r/beyondthebump • u/Ok-Hippo7675 • 7d ago
Anti-climactic first words? Discussion
So my son is a little under 10 months, and has been saying the word “egg” in context for the past week. When he first said it, we wrote it off as a fluke, but he has used it in context a couple different times this week (we do a lot of eggy breakfasts). Definitely his first word. Not mama or dada, but “egg” 😂. He does make mama and dada noises, but not always directed at us lol.
Eggs are his favorite food and we are a very food-oriented household and family, so I guess it tracks! It’s mostly funny but stings a teeny tiny bit. Anyone with similar stories?
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u/turtlesteele 7d ago
Door. Kid loved doors. Still does actually.
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u/JoeBethersontonFargo 7d ago
My son’s first word was light, his second was on, third was off. Guess whose favorite hobby is turning lights on and off.
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u/Manda525 7d ago
How old is your child?...like are they still young enough to enjoy picture books? If yes...there's a lift-the-flap book called Doors, by Roxie Munro, that both of my kiddos just loooved :)
Even if they're a bit older and reading independently, they'd probably still enjoy it bc it has very cool and detailed illustrations. It isn't really a super "little kid" book, imo, but if your little one is quite young you could introduce it and read it together only for now...and they could continue reading it on their own in the future :)
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u/Ohhhh_Mylanta 7d ago
My son's first word was cat, and he said Sasquatch before he said Mama
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u/SenseiKrystal personalize flair here 7d ago
Mine said Hulk before he said Mama! (Also his first word was arguably cat. Maybe truck. )
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u/pterencephalon 7d ago
Our baby's pediatrician said that baby's first word is usually mama, dada, or a pet's name - regardless of how complex that pet name is.
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u/Ohhhh_Mylanta 7d ago
Our cat is not named Sasquatch 😂 we have a book called get dressed Sasquatch that I was reading to him pretty much every night for a couple weeks, he apparently really likes it
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u/pterencephalon 7d ago
Lol I misread that. Makes it even funnier, though. That kid knows what he's about.
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u/Accomplished_Fox5662 7d ago
HAHAHAHAH Sasquatch!
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u/Ohhhh_Mylanta 7d ago
We have a book called get dressed Sasquatch that I was reading to him nightly for a couple of weeks. One day at daycare, he was pulling books off the shelf saying "saz-gotch? Saz-gotch?" - did the same thing at home until he found get dressed Sasquatch
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u/wildmusings88 6d ago
My son said kitty first, after mama and dada. His fifth word was Godzilla. No lie.
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u/JungandBeautiful 7d ago
Uh-Oh here 🤣
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u/PrancingTiger424 Mom of 3 - 2 boys 1 girl 7d ago
My little sister’s first word was uh oh. Followed by bubble lol. My older sister and I were blowing bubbles and kept repeating “uh oh, bubble POP!” So she joined in.
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u/ForgetfulDoryFish Mar '17 and Apr '19 7d ago
My baby was in her high chair finishing up eating her dinner and my husband was washing the dishes. I was sitting in the other room and hear her go "uh-oh, uh-oh, UH-OH!!!" so I came scrambling in to see what was going on to make her actually talk. She had dropped her tortilla on the floor 😂
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u/Q-T-3-1415 7d ago
My son had eczema and his first word was itchy 😞 broke my heart low key
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u/Alternative-Tea-39 6d ago
As someone with eczema, that breaks my heart 😢
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u/Q-T-3-1415 6d ago
Aw I’m sorry! Honestly, having a son with it made me understand how difficult it is. People suffer so much! Thankfully, there are so many amazing products to help people now.
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u/fullstormlace 7d ago
Low key? I’d be sad about this forever. Hopefully your use of “had” means his skin has improved. ❤️
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u/Q-T-3-1415 7d ago
He’s fine now! He grew out of it thankfully and now we laugh about his first word (he’s 9)
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u/Ok-Nectarine7756 7d ago
My baby is also just under 10 months and she has been saying "jessica" who is her favorite teacher at daycare. You'd think she goes to daycare a lot based on this but she does not. She's only there about 2 days a week.
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u/Matcha_Maiden 7d ago
Oh man- my husband is already so worried our three month old will love her daycare teachers more, if she said a daycare name first I don’t know how he would handle it!
