Why Can’t We Remember the First Few Years of Life?

Study Finds ^ | March 21, 2025 | Staff

[ansel12]

Trauma, I was told that after being circumcised I couldn’t even speak coherently for more than a year, my mind has blocked out that period.

[BipolarBob]

My first memory was swimming ahead of the others to an egg. After that it gets sorta hazy.

[JayGalt]

These people are on the par with how many angels dance on the head of a pin. Anyone that thinks babies don’t recognize their Moms & Dads within a few days is out of the loop. This convoluted analysis of types of memory based on guesswork is not advancing science.

[roving]

I remember everything from the age two.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Trauma, I was told that after being circumcised I couldn’t even speak coherently for more than a year, my mind has blocked out that period.

They shouldn't have waited until you were 21. :)

[Flatus I. Maximus]

Would you really *want* to remember how it felt to fill your diaper? Wouldn’t you rather be like Joe Biden?

[where's_the_Outrage?]

Mine was so traumatic that I couldn’t walk for a year.

[bk1000]

I can’t remember what I had for breakfast

[cgbg]

Unfortunately I do have one of those memories.

I was in a crib and a couple of ladies (presumably my mom was one of them) were laughing at me and my mess!

[clearcarbon]

"Why Can’t We Remember the First Few Years of Life?"

If you had memories going back that far, would they make any sense?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I thought my earliest memory was my third birthday. However when I asked my mother a few months ago about something I thought I remembered from earlier she confirmed I remembered correctly. I then pulled out some other stuff and she once again confirmed that such things had happened.

I think mostly we do not remember because as a baby our memories are bland compared to what comes later. Eat, burp, poop, is pretty much our life until we are about eight months old. Nothing really interesting happens and we tend to remember interesting. Even our current memories are things that are interesting.

Once we start sitting up, standing and walking more interesting things happen and by about age three or four we are out and interacting with the world.

[Jane Long]

I remember my first two years, in pretty good detail.

[arthurus]

One of my daughters has eidetic memory. People learn not to argue with her about past events at which she was present. At a family reunion when she was nine two aunts were discussing something that happened eight and a half years before but disagreed on just who was present. My daughter, Dharma, heard them and told them who she had seen there then. An uncle who had been listening agreed. Dharma did not know what had been said not having language yet but she recognized an event when she was 5 months old and could place the adults that she had seen. I have witnessed many repetitions of her ability to recall. She claims to remember being born. I have to accept that.

[Jane Long]

If you had memories going back that far, would they make any sense?

---

Yes.

It’s like watching a movie clip.

[Fester Chugabrew]

My earliest memories date to age 3.

[Fester Chugabrew]

I was sipping on a beer back then.

[Jane Long]

Ditto.

[ansel12]

Fortunately the very early traumas start to fade eventually, I noticed that around age 13 or 14, I started seeking out ways to get back into where I came from.

[HYPOCRACY]

I was drinking a lot back then.