When Do Babies Start Smiling?

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I swear my baby just started smiling, but my partner isn’t convinced. When do babies give you real smiles, not the gassy ones?

—Smiley Faces

It’s possible! Before about 6 weeks, babies do not yet have the emotional or visual development to smile at you in a social way. Gas, other kinds of discomfort, or random feelings — that is what is driving this in the early weeks. You can tell these smiles apart from social smiles because they seem random and are very short.

Smiling at you is a developmental marker, typically happening between 6 and 12 weeks (for preterm babies, this would be 6 to 12 weeks after their due date). Your baby needs enough muscle control to make a smile, enough visual sense to see something to smile at, and enough emotional development to understand this as something they would like to do in response to another person.

So it’s entirely possible at this stage that your baby is giving you (or your partner) a smile!