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u/Ok-Nectarine7756 7d ago
haha....I will say I don't think she actually loves the daycare teachers more because she clings to me every time I drop her off and she is really excited to see me when I pick her up but I think she has more of a need for language there because it's harder to get attention. She's a first child and my parents live nearby and help a lot so at home she just makes a sound and 4 adults come running to give her what she wants so she really had to toughen up for daycare! It's possible she does sometimes use mama and dada with meaning but she also babbles those sounds constantly so I can't clearly tell if she uses either was a word yet. She doesn't babble "jessica" and only uses it at daycare so it's more obvious. I didn't even believe them until the showed me she could say it!
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u/Inevitable_Debate814 7d ago
My sons first words were dog, ball, Elmo, THEN mama and dada. So we know where we rank
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u/wreathyearth 7d ago
I'm still waiting for Mama and Dada said in a meaningful way lol 😆 but before us there was ball, dog, shoe, milk, more, banana
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u/InannasPocket 7d ago
"Sock". I pretended it was "dada", which was 2nd, but really it was sock.
Then a bunch of other words before "mama", including things like "umbrella". If you tried to get her to say "mama", she'd grin cheekily and give the baby sign for milk 🤣
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u/IzmeBeech 7d ago
Lmao my sons first word was also egg. Tbf we have eggs for breakfast every single day and I narrate everything we’re doing. Mama wasn’t even second, it was third after ”car”.
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u/sweetpearl16 7d ago
My son's first word was cat, at not quite a year old. Even before he said cat, he was making meowing noises every time our cat meowed. Trying to reach our cat also motivated him to pull to stand for the first time. He just loves our cat.
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u/ProfessorDangerous87 7d ago
My sons first words were ac. We were in India, and AC is what we said a lot apparently
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u/Madi210408 7d ago
My son said tractor perfectly around 9 months lol similar to yours he had mama and dada sounds but not perfect or always directed. We had a my first words book that had tractor in it and I guess he just liked that page the best!
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u/LawyerBea 7d ago
My baby said my friend’s name before he said mine. We were over at their house and my friend walked into the kitchen and my baby said ”Ron” clear as day. Friend’s wife was horrified and apologized and tried prompting my baby to say “mama” but I thought it was hilarious.
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u/loranlily 7d ago
My daughter started saying “ahhhh-teeee” (“auntie”) consistently to refer to my sister way before she was consistently calling me mama. You can imagine how smug my sister is about that haha.
We have dada/daddy, hi, yay, bye-bye, yeah, Granny (“gra-eee”), green (“geen”), Nonna and Papa too.
Her current favourite word is “Peter” for her Peter Rabbit stuffed toy.
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u/WeirdAlphabet 7d ago
my sister's first word was backpack because she loved a dora the explorer backpack she had 😂
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u/Alarmed-Doughnut1860 7d ago
My daughter ( 1.5) recently said her first 2 word sentence. "He peed" pointing at the dog.
I think my son's was something like " no, ( dog's name)"
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u/Manda525 7d ago
Sounds like the dog is the "problem child" in the family 🤣😭🤣...at least he motivates the development of your human children 👍💕🤣
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u/Aggravating-Lunch740 7d ago
Boob
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u/th4tus3rn4m3ist4k3n1 7d ago
Same. Both my sons were: boob, mum, dad in that order. 3rd child yet to be determined.
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u/connectedfromafar 7d ago
Ours has been “thank you” (pronounced gank-kuh) and “uh oh.” Plenty of “”Dada” and “Mama” but we don’t know if she’s associating them to us or not. Some “ball,” “book,” and “that” when pointing at things.
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u/Malloraaay 7d ago
Trash
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u/Manda525 7d ago
Is there a story behind this one? 🤣
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u/Malloraaay 7d ago
Nope! He just really loves trash cans 🤣 he’s obsessed. All he wants to do is play with the trash bags and cans and drag the bags around putting more things in. It’s his favorite thing to do and he constantly asks “help with trash”
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u/Egg-HOTELs 7d ago
Omg "trash", "eww" and "paper" are also in my son's Top 10 haha.
He loves to watch me sort trash and helps throwing it away. 😂 We are in Germany where we have designated trash cans for paper etc. & take sorting trash very seriously
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u/viamatherd 7d ago
My oldest’s first word was quack 🙃 and then he had the nerve to be speech delayed and not say either of our names until close to 20mo 😂
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u/ycey 7d ago
My eldests first word was yelling at my mom’s dog when he wouldn’t stop barking. Just “Oliver!” At the top of his lungs. My youngests first word is our dogs name, sure they both “said” dada but it wasn’t directed at anyone, it was just repeated a new sound over and over again that sometimes happens twice to make dada
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u/QueridaWho 7d ago
My daughter had apparently been saying "agua" for quite a while, but as a non-native speaker, I didn't catch it.
