Cameron will be 4 months old on January 1. We had company today and he screeched when someone was holding him. It scared me at first as he has never done this before, she had been holding him for some time before he screeched.

Then my sister came over, he is not familar with her and he screeched and was shaking in her arms, he was obviously frightened. I had to soothe him for quite some time to settle him down. He was very tired and had a lot of stimulation today so I'm not sure if he's shy or if it was just a long day.

Is 4 months around the time that babies become shy with strangers? Matthew never had a shy stage.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 09:50 pm:

Natalie was EXACTLY that way!!!!! Our ped said it's not as common that it happens this early but does for some babies. Natalie screamed if the check-out lady at Target looked at her for too long. She screamed when grandparents held her. She basically cried if anyone other than Mommy or Daddy were holding her or if someone else looked at or talked to her too long. It started around 4mths and ended around 6-7mths. I never tried to deliberately put her in situations with 'strangers' (to her), but did not discourage people from talking to her when were out, etc. She would cry, they would apologize, and I would just tell them she's stranger phobic really early, it's nothing you're doing, etc.

Like I said, our ped said it was EARLY to be stranger phobic at this age, but nothing to worry about. He was right because Natalie has been Miss Socialite since about 7mths. Now she won't leave people alone!!

By Heaventree on Saturday, December 31, 2005 - 03:12 pm:

Thanks Deanna, I'm just happy he's not the only one. It hasn't happened since, but he hasn't been around any strangers these past few days.

Tomorrow we go to friends we haven't seen in a long time, it will be interesting to see what happens.

I'm just happy it didn't happen when my MIL was here, it would have made her sad.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, December 31, 2005 - 03:33 pm:

Both sets of parents were sad about it, believe me! It was hard for them and hard for us, too. She would get to the point where she cried when the grandparents came over because I think she knew they would be holding her. They would still hold her even through the tears for shorter bits of time, so it was kind of a process that worked on. I tried to just keep exposing her to 'strangers' and not being overly protective. Not sure how much of that helped or if it was just a natural adjustment in the end.

I'm not surprised that no one else has responded to this post. When Natalie was going through that, I asked around and did some research online about stranger phobia and she was in the minority needless to say. Hopefully it doesn't last long and continues to get better. I was pretty worried for a while thinking I had a future anti-social child on my hands!