5 month old crying / and not happy being fed by anyone else other than her mum

[rachndan]

Hi all,

Our 5 month old daughter is in the habit of being very grumpy, alot of the time.

She wakes up all happy, she plays in bed with us, but when she is put in her chair or in her cot for a nap she just goes mental, but then as soon as she is picked up she is fine.

She is teething a bit, so we put it down to that at times, but other times we are sure it is just because she wants to be held.

We dont want her to be all clingy when she is older (and heavier) so we want to try and work out what is causing these tantrums now.

She cant be held all the time so it needs to be nipped in the bud, now. Any suggestions?

Also she really dislikes being fed by anyone other than my partner, my partner feeds her all day when I am work, and when I come home she has one feed pretty much as soon as I get through the door then she ifs off to bed, she then sleeps until I am pretty much going out the door to work. I do a bit of feeding at the weekend. But this weekend my partner went out with her friends and I had our daughter (round my partners parents house) feed time came and she was not having any of it, just screaming - then my partners sister tried, then her mum and she wouldnt have any of it.

I had to leave her for an hour or so after she was due a feed, and eventually she took the feed, but she doesnt do this at all for my partner!

Honestly, I would tru not to worry about it all too much - easier said than done, I know.

I had a very clingy baby, who wanted to be held all the time. It doesn't mean she will grow into a clingy child - honestly it doesn't. Not even if you hold her all the time (I took to slings in a big way with my daughter and ended up carrying her pretty much all the time. She is now a confident 8 year old who loves to be the centre of attention.

I really believe that filling her needs (ie holding her when she wanted to be held) helped her to develop the confidence to know her needs would always be met, and has made her into the lovely girl she is today.

Equally the food - I would suggest that you try to get more involved in feeding when your partner is around as well - because some babies ARE sensitive to change and want things the way they are "used to" - and it would be good if she is used to you feeding her as well. But on the other hand - she is very unlikely to starve herself just because the wrong person is holding the bottle - as you found, when she was hungry enough she decided that she WOULD have it. So try not to worry too much.

Thank you :-)