Can you introduce too many languages to a month old infant?

My child is about 5 weeks. I speak English and Spanish. My wife speaks Spanish, French, English (in that order). Our pediatrician told us to only use 2 languages at least for the first 18 months. She told us of a case where the child was taught 3 languages but then became shy because she didn't know which one to use.
Is this a real concern. I'd never thought about it until tonight. I always thought more is better.
Many thanks
By the way we live in Costa Rica right now but will return to the states someday.

You should go to your local school and speak to a Spanish and ELL (English as a second languge) teacher to inquire. Teachers get special training to know those things.

Use as many languages as you want. Some children are shy, some are not. The number of languages doesn't make them shy. I know a 5 year old who used English, French, Spanish and Turkish.

When teaching multiple languages, you don't want to confuse the child. Everyone needs to know what language you're using. For example: Mom always uses spanish, dad always uses english. Or on Mondays we ALL speak spanish, Tuesdays english, wednesday, french, etc. Or we all speak spanish during meals, dad speaks english while in the playroom, mom speaks french at bath time.

the important thing is to not mix the languages during a single interaction. Accept whatever the child says (in any language), but model the correct word. If the child says, "quiero apple." DONT say "no it's manzana in spanish", instead say, "si, quieres una manzana."

the best time to learn languages is when you are little. Unless there is an underlying disorder (which it's too early to tell), you can do nothing but good in exposing your child to multiple languages providing you keep them separate and model correct syntax and pronunciation. Don't try to interact in a language that you are not comfortable in.

Good Luck,

There is absolutely no harm in using multiple languages with your child (and subsequently teaching them those languages). The previous post makes a good point that you should use correct syntax (grammar), pronunciation, and vocabulary. That being said, the post is false in suggesting that you should only use one language in an interaction. As an example, if your wife begins talking in English and then switches to Spanish, then back and you integrate both languages into your response, this is more than acceptable. There is ABSOLUTELY NO research to suggest that separating each language to an activity (for example, English at home, Spanish at school) or to a person (for example, Mom speaks only Spanish with the child, Dad only English) is beneficial. Use language (whether it be Spanish/English/French) in the manner that is most natural to you. Many families try to initially separate the languages in the manners described above, but find it unnatural, difficult, fabricated, and frustrating. The most important thing you can do is provide your child with a language rich environment, complete with accurate and appropriate models. I am a speech-language pathologist and have a fair amount of background in bilingual development - this is the advice I would give to any parent I was working with. Doctors are exceptionally knowledge about a tremendous number of things, but language development (especially in this scenario) may not be something that MDs tend to be familiar with.

Use as many as you want. I'm a grad student studying to become a SLP and from what I've heard from SLPs working in the field, pediatricians are NOT nearly as knowledgeable as they make themselves out to be in regards to a child's language development. I don't totally blame them tough because they do need to know a vast amount of information. However, lang. development just isn't one of those areas. If anything, you would be benefiting your child in the long run because employers will more likely hire a person who is multilingual, regardless of job position!

During a research project in school, an MRI showed that a child used different broca areas of the brain depending on the language. The small children consistently used certain areas of their brain for each language, even when nonsense words were used (but accents were kept the same). Basicly, the child files each language in a designated area. As long as languages aren't intermixed (ex: Spanglish), it should be fine.

As many as you can! No harm.