7 month old scared of his cousin - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

Frynd1 · 12-09-2005, 05:33 PM

My DS (who is nearly 7 months old) has a 1 year old cousin (female) that he use to get along with. They played together, as nicely as two babies can, anyway, and when one would cry, the other would too. Now everytime he sees his cousin he starts crying and gets upset. I cant figure out whats wrong. I thought he's either scared of her (for what reason?) or frustrated when he sees her walking and he cant?

He started crawling at 6 months and I mean real crawling. I partially credit that to his cousin who he watched closely. He's also off the charts in height and weight and strong for his age. But I definately noticed babies learn fast from other babies.

Anyway why does he cry when he sees her?

andilyn · 12-12-2005, 07:41 AM

I am not sure if this is what might be happening, but from experience, my DD went through something similar. When she was about 5 months, she started crying and screaming when my dad would hold her or come near her. Up until that point, she loved him. It was just a very strange phase she went through. After about 2 months, she was fine. And now at 2 and a half years old, you can't keep her away from her grandpa. They are best buddies. We never did figure out why she did that, but she outgrew it fairly quick. So possibly with your son, it's just some stage that he's going through for whatever reason. He probably has a reason for it, but obviously we can't read their minds, but boy if we could, lol. Hang in there, hopefully it will subside soon enough.

AmyW · 12-12-2005, 08:20 PM

I agree it's probably just a phase that we can't possibly figure out the reason behind. I would just keep a very close eye on them if you can get them together without your baby crying, and see if she does anything that might accidently frighten him. That's probably not it, but it's worth a try. I hope it passes soon, as I know it's worrying you! Good luck!

Amy

cattieos · 12-12-2005, 08:47 PM

I have heard about some babies at certain ages starting to dislike a certain sex. Like some times a baby will just randomly dislike all females. I don't know about the cousin though. Is it possible she accidentally hurt him? Like while playing or something? DS is normally very outgoing and not scared of anyone but at my Grandmas the other day a friend of the family came over with her granddaughter who is 7 and DS was terrified of her! She had on an odd hat, so we kind of wonder if that was it, but really we have no idea.
Sometimes babies just do things. I hope you find out soon so they can start playing together again.

dizzygirl · 12-13-2005, 07:27 AM

I know that this is a little bit different, but ds cried his eyes out when he saw my SIL's german shepard for the first fe times, so we just kept him away, until about a month later, and then he was fine. Maybe just some time away will help.