Left or Right handed... how soon can you tell?

My husband is left handed, and I am right handed. Our son is 18 weeks old.
Just wondering if anyone knows how soon you can determine whether your child is left or right handed??

My son grabs things with both hands, but he seems to lean towards the left hand. My dad also noticed this over the weekend and made a comment about it.
My hubby wants him to be right handed.

I deliberately alternate his "free" hand when I wrap him (he likes to have one out).

Just wondering about peoples thoughts or experiences with this...

Matilda's definately a righty, but we weren't sure until she was 18 months and doing more drawing on her own. I'm a leftie and proud ;) so I really wanted her to be a leftie, but as my grandmother used to force me to write with my right hand because being left was "abnormal". I just wanted Matilda to have every opportunity to choose for herself what she was :)

My sister has told me that there is no definate "handedness" until they are close to 3 years old. Up until then, kids are ambidextrous (sp?).

(ETA: She has a degree in early childhood development)

LOL Christy me too! And i am SO cacky handed because my mum is a leftie and she taught me to do everything.
I hope Dacry continues the tradition (my sister is a leftie too and most of the nieces on mum's side), but I don't think you can tell until they start to draw properly.

Kids don't favour a 'side' until they are about 3, like Sarah said. Even now I can't tell which hand Harry prefers but I think he is right handed. Also, I think which hand you use is genetic - so it's like pre-programmed before kids are born anyway.

I read the "what to expect" book last night about this and was astounded by the statistics they provide:
70% of people are right handed
10% are left handed and
20% are ambidextris

of those 10% lefties... most of them are male.

I thought there would be far more lefties than 10% and I didn't think the ambidextris would be so high !!!

Wow that is amazing!!

Maddy uses both hands, although probably the right hand s favoured more, but she uses her left hand alot too...

I never thought about it, but as it's rude to use your left hand for alot of things in Balinese beliefs, Dh tries to encourage her right hand for certain things!!!

DH is ambi and was beaten as kid by a teacher for it (DH's father found out and dangled the teacher over a balcony for it). He does tend to use his left hand for writing though.

Maggie initially started showing tendencies towards her left, but that has now moved to her right. She could be copying me though, as she plays with a toy phone at her left ear and pretends to write with her right hand.

This is fascinating stuff......I was only chatting to my Mummies group about this this morning.

Olivia is showing (at just over two and a half) a distinct possibility of being a lefty. She automatically draws and "writes" with her left hand, and predominantly eats with her left hand.

(She also had a lot of ultrasounds when I was pg with her: there is talk that this can influence left versus right handedness?)

Alot of my family are left handed, me included, But Nick is right handed like his dad, Ryan on the other hand uses his left hand for almost everything (eating, drawing etc)
I used to get alot of comments at school for being a "leftie", but i never saw what the big deal was :dunno: