My mainly bottle fed 8 month old has started refusing bottles. She's also extremely clingy and afraid of strangers and new places. I'm at the end of my rope. Help.
Two pronged issue:
1. My previous question was about dealing with my now 8 month old while on maternity leave. I got a lot of good suggestions about getting out of the house.
I thought I found ourselves a nice routine — gym with childcare, play group at library, etc, but my previously extroverted easy-going baby has developed an extreme stranger and separation anxiety. It's beyond normal developmental anxiety — I see other babies her age. She cries when we are out of the house no matter what. She plays happily at home but cries if I leave her alone or turn my back. It's been like this for well over a month.
2. We had breastfeeding difficulties from the start, and settled into a rhythm where I pump and give her bottles during the day, and she nursed when she's asleep (because she refused when awake). Not ideal, but it's worked out. In the past month, she's started to refuse the bottle when she's clearly hungry. We need to either catch her at a time when she's receptive to it, or wait till she cries herself into a nap and then give it to her. This is super stressful. She ends up getting half or more of her milk at night (between bottles and nursing), and seems cranky because of hunger all day. She's eating solids, but in small quantities, so we can't push those either.
Result: I can't really leave the house comfortably because she cries in the car seat or stroller out of hunger and won't let me help her, and once I get to the destination, she clings and cries out of anxiety. Gym daycare is her crying and fussing all through while I rush my workout. Playgroups — well, it's not play if she's miserable, so what's the point? I've tried getting a sitter at home so I can nap once in a while, but she cries nonstop with her (even after seeing her multiple times), refuses to feed, etc, so it's not very restful for me.
I don't know what happened. It used to be relatively easy to feed her and keep her happy. She used to love new places and people, and was generally so much easier to handle.
Some factors that have coincided with the behavior changes:
- We moved cities — new house, new weather.
- She used to go to daycare, which she loved, and is now home with me all day.
- She started solids, which frequently constipate her, no matter what we give her. Prunes resolve it eventually, but I feel like she's periodically in discomfort. (Her quantities are still small and she gets the same milk intake as before.)
- She's started crawling and babbling animatedly.
You are not her pediatrician, but because of the move, we haven't been able to see our pediatrician, and the new one doesn't have appointments available for some time.
Any suggestions? I'm exhausted and miserable. |
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