Demanding/Difficult Babies

[TheJourney22]

Hi

Any nursery workers out there that can lend some information .....

Most nurseries take babies from 3 months.

Can you let me know how you deal with demanding/difficult babies 6 Months plus? i.e. ... criers/screamers/clingy?

I am genuinely interested!

Many thanks

[kathryng90]

childminder here (24 yrs experience) and had my share of 'full of character babies'. I do everything one handed, give lots of love, time, cuddles and comfort. never had a baby/child not settle and thrive. Some take longer than others. Have cared successfully for babies from mums who practice attachment/velcro parenting and who are never put down/exclusively breast fed etc. makes for an interesting day!

[Patchworking9til5]

The key worker system in nurseries helps when settling such babies and/or children. I had one key child who cried almost non stop for about 6 weeks. we just changed responsibilities around so that I as key worker could always be on shift when he came in, sit with him at meals, do his nappy and put him to sleep. consistency of attachment figure really helped and he just settled and became the most adorable happy little boy :-)
However, bare in mind that children are completely different at nursery. and you may think they will be clingy/difficult when actually they settle really quickly. I've seen parents of tantrumming, stubborn, fussy babies and children show genuine shock at how placid and sweet their children behave at nursery, accompanied by phrases such as 'but she HATES having her nappy changed!'.