u/DetectiveIll4938

My little chunky boy is 6 months now and I’m his primary caregiver while hubs is working full time. Our baby has always smiled at me way more than my husband which we think is normal because I’m with him all day but recently he won’t even look at me. I try to get in his line of view and he IGNORES me. Completely looks away and doesn’t smile at me. I try not to take it personally but I’m honestly so sad about it. He’s totally smiley with my husband and they play well together.

I don’t know why he’s becoming this way. Maybe he feels betrayed every time I take him to the doctor or maybe he associates a lot of “bad” things with me like doctor visits, physical therapy sessions, general fussiness.

Has anyone’s baby done this to them? Does it get better? I’m about to solo parent for a whole week next week and I’m afraid he’s not going to have a good time with me :(

I cannot choose where I get seen for healthcare due to my crummy insurance so I’m stuck at this pediatrician office and have been consistently booked with this one provider who is an older lady. She’s been doing weird stuff since first time we saw her - using her bare finger to feel my kid’s gums and acting like something’s really wrong with my kid when he couldn’t hold his head well when she tugged on his arms at his 4 month (he does tummy time perfectly but we’ve been doing OT and he’s doing fantastic).

This 6 month visit I inquired about how he still wakes up 3 times a night to eat and she recommended me putting a tablespoon of olive oil or butter into his milk and that will make him sleep through the night and that there’s no reason for him to be waking up at this stage. I also showed her some of his diapers because he had blood in stool and she gave it one look and said he’s sensitive to dairy and if I put creamer in coffee, drink milk, etc - all to which I said NO. The only dairy I eat is string cheese as a snack and I’ve been eating that thing since before he was born until now so I don’t think it’s that and I told her so but she said there’s no other reason for blood in stool.

I don’t mean to judge but I wonder if it’s because she’s old maybe she doesn’t know pediatric guideline and relies only on anecdotes? I’m also in healthcare (not a physician) so when doctors explain things to me I can see their train of thought and understand it physiologically but I really don’t understand her? For good measure, I asked ChatGPT and it said definitely DONT add olive oil or butter. (Also to note, my kid is 95th percentile so he doesn’t need it for weight gain).

Can anyone tell me if I’m being too much here or should I be skeptical of this doc? I can’t leave the practice but I may try to ask for a different doc next time…

Also, does anyone know how to get their kid not to wake up at night? I believe he wakes up on a schedule because he’s used to waking up to eat. Half his daily bottles are nighttime…we considered sleep training but our current life circumstances doesn’t allow us to kill ourselves for a week to adjust. One of our friends took PTO for a week to do this and we are just not at a place to do that. Maybe in May or June…

Are there any Pickleball or tennis courts either on base or close outside? Would love to continue to play when we PCS and get my child to learn too