1 year old wont settle to sleep with me (the Dad)

[JayC1983]

My 1 year old girl has never settled to sleep with me and will only sleep when comforted by her Mum. After around 2 months she wouldn't hug me and only her Mother, she's pretty obsessed with breast feeding and uses it as a comfort blanket I guess. Whenever I try to take her for a nap or to sleep, she continually pushed away from me and cries out for Mum, it escalates no matter what I do, picking her up, rocking her, doing soothing noises etc, until Mum eventually has to come in.

Mum is due back to work in September and I'm absolutely terrified I wont be able to get her to sleep and she'll be screaming and hyperventilating all night.

Many thanks,

J

My DD goes through phases of being very clingy with me and rejecting her dad. It’s hard on both of us! He feels rejected and I feel overly put upon. We have found that if he perseveres with soothing her she will eventually calm down. What she learns, if I come back in to ‘rescue’ them both, is that she just needs to scream long enough and she will get her mum back. So, much as I don’t like to hear her cry, I avoid anything that is inconsistent or undermining. We also notice that when he has her on his own for the day or whatever that she is much more accepting of him in general. So I would recommend 1) positive one-to-one time with you and DD, and 2) not letting mum come and rescue you when you try to settle her. It’ll be hard for everyone but your DD won’t be alone, she’ll be with her dad so she might be angry but she will be fine.