What to do if your child has separation anxiety

In today's society, more and more children have never left their parents since birth. Once they leave their parents, they will experience separation anxiety and restlessness. If you want to alleviate this situation, you can try to let your child leave your parents for a short period of time, slowly adapt to the situation, and reduce your child's anxiety. This article specifically introduces methods to help children reduce separation anxiety symptoms. Let’s take a look.

1. Get familiar with the alternative caregiver in advance

If the mother needs to leave the baby for a while and let the baby be taken care of by an elder or a nanny, it is necessary to let the baby get familiar with the new caregiver and enhance communication in advance. At the same time, it can also allow the elders (nanny) to understand the baby's living habits and interests. Don't suddenly grab someone your baby has never or hasn't had contact with for a long time to replace you just when you are about to leave. Babies also have feelings, and if a stranger suddenly replaces their mother, they will definitely feel strongly insecure.

2. Never sneak away

Many mothers and fathers worry that their babies will cry when they leave, so they sneak away when the baby is not paying attention. This is very wrong. Because the baby suddenly finds that the mother or father is missing, he will have the illusion that he has been abandoned, which will only deepen the separation anxiety when they are separated next time. The correct approach is to give advance notice 1-2 hours before leaving: "Mom is going out for a while, but will be back before dark." When the moment of separation comes, although the baby will feel sad, he will not feel it is sudden because he has been mentally prepared and will be more easily accepted psychologically.

3. Go out more often and meet other people

Whether I was on a business trip or Nuannuan went to kindergarten, her separation anxiety was not serious. I believe it has something to do with the fact that I have been traveling with her since she was a few months old. From the age of one, you should plan to take your baby out more often, let him or her interact with other people more often, and encourage your baby to actively interact with others. This will help develop your baby's social skills and effectively reduce your baby's dependence on his or her parents.

4. Play more games like hide and seek

The separation anxiety of babies aged 6 to 18 months mostly comes from the panic that if they can’t see their mother, the mother will be gone. Therefore, if your baby is at this age, you can play more games like hide-and-seek with him. Let the baby understand that matter exists forever. Even if the mother is covered by a towel or temporarily out of sight, she is still there and will reappear after a while. Such games are very helpful in cultivating the baby's sense of security.

5. Stay relaxed and happy, don’t spread negative emotions

The separation dramas that Nuan Ma has seen are often characterized by the baby crying heart-wrenchingly and the mother beside him also crying with sadness. Even when the babies were forcibly separated in the end, the mother kept looking back, wiping away tears and revealing an expression of reluctance. There was once a very popular word called "aura". Babies can quickly feel the aura brought about by the negative emotions of separation, which makes the separation more difficult. The right thing to do is to say goodbye to your baby in a relaxed, cheerful and firm manner, and leave quickly after the separation. It's okay to let your baby feel that temporary separation is okay. Maybe the baby stops crying as soon as you leave. All the crying and reluctance after separation are just your own imagination.

6. Make a promise just for the two of you

If your baby is older, you can make a pact with him that's just for the two of you before you leave. For example, what Nuan Ma often does is, "Mom is going to work, you should give her a gift, it will be like you are with her" or "Mom is going out and will be back in the evening, you should finish this puzzle before she comes back, then you can give her a surprise, okay?" Usually after such an agreement, Nuannuan's attention would shift to the agreed matters, and she would say goodbye to me happily.