Why is my 13 month old on a "Momma" strike?

Question

I'm at a loss. My son is very smart. He says da da and goes to his father, he says pa pa and goes to his grandpa. He calls our pug by her name, he calls her beas, her nickname is beasy, he calls our Yorkie beavis, his name. If he stands up on the furniture and I tell him to sit down, he says "sit down", he asks for crackers, says "love you", when anything ends from scary to exciting, he raises his hands and says "that's it" plain as day these are just a few examples. The kid can talk, but the one word he won't say is momma. I ask him to say momma and he smiles and turns away, once in a great while he will say momma when he wants his bottle but overall he doesn't ask for momma like he does da da. He sees his dad and gets really excited and whispers da da and runs to him, anytime he sees his father he says da da but he RARELY says momma. WHY? He knows I want him to say it, I get really excited when he does. So what's the deal?

Answer 1

My son was the same - he's two now and only just started to say "mummy". For months "daddy" was used interchangably for me and my husband, so I know how frustrating it feels. I mentioned it in passing to my GP who said children often don't feel the need to say it because Mummy's always there!

Don't worry, he'll do it when he wants to and not before!

Answer 2

give him time... he will say it wen hes ready

Answer 3

LOL! This is so funny to me because I can always just picture my son sitting there, staring at me, almost biting his lip to avoid from saying Momma. He knows how to say it, is perfectly capable of saying it, has said it before, and says so many other words. But when I want him to speak on command? Never in a million years.

Right now he’s 20 months and he says Momma all the time. On command sometimes too. It’s somewhat of a phase and they don’t say the word because you’re right there.

His next word is bye bye. When someone leaves, he won’t say it at all. But when they are gone, already out the door, he looks at me and waves and says “BYE BYE!”.

Answer 4

my son is like that sometimes, we've been trying to get him to say mommy since he said mum for the first time at 9mths old, he's 15mths old now. try a different variation, mum, mummy, mumum, etc. my son says mum mum mum on occasion, but nothing else like mumma.

Answer 5

It is not that your child won't say Ma Ma but it has been discovered that DA DA is an easier word for him to say right now.

Answer 6

Because he knows how badly you want him to say it, my 14mth old is the same, he's all 'daddy, daddy' and 'lexie' (his big bro) and 'rio oooo' for Rio our cat he'll say 'whats that' and 'uh oh' , and 'oh dear' and more but will he say mummy? NOOOO or course not, why? because he knows how much I want him to!!