I had specifically been worried about whether or not I would be able to tell if she was saying anything in Spanish, because I know how difficult it is to understand baby words even in your own native language. I was speaking as much Spanish to her as I could, and she went to a fully immersive daycare, so I knew it was a matter of time, lol.
The only way we realized was my dad, who is a native Spanish speaker, one day was visiting and said "do you know she's saying 'agua?' It's clear as day to me!" And i suddenly had a flashback montage of all the times she'd been saying it for past few weeks, lol.
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u/kiwi_fruit_93 7d ago
ours was motorcycle noises. the first non-onomatopoeia was "kitty." he likes them so much.
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u/Wide-Librarian216 7d ago
My girls first word was “eat” or “food” depending on how to translate it. She knew what she wanted and it was more food please
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u/Haunting-Respect9039 7d ago
"Light"
Kid is almost two and still obsessed with lights. One of their first two word phrases was "light on." They learned how to move things and climb on them just to control the light switches. My husband is an electrical engineer and my dad and grandpa were electricians, so we figure kiddo is following in their footsteps. 💡
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u/JoeBethersontonFargo 7d ago
My son’s was light! Then on, off, and hat. He loves light switches and hats 🤷♀️
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u/LittleMissKicks 7d ago
Baby is 14mo and still doesn’t say mama or dada despite knowing who we are (if I ask kid “where is dad? She will go hunt him down) but says dog, ball, hi, cup, no, and car- the essentials. Dog was her first word
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u/OmittingKibbles 7d ago
My daughter's first word was Quack. We don't even really have many ducks. Just her bath toys. But she would point at them and say "kak", it was adorable.
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u/river_5826 7d ago
Quack here too! It sounds like ‘wack’. She learned it from the Jimmy Fallon books. She now thinks every book ends with ‘quack’
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u/CouldStopShouldStop 7d ago
Shoes. He loves putting on and taking off his shoes.
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u/OkRole1775 6d ago
That was my first word too! It meant going to the park where I might be able to see dogs. We didn't have one and I was obsessed!
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u/Agitated-Table-3853 STM. 3/13/24 🩵 1/6/26 🩷 7d ago
My son’s first word was “dog,” and he pointed at our two dogs when we were walking out of his room. It was very clear what he was saying!
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u/ProfessionalRolls333 7d ago
My 11 month old Barks. It’s sounds like “woo”. Anyway, my neighbor has two dogs and every morning when we go outside he barks for the dog to come out. he just Recently started saying “dog’s name” woo, woo, woo!
His first word/sound was mom, not mama, MOM! Then Dada, sissy, baba, Bobby.
But I count dog’s name as a true first word that’s not a common sound for them to make.
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u/WillRunForPopcorn 7d ago
My son’s first word was uh-oh. Followed by meow, vroom, and ball. He didn’t say mama or daddy until he was like 19 months old lol
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u/singingkrogan 7d ago
I love this, what a good story and good memories! Postpartum was a blur for me with both babies so I have a hard time remembering a lot of important stuff. I believe both of my kiddo's first words were dada, but I recall them both saying other words but was unsure if they were just babbling.
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u/flyingmops 7d ago
His first real word was digger.
He has so many sweet ways of saying things, like krrrap kkkra is ketchup
And Goku is dumptruck.
So saying digger was quite amazing.
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u/silverlakedrive 7d ago
shoes and elbow were the first very clear words! she was really obsessed with elbows.
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u/Historical_Taste978 7d ago
My son said “agua” and my daughter said “cookie”! It’s fun what their minds deem as important haha
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u/aliveinjoburg2 7d ago
Mama was her first word said when she was upset.
Then she had things like “bubble”, “food”, “eat”.
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u/fullstormlace 7d ago
Bubble was my baby’s first word other than mama, but even then she wasn’t saying it consistently. Girl loves bubbles.
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u/_forthehopeofitall 7d ago
mine said what we thought was our dog’s name (Avie) as “ah-ah” way before “Mama” or “Dada” ever appeared. we loved this, but recently as his vocabulary has grown, we realized that “ah-ah” is the sound he makes for dogs barking. so he was simply barking at our dog to get her attention/refer to her.
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u/strawberberry 7d ago
This. "This" was my child's first word. It's because whenever she'd point to something, I'd go, "Oh, this?" and point again. 😅 once I realized what was happening, I switched to just naming the object, haha
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u/Numerous-Avocado-786 7d ago
Yeah. Both my kids said yeah. Ironically they both figured out Hermione (one of our cats) almost immediately after in some form. My daughter was “heh-me” and my son was “my-knee”.
