Three Languages Too Much For a Baby?

This is the question that came from our reader! I made a video to answer it.

Question:
Hi Olena!
 We have a 6 month old boy. I’m Portuguese and father Belgium from the dutch part. So we speak Portuguese at home ( me with baby, me with papa) and dutch (papa with baby). In October baby will start the creche {daycare} in french. Isn’t it to much in a row? Should we be afraid he will lose one of the 2 home languages? Thank you!
Answer:

Hi, Ines!

First of all, I want to say that you are on the right pass – you expose your baby to three different languages from his birth – awesome!
Isn’t it too much in a row? The answer is no. Babies have tremendous ability to recognize so many different sounds! And if they hear them again and again – they will soon start to reproduce them. 
 
Should we be afraid he will lose one of the 2 home languages? It all depends on 3 things:
1. How much time the baby will spend hearing each language. If he spends most of his awake time in the daycare and only couple hours with you then he will favor daycare language. It does not mean that he will loose other too languages, it just means that the daycare language will become his stronger one. Now, if you have a pretty good balance between three of this languages – he might even favor your home languages!
 
2. The quality of the time you spend with your baby boy – I have those days sometimes when my baby girl is with me all day long, but I’m so busy with other things that I just don’t give her enough of my full attention and as a result – not enough language exposure! Even 20 minute of uninterrupted attention will make a big difference!
 
3. How strong is your position when it comes down make him actually speak your language. The time when your baby will start speaking is just around the corner and it will be very important to let him know that he needs to speak mommy’s language with mama and papa’s language with papa! I’ve just recently created a video on how to do it. Here it is
I think you are doing everything right, and your baby have a very strong chance to grow up multilingual! Good luck!
Y