There is probably nothing more joyous than the sound of a baby’s laughter, especially for parents who hear their child for the first time. For Andy and Melissa Fischer from Minnesota hearing their 4-month-old daughter Veda laugh for the first time will undoubtedly become an unforgettable experience, even more so because they captured the occasion on video.
In a Reddit post on November 4, Andy shared the video, which shows the exact moment Veda first laughed. Her infectious giggle couldn’t help sending her mom into a fit of laughter. "[Veda] made a small giggle an hour before, and my wife wasn't around and didn't believe me when I told her," Andy told POPSUGAR via email. "Later, we were sitting down for lunch, and I made a silly face at Veda and she couldn't stop laughing. We are so happy that this has been so impactful and uplifting to so many!"
For the couple, Veda's first laugh was a momentous occasion because she had been born three and a half weeks early. When she was a month old, Veda had to be readmitted into the hospital due to health complications. "Being new parents has been difficult to say the least!" Andy said. "The moment we captured in the video was so redemptive for us."
Her parents can now celebrate that Veda is growing up healthy and happy. "Since posting this on Reddit, there have been so many incredible comments!" Andy said of the video, which has almost 120,000 upvotes on Reddit. "People have been sharing how this video has made them smile, laugh, and even bring happy tears to their own eyes. We also loved reading all of the comments other parents made remembering this moment in their own lives. We are so happy that this has been so impactful and uplifting to so many!" We wish nothing but the best to Veda and her parents. May they experience many more years of joy and laughter.
Many people wonder what makes babies laugh since they can’t possibly understand a joke. The study of a baby’s laughter dates back to Darwin, who analyzed laughter in his infant son. Freud also had a theory that our tendency to laugh comes from a sense of superiority since we can take pleasure in another's suffering, such as is the case with slapstick comedy.
Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development, on the other hand, believed that babies’ laughter could give us insight into their minds. When a baby laughs, they must 'get the joke' to a certain degree. The study of babies’ laughter, therefore, maybe a way of understanding how they perceive the world.
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Casper Addyman, of Birkbeck, University of London, believes we can use laughter to understand exactly how infants see the world. He's completed the largest and most comprehensive survey of what makes babies laugh and presented his results at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin. He surveyed more than 1000 parents from around the world, asking when, where and why their babies laugh. He found that a child's first smile occurs at about six weeks, their first laugh at about three and a half months, while peekaboo and tickling are the single most reported reasons why babies laugh.