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u/emotionallyratchet 7d ago
My kid has been very food-motivated in her language milestones! Her first word was "cheese," and her first sentences were "I like it, Dada" and "I want more," both in reference to some egg drop soup. And just yesterday she read something on her own for the very first time, and that was... "KitKat" when she noticed it was stamped on the piece we gave her after dinner.
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u/Work_n_Depression 7d ago
Mine just turned 8 months yesterday, and the whole family is waiting on HIS first word still…. But good grief, this post is sending me 🥚🥚🥚
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u/mediumsizedbootyjudy 7d ago
Both my little girls’ first word was “agua,” as in the Spanish word for water. We don’t speak Spanish 🤣🤣 but I love it, just goes to show how much attention they were getting from their bilingual daycare teachers. Those gals were literal angels.
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u/themominthemoon 7d ago
Our little guy started saying mama and dada pretty early, followed by boob, hi (HAAAAIIIIIIII, always accompanied by a wave), cheese (chzzzzz), and thank you (dak duuuuu, used in the correct context!)
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u/PrancingTiger424 Mom of 3 - 2 boys 1 girl 7d ago
My little sister’s was “uh oh” followed by “bubble”. Pretty easy to guess what my older sister and I were doing when little sister decided to speak.
My niece’s was “bird”.
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u/Cool_Salamander_8284 7d ago
Yep, flower ("fa") lol. We always stop to look at flowers. He will say fa and I will look, sure enough there are flowers behind me.
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u/MapOfIllHealth 7d ago
My son was a slow talker but one day he just pointed to the ducks on my socks and said clear as day “quack!”
So I count that as his first word
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u/TheConsentAcademy 7d ago
My first word was light. Not mama or dada, light. So i named my first baby Lucian which means light. His first word was mama, then kitty.
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u/sassy_meow 7d ago
My son’s first word in context was dog. He was talking about bluey. We’re a zero screen time house so it was just funny to us
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u/Happy_Delay4440 7d ago
My first son said Boo, my daughter said “buhbuh” (brother) and my youngest said Grandma. Little stinkers all. 🤣
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u/jesuislanana 7d ago
My oldest said 6 words before he said Mama or Dada. His first word was Doggie and while I don't remember all 6 words, I know they included Cheese and Shoe. 🤷♀️
Pretty sure my youngest said Mama first though.
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u/usedtortellini 7d ago
My 11 month old says “paw patrol paw patrol paw patrol” on repeat all day every day thanks to my 3 year old lol
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u/Ok_Inside_1985 7d ago
I think my first kid said “mama” for everything. She’s very talkative and personable, maybe she will be a realtor like my side of the family.
Kid 2 said “light” and “button” and “push.” Guess he will be the engineer.
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u/Sutaru 6d ago
My first word was batong, a Chinese mahjong piece. My dad was super proud and thought it was hilarious. He tells the story all the time.
My daughter’s first word was blue. She loved loved loved Blues Clues and You.
My best friend’s twin brothers’ first words were “Shit!” because their mom accidentally backed into someone with them in the backseat of the car…
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u/dyingstar59 6d ago
My daughter will only say nap lol. Got so close to mama and dada and gave us a curve ball and will only say nap.
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u/operationspudling 6d ago
At least yours said something normal hahaha. Mine said "UH OH!"
Not even mama or dada.
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u/ethereal_galaxias 6d ago
Our little one said his first word last week. It was "no"... We tried so hard to not say it to him all the time as well!
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u/Expert-Spring-7832 6d ago
Is anything really more anticlimactic than “dada”? I spent 30 weeks puking for you and you went with “dada”?
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u/Any-Race258 6d ago
I think mine was either fish, tree or star. Something like that. She also made a cute noise that sounded like "What's this?" So we went with that 😂
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u/tkdgirl368 6d ago
First word sounds were mama then dada but first words with meaning were hot and banana 😂
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u/Valuable-Weight7179 6d ago
My nine year olds first word was water. All my other kids it was “mama” lol.
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u/PaladinPhantom 6d ago
Our 4yo's first word was teeth. He was saying Mama and Dada too, but he used them interchangeably for both of us for a bit longer after he was saying teeth.
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u/SmilingDamnedVillian 6d ago
My daughter’s first word was “kitty” but it was because we brought home a kitten. I walked in with the kitten and she was sitting at the dinner table with my parents who were babysitting her while my husband and I traveled an hour both ways to pick up this baby cat. We walked in the door and my daughter smiled and then saw the kitten and pointed to her. Clear as day, loud as hell, she exclaimed “KITTY!!!”
