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I returned to work a few weeks ago. My husband looks after my eight month old boy whilst I am away. Usually he is ok for the first few hours but after that he goes into a crying fit and won’t stop crying until I get home. I’m not sure what is causing the crying but here are a few guesses:

Dehydration

He is breastfed and won’t take a bottle. He’ll drink from a cup if I give it to him but he won’t drink from a cup if his dad gives it to him. Most days he’ll take a few ounces of breastmilk from a spoon but there are days when he doesn’t take any milk while I’m away. He eats a lot of solids but he won’t drink water.

Separation anxiety

He is OK with being left alone with dad for short periods but as soon as I’m out of sight he is looking around for me and gets a bit uneasy. When I’m at work he keeps crying ‘mum’ or ‘mommom’ or ‘mummy’.

Tiredness

He is used to being fed to sleep. My husband struggles to get him to nap while I’m at work. Usually he takes him for a drive and he eventually falls asleep in the car but as soon as the car stops moving he wakes up.

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  • You know your baby better than anybody. So, it could be the combination of the 3 reasons.
    – Enguroo
    Commented Dec 3, 2021 at 13:07
  • Regarding dehydration: experiment with expressed milk and/or formula at different reasonable temperatures. For example, (a) at body temperature, (b) slightly colder, and (c) slightly warmer. Your child’s preference might vary. It did for one of our children. They preferred (c). YMMV. HTH!
    – Timur Shtatland
    Commented Dec 3, 2021 at 15:49
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    Regarding tiredness and sleep: search on Parenting stack exchange for “Ferber”. We and many other parents had good luck with the techniques described in Ferber’s book on sleep. HTH!
    – Timur Shtatland
    Commented Dec 3, 2021 at 15:53

1 Answer 1

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I worked afternoon shift yesterday and morning shift this morning.

Yesterday I tried adding some strawberries to his milk. He drank about five ounces of strawberry milkshake while I was at work and he didn’t cry at all. This morning again he drank about four ounces of strawberry milkshake and didn’t cry at all.

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  • Thanks for the update. So glad to hear about the progress.
    – aparente001
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 7:52

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