mom's full attention

[Marta]

Since around a week, my son needs my FULL attention all the time. Means I cannot even leave him for a second and he starts screaming and crying, which would be no problem, but sometimes you simply HAVE to. He is 5 month and 1 week. Maybe this is just a stage, but what if not? Is this going to stay like this until he leaves our house ;-))?

Does anybody have the same experience and any tricks how to survive this stage?

Thank you

 

[loupou]

Bear with it....

It's probably a stage, but one that might last a long time. My son was quite a "velcro baby". It was only when he was 3 years old that I could use the toilet w/out him often pounding on the door, demanding to be let in (often I *would* take him in w/ me, but sometimes I felt like I desreved a little privacy).

One strategy that I used was to tell my son "mama has to xyz and I'll be right back (e.g. toilet, shower, etc.) and then be right back and say something like "See, I told you it was just a minute".

Some kids do better if you put them in an exersaucer or something when you need to do things like bathe.

Will he be happy if other folks hold him and play with him? That will give you some relief.

The other thing is to just realize that a little crying will not kill him and that you are a human being who deserves to be able to do things like shower by yourself and if he cries for a few minutes while you do it, so be it. Part of a kids healthy development is learning that they can be momentarilly upset, cry, and he will be OK (again, I am talking about minutes, not letting a baby wail unconsoled for hours).

 

[babyblue]

Active baby

My first born was like this too. He couldn't sit alone in his chair for more than 1 minute before crying. You couldn't cook or do anything, even if I placed him on a chair with him facing me in the kitchen. He could only really play by himself when he was about 2-1/2 years old.

My second son is so different because he can sit in his chair by himself for much longer time. When he was about 2-3 months you wouldn't even know he was there.

So, I think it could be a phase or his personality. What I did was as you said - take him everywhere with you including the bathroom. I think taking him into the bathroom with me did help his toilet training because he trained very fast!!