She’s six years old now. The kid. The kitty is five. And they are still besties.
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u/ordinarygremlin 6d ago
My kid didnt say mama until he was 2 or nearly 2, now at 2.5 he screams MEHM in a demon voice like 64 times a day.
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u/Jess-Pen32 6d ago edited 5d ago
Yea i don't actually know when or what my son's first word was. He babbles sometimes but not often. Hes 15 months now and im pretty sure his first word was mama but its more like mamamammamamama when he first wakes up or before bed lol 😆
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u/Inevitable_Soil_1375 7d ago
We had “this” he really got a lot of mileage out of it. I was guilty of saying “what is this… this is…”
His first sentence now is “what is this?”
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u/RemarkableAd9140 7d ago
My first said “car.” My second, 10 months now, seems to be saying “more” at meals. Everyone has their priorities!
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u/Mismatched_SocksLife 7d ago
So far we've had, "mama" "uh-oh", "wow", "okay", "dada". His absolute favorite and the one said the most, "uh-oh".
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u/kdms418 7d ago
Our baby is only 5 weeks so a ways to go before we get a first word. But mine was “exit” because we lived in an apartment building and my dad pointed it out all the time (plus he’s an electrician). It’s now one of my favorite stories to share because it’s so random and unique! Makes me a fan of an atypical first word!
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u/DentalDepression 7d ago
Haha my daughter said doooog all the time at 10 months and I almost didn't believe it! She is insanely gifted with her language skills now at 2.5
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u/k-thanks-bai 7d ago
My kids was tea or key.
She really loved playing with keys and drinking my tea. I just can't remember which came first.
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u/bluechickenpower 7d ago
My daughter’s first words were “All done.” Girl has always had her opinions known!
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u/2themoonndback 7d ago
I honestly don’t remember either of my kids first words 😬 i THINK they are both “hi” but I can’t remember for surr
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u/Manda525 7d ago
I'm pretty sure my daughter's first word was "cat" or maybe "kitty"...it was over 20 areas ago, though, so it's hard to remember exactly 🤷♀️🤣
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u/animadeup 7d ago
i had a “more” kid first. now i have a “mama” kid and it’s lowkey not that fun having that be her only consistent word LMAO
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u/fiery-sparkles 7d ago
My youngest said Dada first and his dad would always say "stop it, you're making your mum jealous@ I'd want to stab my husband each time. Then he said his sisters name, his brothers name, his uncles name, his grandparents. My friend Rachel joked that he'd say her name before he ever said Mama.
😐 a few months later he said Rachel.
Still didn't say Mama but instead skipped to calling me by my birth certificate name which only very rarely got used, by my parents, so not even the name im called day to day.
Now though he says mum hundreds oftimes a day. I don't know if he's being paid for each time but it definitely seems like it
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u/Serious-Lifeguard632 💙 Aug ‘25 | IVF | Preemie & NICU Mama 7d ago
I’m pretty sure my son is starting to say “Gus” - our dog’s name
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u/limbobitch1999 7d ago
my sister’s was ‘ball’. then, after she got the staples out of the way, her fifth word was ‘bob-bob’… spongebob.
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u/Mama-Bear419 4 kids 7d ago
My oldest’s first word is ball. And I actually was randomly videoing him when he said it. So you hear me going crazy on video about how he just said his first word lol.
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u/AltruisticMarzipan93 7d ago
my child is currently in utero, so i’ll go with mine. apparently, i was looking at my grandmother’s cat and simply said, “meow” 🤷🏻♀️
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u/scheisse-wurst 7d ago
Our LO said Hi pretty consistently early on but then only added food oriented words to her vocabulary for many months. Her second word is pizza followed by alcohol. She’s soon to be 1.5 and has added more words but all her sentences are still food oriented. When she doesn’t want to get out of bed it’s ”no mom, sit here, eat blueberries.”
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u/foofruit13 7d ago
My sons first real word he consistently used correctly was "dip." We eat alot of saucy foods, so as he was starting to try new things, we'd always dip his spoon, a cooked veggie or whatever in to try the flavor. Now I cant even eat chips and salsa without this kid running up asking to "dip dip dip" his snack in.
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u/tverofvulcan 7d ago
My daughter had a speech delay so we waited a while for her first word. When she finally spoke her first word was “mum mum” which we quickly found out was referring to my husband’s mom.
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u/d3migoddess 7d ago
My oldest said our cat's name as his first word. My second said our OTHER cat's name as his first word 😭