Baby anxiety around men

[WaldoMcFroog]

My daughter, just about 9 months, has started being funny around men. Not me, fortunately, but she seems to go ape whenever a man comes near her. This has started all of a sudden, and includes my wife's dad, who she sees daily.

I'm particularly worried about this because we've just moved from where my parents live, and they're not dealing with it very well, and I would hate my dad to come and visit only to find the baby turned satanic every time he tried to go near her.

I've been told this is just a stage and will wear off, but I'm really worried about her relationship with her grandparents whilst things are a bit emotionally tender anyway.

Any thoughts or advice?

[paulos66]

I'm sure it is just a phase and the grandparents will probably have dealt with something similar at some stage - not nice though so hope it passes quickly

[redcrx]

Babies go through many phases, some will suffer from separation anxiety at around that age so it may be something similar. IE if mummy and daddy arent around she will feel nervous.

Its best if you dont react to it by rushing to her and picking her up as she will associate this type of crying with fuss and cuddles and may not settle down.

When your parents (and others vist) try and get them to ignore her for a little while, talk and play around her but avoid picking her up as this will unsettle her. If mum and you leave them all in room together she may then grow inquisitive and actually seek attention from them rather than shy away.

Hopefully she'll soon grow out of the phase

[hol5]

i have to agree that its a phase. my son took a sudden wariness to both his male grandparents and uncle when he was coming up 1. it took a year or so to over come even though he saw them on a very regular basis.

Above is good advise, once we appreciated that it was a real problem to my son, we ignored it and made sure that it never grew to a spoken issue. He eventually out grew it and is now definatley over it.

Good luck. And let her take her time.

[ethanryan]

hi i have a niece who is the same she is is 2 now but has always been the same. she is getting betternow but she finds men quite over powering. when she used to visit my partner used to go to pick her up and she would scream the place down. we felt if we left her alone she eventually came to us in her own time.

[tillyfloss]

i completely agree with redcrx ... my little girl was exactky same at 9 months and now at 14 months is still wary of men in general - however if we ignore her and carry on talking her curiosity wins and she comes over in her own time... don;t rush your little girl or make a big issue of it - give your relatives a friendly heads up anbout this 'stage' and she'll get through it :-)

[curiosity]

this may explain www.douglascountytinyk.org/articles/SeparationAnxiety.doc -

[curiosity]

sorry meant to post a link, Not sure it's going to work, worth a look though. http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:GR_ARmgkgYE J:www.douglascountytinyk.org/articles/Separati onAnxiety.doc+separation+anxiety+stage+and+str angers&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=uk&client=firefox -a