Baby Crying A Lot When Seeing New Faces (How to Deal with Stranger Anxiety!)

Question:
My baby is 7 months old. He is very scared when going to new places and crying a lot when seeing new faces. I just want to know how I can settle him.

Thank you

Baby Helpline:

How to Deal with Stranger Anxiety in Babies

It sounds as if your baby has a bit of stranger anxiety. A lot of babies go through this at around the age of 7-10 months and it is a completely normal developmental phase. At this age, they are becoming more aware of their surroundings and also more aware of themselves as being a separate person from their mother. Scary!

Here are some tips on how to deal with the situation to help your baby:

• If you feel at all tense of ashamed of your baby’s reactions, work on letting go of those negative feelings! Babies are very sensitive to our feelings – if you are nervous, your baby will feel even worse.
• Realize that this is a natural and even positive reaction as it means that your baby is developing into a higher degree of self-awareness.
• Go slowly with introducing your baby to strangers during this phase. Don’t ever push your baby into being held by someone that makes him or her scared.
• Ease your baby into being comfortable around people by asking them to sit around your child but not engage with the child until he initiates to engage.
• If possible. let your baby meet the same strangers several times, so he or she can learn to feel secure around more and more people.
• Try to be happy and smiling around strangers, to signal to your baby that everything is fine.
• Remember that the more you respond to your baby’s needs to be with you and close to you right now, the sooner this phase will pass.

Thrusting your child into a stranger’s arms hoping they will get used to the person usually won’t work and is likely to be very counterproductive. Your baby will ease into being more social; don’t worry just give him time!

I hope this helps!
Paula

More On Stranger Anxiety In Babies

• Baby Screaming At Strangers
• Anger And Stranger Anxiety In 4 Month Old
• 7 Month Development Milestones And Games To Play

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