18 week old soo cranky lately

Glowing

Hi there

Somebody has stolen my good-natured daughter and replaced her with a whingy, clingy, cranky baby who screams blue murder if you look at her crookedly from across a room. I had to leave my parents house yesterday after 20 minutes when she started screaming hysterically and wouldn't stop! This is so unlike her as she is normally so easy going.

I'm really really hoping this is a growth spurt, as I read there is one which occurs about now. Has anyone had similar experiences? She has been like this for a few days now and I'm praying it is just a phase

Thanks

lazygal

Could be the start of separation anxiety. Our lass went through a few months of it!

Gee_G

Is she teething do You think?
My little man went through a couple of days of that and I ended up bringing him to doctor on call and he had an ear infection. He just kept screaming too!

CaraMay

Mine had his first tooth at 5 months so it could be that. I'd go to doc to check for an ear infection.

Neyite

Glowing, check out The Wonder Weeks if you find its not teething or infection.

There is an app for it. Basically they are emotional and developmental growth spurts, where they master a new skill or get their head around something. Your little one is smack bang in the middle of one:

"Events" Between 14.5 & 19.5 Weeks. The app I have goes into a little more detail but there are also books on them.

The crankiness and fussiness (when I've ruled out pain or teething) has always corresponded with the wonder weeks chart, and once you know what skill they are busy learning its great to see them use it afterwards.

Mink

Oh I feel your pain. My wee man is 5 1/2 months now but he was cranky and clingy for a lot of his 4th month (I think the stage you are at now) and I was convinced he was going to stay like that. He'd been such an easy baby before, sleeping no probs, happy as larry.

He was particularly bad over xmas and new years and then suddenly one day out of nowhere he was back to himself and smiley and happy and I discovered the first tooth. Got about a week out of that and then 2-3 weeks of cranky/clingy/wont nap/ hard to get down/ wake up screaming/ fighting bottle and again yesterday he became a dream baby and again I found tooth number 2.

I'm really hoping the next ones won't be for a while!

As the others said, no harm checking with doc for infections to rule that out, I did get his ears checked as he was irritated by them (often coincides with teething) and doc gave us drops for it.

My point is that this is most likely a phase, hang in there. I had myself convinced that I was terrible mother and that my baby was very unhappy with his lot :rolleyes:

Mink

Oh and as Neyite says above, the wonder weeks are killer as well. But they genuinely do come out of it with new tricks in their bag which is great