No matter what you’re referring to, whether it’s the hand Baby first held an object in, or how they reach for their bottle, the answer is still, “at this point, probably not.” This isn’t just because lefties only make up about 10% of the population, either.
Baby may start to show a preference for one hand or the other as their first year goes on, but most children don’t settle once and for all on one hand or the other until they’re between 2 and 5.
Part of this just has to do with the activities people use their dominant hands for. Chances are, Baby isn’t writing novels yet, and if they is using scissors, whether they are a lefty or a righty probably shouldn’t be your main concern.
The rest of how and exactly when Baby settles into one hand’s dominance isn’t entirely clear, but research by a neurobiologist in Alberta, Canada suggests that toddlers tend to have different ‘handedness’ for different things – say, a different hand for reaching for toys as for food – and that this orientation of dominant hand can shift at different points in children’s development.
So while Baby’s hand preferences now don’t necessarily tell you anything about what hand they will favor when they are older, the way they react now is a part of the development of what hand that will be. And there’s a 90% chance they&;s a righty.
