How come we can’t remember the first 2 years of our life?

Question: How come we can't remember the first 2 years of our life?
- Keywords:
  remember
Asked by stellyb to Carla, Madgie, Nick, Vicky, Werner on 14 Nov 2013.
- Werner Muller answered on 14 Nov 2013:
  
  I think the period is most likely longer in some cases. I can only speculate. It takes some time until we learn to speak. We most likely remember events in language. This might be the reason. I think it might be possible that we may be able to remember a certain smell or taste experience earlier in life.
- Nick Groves-Kirkby answered on 14 Nov 2013:
  
  This is a really interesting question, and something I’ve never really thought of before.
  
  From googling it, it seems that it might be that the parts of our brains that are involved in memory are still developing when we’re very young, so we don’t build long-term memories properly. By the time we are adults we don’t remember much about our very early years at all.
  
  Werner’s idea about language is interesting, and we certainly learn to talk at about the same age as we begin to form lasting memories. My own earliest memories are very visual though, so it would be interesting to survey a lot of people to see if this is common.

Question: How come we can't remember the first 2 years of our life?