Fear of Strangers at Very Young Age...

Yes! Mine was that way by 3 months old. The pediatrician said it was young to start but still normal. On the other hand I've known other babies who were smart, and grew up just fine and never had it. So apparently the range of "normal" is very broad.

One thing that helped was to show friendship in front of the baby - like an exaggerated hello and warm embrace, then talking. My daughter would then relax and be more accepting of this stranger. I had to tell the person not to even look at her at first until the baby had time to assess this new person, and accept her.

Still, she did not tolerate being left with other people, even other family members like her aunt. She could cry for 8 hours straight not taking a bottle, when I had to leave her (I was having a non-elective surgery).

So, I guess I am not the best one to give a complete solution, but the show of friendship may help.

Yes, that is normal.
Per our Pediatrician.... at about 6 months old, "separation anxiety" occurs.
My kids, at about that age, did so too.
Normal.

There is also "object permanence" which babies are developmentally going through.... look it up online.
It is normal developmental occurrences.

My infant does the same as well. Beginning about 3 or 4 weeks she would cry and cry and cry and once we'd tried everything else, if I had been with her I'd hand her to my DH just to get a break and she'd magically stop - and vice versa. She has very definite preferences at different times so I would think an older child would certainly develop a preference for someone also. Especially if there have been several other caregivers prior to you, as another mentioned.

As an aside, if I left my child with a paid caregiver and they handed her to someone else, I would be totally pissed. Even if this is a best friend of yours, unless the parent knows the person well, I would totally not do that. VERY unwise decision.

Good luck!

very common at that age. you should have learned that in school when you went for the nanny program... if you did

My daughter started this at 6 weeks!! It was awful! We tried everything and nothing worked. Just remember that it will not hurt her to cry. If you need someone else to hold her and she cries, as upset as she may look, she actually is not being HURT. My daughter finally outgrew this when my second was born at two years old!

Very normal. Neither of my two kids would have been OK going to anyone at that age.

I think it's pretty normal, especially if there were a few nannies before you. Just be patient and do NOT force her to go to a stranger; she's learned to trust you, don't break that trust.