Separation Anxiety

[ausi2b]

Any mamas out there going through this (and tearing their hair out)??

DS is 8 months old and is in the midst of what I would call separation anxiety. If DH or I take a shower, we normally put DS on the bathroom floor with some books and toys and jump in for a quick shower. It has never been a problem before, but in the past few weeks he FREAKS out as soon as he can't see us in the shower - hysterical crying until we get out.

Same thing happens when we're on a car ride. He is fine when we're getting him into his carseat, until we move into the front seat. He is hysterical until we get back in the backseat to take him out (and sometimes if DH and I are in the car together and one of us is in the backseat he still gets hysterical).

He just started crawling so it is better when we're around the house, because he can just crawl to find us without the hysterics (sometimes). Is this just a phase? Anything I can do to help ease the transition? We're kind of getting tired of not showering and never leaving the house :D

TIA for any tips/advice!

[janu98]

Sorry no advice here, we are going through the same thing except with us DS freaks out if I leave the room :rolleyes: even if DH is right there. Kinda frustrating....

[katnbug]

No real advice, except to say it does eventually end!!! :)

We went through this with DS until he was just over 2 years old. Then it just ended suddenly. Now we have a 9mo. old and she cries whenever I'm out of her sight. My mom watches her when I take DS to Gymboree or other classes, and I leave both of my kids with a baby sitter once a week for 4 hours. DD usually cries for an hour or so, but gets over it. I'm hoping that by having her stay with someone other than me she will grow out of this stage faster than DS did. I rarely left DS with a sitter.

[whitlockan]

OMG DS is 4 months old and we are going through this at night or when he is at school. I'm so stressed out and its causing me to tear into DH all the time for no reason.

For us this started last week and he has been the baby who has never cried and has always slept through the night, so as you can imagine 3 nights of no sleep has taken its toll, not to mention showing up to pick him up from school and hearing him scream, I say his name and he cant even see me yet and he shuts up, the rest of the night he was fine. Put him to bed walk out of the room and all heck breaks loose. So I wanted to do a test, brought him into our bed he went right to sleep, moved him to the pnp next to our bed and freaked out again! So last night we went to BRU and bought one of those bears that play the sounds of a mothers womb hooked it on his crib and finally he went right to sleep and slept through the night last night.

I know this sounds no fun and at 8 months old I dont know but I'm sure this is a phase, perhaps you can put up a temporary clear shower curtain for shower time, do you have a carseat mirror that is large enough that he can possibly see back up at you in the reflection, any way to reassure him your still there would be worth a shot. Thats the only suggestions I can think of.

[mommydearest]

Writing to commiserate. DD is 6 months and freaks out. Or, if she forgets and is playing with toys and I walk in to the room then leave, she freaks. DH will not do lots of times.

She has also started only sleeping 30 minutes then freaking out. I tried everything including CIO at two naps today and she just cried forever, never going to sleep.