Any EBF babies struggling to bond with their daddies?

Question

Not given my little girl a bottle yet, just thought with lockdown and us not really going out much there wasn't much point in me expressing while she has a bottle when I can just whack out the boobs as and when! 
My husband is fine with it, he doesn't see the point either, and he fed our son when he was a baby my expressed milk so has had that experience and isn't desperate to do all the defrosting, sterilising, etc.
Thing is, our daughter only wants me. She's not happy unless she can see me which is so lovely and I hope she always loves me this much but 1) I need a break every now and then and 2) I want my husband to bond with her.
She just cries when he holds her, doesn't matter what he tries and eventually he gives up and puts her down screaming because he's at his wits end with a headache. 
Anyone relate to this? What can help babies bond with their dads that's not feeding?

Answer

I’m not a big believer in babies not bonding with caregivers that aren’t feeding them. Babies have different needs and they can be met by different people, feeding is met by mom (when EBF) and dad can meet other needs. My 3 year old was breastfed with no bottles for 2.5 years, my almost 4 month old is also EBF no bottles and both have easily bonded with my husband, actually surprises me how much comfort he can bring them. I think it’s all about how much time dad is spending with baby and what that time is spent doing. It’s also just about personality, some babies just want mama period end of story no matter what. It’ll get better as time goes on.

Answer

I’m ebf and she has a great relationship with daddy. I don’t think the two correlate. He plays with her all the time which is what made a bond between them. She smiles like crazy whenever daddy comes by her now.

Answer

I was in this exact same boat up until about 2 weeks ago. My girl is 18 weeks now and the first 16 weeks she would not let daddy even touch her without screaming bloody murder. Just over the last two weeks she will finally sit on his knee. He still can't calm her down if she is fussy or crying, she only wants mommy for that. My husband struggled with bonding with her too, but I finally expressed that it's not fair to me to have to do everything 24/7 and one day I had him take her up to her nursery to play on an activity mat while I took a few minutes to myself. Once I realized he could do that without her crying I've been insisting on him doing that frequently to just give me a small break here and there.

Answer

Every baby is different. It could be completely non feeding related. I’d say it is. My first and second were on me like glue. My first was 50/50 breast fed and bottle fed and my second was ebf. Our third just does 2 bottles a day and he is by far more attached to daddy then our first who got several bottles a day from dad, usually our third gets one or less from him. I’d say try doing things where your involved and so is dad, so your babies anxiety isn’t bothering everyone. Like bath time. Have baby and daddy do a co bath and sit out of it with them and talk to baby. Hold baby while daddy reads a story. Both lay down on your tummy’s and join baby in tummy time. Give it a while of that kind of thing before he moves to more one on one stuff.

Any EBF babies struggling to bond with their daddies?

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