Mom versus Milk

[SarahBear]

I've used a few signs with Leo and he has picked up on some of them. At some point, he started signing "milk" when he saw me. He seemed to be calling me milk, rather than asking for milk. So, I've started to try to emphasize "mom" and the sign for "mom." He has been babbling "mom" for a while now, but apparently he has started saying it when hungry. My husband is a stay-at-home dad and has mentioned this to me. Leo was also saying it when we were waiting for our food at a restaurant yesterday. He hasn't been signing "milk" to me nearly as much, but it seems to be a bit of a process to sort out and distinguish "mom" from "milk." Anyone else have a similar situation with their baby?

 

[Zephram]

An interesting fact for you: The name 'mum, mom, mama, etc' and 'mammary' have the same root - they are both derived from babies babbling 'ma ma ma ma'. So basically babies have been confusing mum for boob/milk/hunger since they were cave babies. It's a natural association.

All you can do is just keep talking to him. Take him in front of the mirror and point at yourself and say 'mum', point at food/milk and say 'milk'/'food' and sign it, etc. He will sort it out in time, I don't think it's a very egregious error to be making.

 

[_Meep_]

90% of the time, my LO follows 'Mummy' with 'BOO-BAH!' (boob), if that counts.

She only really pays attention to me when she wants a breast!