Major separation anxiety

Hi mums, my daughter is 9 months (today) and over the past 5/6 weeks has developed major separation anxiety. It’s at the point now where she will go crazy if she’s not touching me or can see me. I’ve been popping her into the gym crèche (an hour) a few times a week to try and help her realise that we can be apart and I will come back, but every time she goes crazy and they have to call me to come back to her. She has stopped sleeping in her bed and will only sleep on me, won’t play with her toys independently, will only play if she’s sat on me or has a hand on me! She’s okay in her car seat and in her pushchair, but I have to be pushing! She does have severe constipation (2 weeks and counting) and a bit of a cough but this has been getting worse for probably about 6 weeks now. Any ideas of what I can do? Thanks so much!!

Show your support

@Tia she will go to my mum for a short period but will continually check for me and sporadically get very upset and I’m going to take her back to the GP tomorrow about both the constipation and the cough!

did this start when you began leaving her at the crèche or after? if it began when you started leaving her there, she could’ve had a bad experience and is desperate to have you around in close proximity as her comfort and safe space. if it was after, was there anyone else or anywhere else you left her shortly with/ at before this started happening? the reason i’m suggesting this is because we had a child (was almost a year old) at a nursery i was working at who was really happy to be there and away from his parent until he had a bad interaction with a staff member, who was soon after made to step down from his job role because he was caught on cctv not doing his job properly. or this could just be separation anxiety at its peak, and if that’s the case i would just ride through it to reassure your little one that you are there and not abandoning them. it will lessen the more they feel secure and safe. 🤍

She has her own room with cot and cot in our room too but she is so unsettled she’ll only go in the bed with us and even then she wakes searching for me and will grip hold of me through the night, it possibly started just before the crèche, part of me wants to persevere but the other part of me makes me feel so guilty that she gets so distressed!

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