Anxiety In Infants
March 12, 2009
You may have heard of the phrase, separation anxiety, but do not know exactly what it means. Separation anxiety occurs in infants. It is an insecure and uncomfortable feeling that they get when they are away from their parents for as little as a few moments to a few hours.
As the parent prepares to leave for work or drops the child off at daycare, their child may begin to cry or throw a fit because they know that their parent is going away. At their young age they don’t realize is that their parent will return.
During the first few months of their lives, babies may almost seem oblivious to the comings and goings of their parents or caregivers. As long as the baby is being fed and changed, it is not concerned with the whereabouts of their parents. In fact, separation anxiety works the other way around. The parent tends to have anxiety being away from their baby. At about six months the baby becomes aware of people and objects and can sense and react to their absence. At this time, a baby will start to cry if the parent is out of sight.
Babies are smart regardless of their age. To prevent having their parents disappear out of their sight, they will do little things to keep their parents nearby such as knock something off the table or throw an object. They may even start throwing a fit. You may think that your baby is doing this to aggravate you but in all actuality they have planned out a way to keep you near. This possessiveness continues on from six months to about a year. As their possessiveness grows, separation anxiety develops.
How do you ease if your child is going through separation anxiety? The signs are pretty obvious. The first sign is that they throw a tantrum. They’ll kick and scream and drop to the ground. Or they can become clingy and hold onto the parent’s leg while the parent is trying to walk away. If your child is exhibiting any of these symptoms, try to take it in stride. They will eventually grow out of it.
While most children go through separation anxiety right around age one, some children experience it later in life, usually between the ages of eighteen months and two-and-a-half years of age. But not all children suffer from separation anxiety. The length of time a child suffers from anxiety differs from child to child. It could last just a couple of months or up to their elementary school years. Separation anxiety is a normal thing for children to go through.
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