Very irritable 7 month old

[Leigh93]

looking for some reassurance that my baby is going through a phase and it will get better. He is 7.5 months old and has always been quite an irritable baby from having eczema at 4 months old so always just blamed it on this but his skin has gotten a lot better now with the help of steroids and he is only getting worse and worse. He literally whinges from the minute he wakes up til the minute he goes to sleep. He will only play with a toy for a couple of minutes before getting frustrated and has now started refusing to play with certain toys altogether. He usually goes down for a nap ok but last two days has screamed for half an hour but also hates to be cuddled or comforted so makes it so hard to settle him. I am getting concerned something is wrong and started to worry about autism as he hates cuddles so much he becomes hysterical and tries to squirm out of my arms he also isn’t a very big social smiler even me and his dad have to fight for smiles out of him it’s really starting to upset me it may sound dramatic but it feels as though my baby hates me :(

my baby is going through a stage of arching her back when i hold her to get to sleep aswell it’s came out the blue xx

DS was a miserable baby. I made a post about him not smiling much. He hated cuddles too. He got better when he could move on his own. Crawling improved him a bit but walking made such a difference. He just loves to be independent. He'll give 100 1 second cuddles in a day now. No longer than 1 second though. He just likes to be free. He smiles and laughs a lot now. Although still never to strangers. I remember feeling very awkward in a queue at m&s whilst 2 strangers tried to make him smile for what felt like hours and he just stared them down. He's 15 months now and just an absolute vibe. His moodiness actually makes him hilarious.
That's not to say you shouldn't get your baby checked if you feel there is something wrong. A mum knows best.

Some babies are more irritable than others. Mine was particularly irritable until 8 or 9 months. For her a lot of it was due to silent reflux and food allergies. Her reflux improved a lot during the day time once she was more upright and once I removed the majority of her allergens from both of our diets she was a lot more content and is now the happiest 3 yo

Hi how did you find out what the allergens were? My son is dairy free at the moment but I am wondering if he is getting tummy ache from any other foods as now I think about it his irritability does seem to have gotten worse since he is now having three meals a day

I could have written your post a few months ago! I agree with other posters that some babies are just more irritable than others. I used to get so annoyed when friends would say 'it will get better at 6/7/8 months...' and these dates would come and go and yet my son would still be the same! I think like your baby he would find everything very frustrating and was generally just very fretful and anxious.

They are all individual, so difficult to say 'when' things might change, but my son is 18 months old now and I would say is happy and content most of the time. He does still fret more easily than other toddlers I know, but I think the more skills he gets and the more he can move about and do things for himself the happier he gets. I notice now he generally only moans when he wants to do something but can't - like reach something or play a certain game. I think it's just his personality - impatient!

So yes I think they do generally grow out it but it is hard to not know when that could be. As another poster said, no harm in seeing a health professional who might be able to check if there is anything else upsetting him.

Lots of food diaries! She reacted to foods I ate so it was tricky once we were weaning not that she ever ate a lot.

The first step would be to keep a food and behavioural diet. If they are already dairy free the allergens I would be keeping an eye out for would be soya and egg. Half of babies with dairy allergies also are allergic to soya. For immediate reaction such are rashes and swelling symptoms are within 2h. Delayed allergies that cause gastric and irritability symptoms are 2-72h which can make pin pointing the causes tricky

If you are still breastfeeding you would possibly need to look at your diet. If you are formula feeding an on an extensively hydrolysed formula you might need an amino acid formula such as alfamino or neocate to be completely dairy free. Also consider using a thickener as they are quite thin and can trigger reflux as another source of irritability