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My 13 month old niece doesn't like me?

My niece Madison turned 1 on Dec 16th. I'm married and we live with my sister Brandy her daughter Madison. I've been living with Madison since she was less than a month old. I've never had any kind of issues with her "not liking me" until recently.

She's an only child and her mom is very caring and affectionate. I've been very affectionate with Maddy as well, and my husband Matt is like her play-mate.

Recently Maddy has started to ignore me when I call her, and to slap my hands away when I try to pick her up. Sometimes when I look at her she makes this shrieking noise and turns away. This has been going on for about a week.

She still goes to my husband, and looks at him when he calls her name. The same with her Mom. It just seems to be me she's angry at.

Her life has always been very calm and she's been on a pretty strict schedule. Just this week my sister and I joined a gym and have been taking Maddy to the gym's daycare. She's getting better about being away from her mom, but her behavior towards me seems to coincide with this change in her schedule. This is the first time she's ever been in daycare, and she's only there for 45 minutes a day.

Help! Why doesn't she like me, or is this something I'm reading too much into? I'm upset, because she's very important to me!

1 Answer

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  • Polly
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    It is VERY common for children of this age to develop strong preferences for one caregiver over another, it is just part of their development. Usually it happens between the father and mother but because you live with her it has happened with you. Its not nice but it doesn't mean anything and is not a result of day care or anything else you have done.

    You will probably find in a few months that you are back in favor and someone else is in the bad books however it does tend to happen in cycles so there is no guarantee that you won't fall out of favor again sometime in the future. Just wait till she can verbalise it; the first time I heard my daughter say " I no love you, I love daddy!" it cut me to the core!

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