What do you count as your baby's first word?

Question

With my daughter, I didn't count hi, mama, or dada. I counted Duck and Hot that followed within 5 minutes because tehy are actually words.
With my son, I didn't count mama, dada or ow. Yesterday he said Bye. He meant it too. But I didn't cound Hi with my daughter. What do you think? Is BYE his first word? A big piece of me is waiting for a real word. Thoughts?

Answer 1

I counted mama and dada with my first, but within a day or two after that he said puppy and tattoo (I breastfed and had a tattoo on my breast that he kept trying to pull off! LOL!) Second one, after mama and dada I was also puppy and then bra-ber(brother). Third one still won;t say mama (is 7 mo) but says daddy and nana and braber (brother) too. Little booger, swear he's doing it to annoy me! LOL! But I would count bye it it was said in a context that made sense (someone leaving, you know)

Answer 2

I count Mama and Dada as first words because they are words and they go from gibberish to saying an actual word. Even though they don't know what they are saying, its still a word. I figure if its a word that you yourself say then it should be counted as a word when a baby says it.

Answer 3

I definitely count Mama as both my kid's first words! Ok, but after that, my oldest loved hats, and he would point and say hat all the time. The second took a lot longer to talk, I am ashamed to admit that I don't even remember. Yikes!

Answer 4

I guess if it's in the dictionary it's considered a word so probably not ga, goo or wah (that's a whining sound). Mom, dad, puppy, kitty, poopy, potty. I think mom and dad count. I would also count hi and bye.

Answer 5

first word is first WORD. dada is a word in my book and so is mama.

Answer 6

My sons first word was Bubba. My youngest brother calls our oldest brother Bubba, and my son still calls him Uncle Bubba.

Answer 7

mama, dada, and hi all count!! My oldests second word...MALL!:/

Answer 8

My daughter's first 'real' word was banana.