Seven months and he suddenly screams at anyone new, including my sister

cedar_pigeon_742223 Jun 2026

Until about two weeks ago he would go to anyone. Now if someone he doesn't see daily comes close, he studies them for a second and then screams as if they've done something to him. Grandmother and caregiver are fine. So are my partner and I. My sister came down from Hyderabad last weekend, held out her arms, and he cried for twenty minutes. She laughed it off, but I could see she was hurt, and my mother kept apologising for him as though he'd been rude. I've read that it's a phase. My real question is how you handled visitors during it. Hand the baby over anyway and let him cry, or keep him close and risk offending people?

1 comment

velvet_paper_649723 Jun 2026
Ours is four months and still goes to anyone, so I'm reading this with some dread. But why is it your job to protect your sister's feelings from a baby? He's seven months old. He isn't being rude. I'd let people sit near him and wait for him to come round, and not hand him over at all.
- cedar_pigeon_742223 Jun 2026
  Fair. It bothers me less that my sister was hurt than that my mother kept apologising. It makes it sound as if something is wrong with him. I'll try the sit-nearby approach next time she visits.
- linen_marigold_528623 Jun 2026
  Replying to @cedar_pigeon_7422
  When our son went through this, the person he screamed at most was his aja, my father. My father decided it was a challenge. He sat in the same room every evening with his newspaper and ignored the baby completely. Within a month the baby was crawling over to pull the paper away. Your mother will stop apologising once she sees it pass. Mine did.