4 month old cries when held by MIL undergoing chemo

[Allotmentlife]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone could advise on how to handle this?

DD is such a sociable baby and will happily be held by ANYONE except my MIL. This has only been happening the last few weeks. She’ll smile and chatter at MIL from afar, but the minute she’s passed over, her little face just crumples and she cries until someone else takes her. Might be a coincidence, but around the time this started, MIL began a course of chemo and has started to lose her hair… could the chemo be causing her to smell different? This is the only thing I can think of that has changed.

I’d appreciate if anyone had any thoughts or advice, as it’s absolutely heart breaking to see how devastated MIL gets. She’s really struggling with the chemo side effects, and to then have her granddaughter reject her just makes everything worse!

This is sad :( maybe time visits to be just before the next chemo round, as the smell (whatever it is) might be least then. Also, is it possibly about her hair? Maybe she could start wearing a hat around your DD?

Another tack is to get yourself and MIL matching scarves, and swap just before handing DD over to her. That way MIL will smell a bit more like you, which might reassure DD.

@IScreamAtMichaelangelos thanks so much for the suggestions! I’m not sure if it’s the hair - she smiles and chatters to MIL from a distance, it’s only when she’s physically close that she gets upset. Good call on the scarf though, we’ll definitely give that a go!