6 month old crying fits - help!

[MammaVee]

My 6 month old DS has started crying as soon as I leave the sittingroom to leave him to play. If its jut me in the house then he seems tosettle after a wee while and carry on playing, hwever if my DH picks him up he really starts crying which is really upsetting my DH. Is this normal? Is six months too early for a baby to start testing if mummy will just run to him at his beck and call? also is it normal for a baby to seem as though he wants nothing to do with his dad? How do I solve this, its breaking my DH heart and I am shattered!

Also at night he drops off quite happily sometimes with or without a dummy but wakes up about four times screaming. He just wants me to pop his dummy in/back in his mouth then he is fine. DH says its all my fault DS is like this and that we should just let him cry it out, but isnt 6 month still too young for this?

This is a normal part of development, it's called separation anxiety. It often begins around 6 months. He is not testing you or being manipulative, he is just scared that you might not come back. He will grow out of it eventually! I don't think cry it out is recommended at any age. He probably just wants the reassurance that you are still there when he wakes up, some babies are like this. I guess for sleep your options are to carry on as you are, co-sleep or try sleep training. There are lots of sleep training methods from the more gentle methods such as PUPD, shush pat and gradual withdrawal to controlled crying. Controlled crying normally works quicker and has a higher success rate than the more gentle methods but will normally involve a fair amount of upset (often hours of crying for the first few nights). If you are going to go with sleep training I would pick a method that you feel completely comfortable with and one that you think suits you child's temperament.

Thanks hardboiledpossum for putting my mind at rest. I agree with all that you have said, sometimes you just need a bit of reassurance that you are doing it right and you are not going a bit mad! I have used PUPD and the shush method and this has worked for us for the most part. I will give it a couple more weeks to see if DS can get over the couple hours of upset at bedtime and if not then I will try controlled crying. I'm sure it will all work outin the end!