My daughter is usually a very happy baby , very curious and loves people . We've done a good deal of socializing her and she is generally very good with strangers . Recently she's started freaking out with MIL . She usually loves people and has never really been shy . Just the sight of her sends her into full on poutty face and if gets closer she cries . When MIL try's to hold her she screams . I don't really know how to handle the situation , the maternal part of me wants to rush in and save her but I know that's not going to fix the problem . My relationship with MIL is not the best to say the least so I usually leave her till she hands her back to me so I don't offend her . MIL say's it's because she doesn't she her enough but if that were the case wouldn't she be that way with most strangers ? We see her on average a few times a month . My OH thinks it's because his mom wears perfume and a heavy dose at that . I don't know why she's like that with MIL maybe she senses that I don't care for MIL .


What's the best way to overcome this shyness/fear she's taken to MIL ?

Has she always been like this with your MIL ? My LO used to be like this with most people a couple of weeks back, it seems it was just a stage she was going thru as she is fine now. She was even like this with my OH and she sees him quite a bit. What I done was everytime she cried, id see if the other person could settle after a couple of mins, if not i would take her back, then when she happy, pass her again. She was clearly uncomfortable with the other person. After doing that shes fine now, it could of been a phase or it could of been the fact she knew id get her if she wasnt feeling happy with the other person. Hope this helps x

if she is fine with other people i would take a guess at the perfume, could you oh sensitively ask her not too wear it next time and see if that helps? babies noses are very sensitive!

if you dont leave lo with your mil, that is if its just you guys visiting then i wouldnt really do much to try and change things coz lo will work it out when she is ready
can u maybe ask mil just to put her down, maybe say she is getting bigger its better just to leave her to play rather than holding her all the timew

Thanks everyone .

We only visit MIL , I would NEVER leave my daughter alone with her EVER but that's a whole nother story in itself . She's only like this with MIL at least to this extent , she's started to play shy with some people but not everyone . It's only started in the last month and a half to two months .

I guess we'll just carry on as we are and hopefully she'll grow out of it .

its probably the perfume. my lo doesnt like really strong smells either.