Every mom in the universe wants to know how to make babies laugh.
Baby laughter is the BEST. THING. EVER.
We will act like complete and utter fools for hours on end just for a chance to make our baby laugh.
Some babies laugh more easily than others. Both of my babies were (and I guess still are in some cases) quite serious. And when you have a serious baby, it makes you all the more determined to coax a laugh from your baby.
And no, I don’t mean a laugh while your baby is sleeping, because that doesn’t count. It’s involuntary. (Why do babies laugh in their sleep? Experts believe that it is simply a reflex, not a reaction to a dream.) (source)
You want the real deal. You want to know how to make babies laugh, while awake, because YOU are the funniest person in your baby’s world.
I mean really, it’s the least our babies can do for us after all that we endured through pregnancy and delivery, right? Well, that and give us more than a couple hours of sleep at a time. That would be great too.
When Do Babies Start Laughing?
The majority of babies laugh out loud between the ages of 3 and 4 months old. However, it is also common for some babies to start laughing much later than that. Remember that each baby is different, and some are simply more serious than others.
How To Make Babies Laugh
- Pinch baby’s rolls
- Pretend to drop your baby
- Put your hand in the air and wiggle your fingers as they get closer to baby’s face. Then you can gently cover your baby’s face with your hand or tap your baby’s nose with your finger.
- Play “So Big”- Take your baby’s arms and lift them up and down while saying “so big!”
- Get a Fisher Price Giggle Gang Toy– It is a plush toy that giggles when shaken or squeezed.
- Tickle your baby
- Chase your baby (if your baby is crawling)
- Kiss your baby
- Give your baby raspberries
- Make silly noises or silly faces- slurping sounds, animal sounds, etc.
- Laugh yourself- It just might prompt a laugh from your baby
- Pretend to bite your baby
- Gently blow in your baby’s face, in baby’s hair or on baby’s belly
- Clap her hands together
- Squish her cheeks to make a fish face
- Flip your ponytail around
- Play “This Little Piggy”
- Give your baby a ride on your knee
- Cover your baby with a blanket, then quickly remove it
- Dance (with or without your baby)
- Use a hand puppet
- Talk with a funny voice
- Play a funny sound on your phone or on your Amazon Alexa.
- Play peekaboo
- Carefully put your (older) baby upside down while holding her, then gently lift her back up
- Kiss baby’s nose
- Give eskimo kisses
- Sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider while holding your baby’s hands- it’s the perfect song to make baby laugh because it’s so interactive.
- Lay baby on her back on the bed and bounce the bed
- Lay baby on the bed while you’re making it and cover her with the sheets
- Roll across the floor (I told you we’ll do ridiculous things for a laugh)
- Sing- my first born didn’t laugh when I sung to her, but she did stare at me with the most precious look EVER like she was falling in love with me all over again when I used to sing to her. The feeling it gave me was WAY better than any laugh, so it’s worth a try. Give lots of eye contact while you’re singing too.
- Make up a silly song to sing
- Sneeze- this is one of the best sounds that make babies laugh
- Pretend to shoe a fly away
- Eat your baby’s food and make exaggerated “YUM” noises
- Put baby’s feet up to her cheeks and tickle her with her own feet
- “Sniff” in your baby’s ear
- Move your face closer and farther away from your baby’s face
- Pretend to get scared
- Pretend to fall down
- Play with your baby in front of the mirror
- Play with your dog
- Watch an older sibling play
- Carefully throw your baby into the air
- Tickle her chin
- Talk in a deep voice or a high-pitched voice
- Smell her feet and say “PEW!”
- Pretend to be asleep and have your baby wake you up
- Smack your lips
- Pretend to hurt yourself in some way
- Look away from your baby, then look at her really quick
- Take baby’s leg and make her pretend kick you (baby’s find violence amusing, what can I say?)
- Drop something and say “uh oh”
- Pretend to cough
- Fake cry
- Play super baby (make your baby fly through the air)
- Growl
- Chase her while your significant other is holding her and say “i’m gonna get you!”
- Pretend to hiccup
And if none of these 60 ideas can succeed in giving your baby the giggles, you might as well watch other babies laugh.
Now that you’ve made your baby happy, learn how to make your cat happy, too!
Let me know in the comments if any of these tips for how to make babies laugh work for your baby!
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