Olfactory Overwhelm- A Cautionary Tale

I have a cautionary tale I hope might help other moms when they have no idea why their baby is crying/screaming. It’s happened twice now and I think we’ve gotten to the root of my 11 weeks old sudden scream, sobbing cries.

My baby is a very typical baby. He cries occasionally and I can always pinpoint the reason and fix it to stop the crying. Except for last night. We did our usual bed time routine, usually he nurses to sleep easily. But last night he started fussing immediately, quickly escalating to screaming and crying. His cries were so intense I knew he was in pain. I quickly stripped him down to examine his body, hands and feet. Nothing. I checked his diaper and burped him. No change. He was sobbing so hard it was heart breaking. My husband took him and he immediately calmed. We waited a few minutes and he handed him back to me. Immediately, sobbing crying again just like before.

Then it dawned on me. These were the same screams he had when I used BenGay before nursing him. I hadn’t thought about it and put BenGay on my foot before nursing him a few weeks ago and he absolutely lost it. This time around it was a new body wash I used that was really fragrant. I went and took another shower using my husband’s body wash. He handed me the baby and immediately he latched and nursed to sleep.

I feel so bad that I upset him so much by my fragrance but also it was eye opening that scents bother him so much. I did a quick google search and it seems like this is definitely a thing! Has anyone else experienced this? Maybe it can help other moms to consider smells when their babies absolutely will not settle. And now I wonder if that’s why he doesn’t like certain people holding him, could it be their scent?