor.
