What is Separation Anxiety and How to Cope With It

Having a baby makes one extremely familiar with the tantrums, cries and whining that occurs, if the baby is left alone for a while. Once babies are kept away form the caregiver, they usually tend to experience distress. On some occasions, the caregiver may have a hard time even going to the other room for a while, as the baby would start crying hysterically.

If your baby tends to act like this, do not worry as he or she is not the only one. Separation usually creates a stressful and depressing situation for both the caregiver and baby. In order to minimize it and to make it easier for both of them, it is essential to be aware of what causes it, and how one can manage it.  

With an infant, separation anxiety will not be such a big concern yet for the parents. During this stage, parents or the caregivers would have a higher chance of being unhappy when separated, as compared to the baby. Just as the baby starts to grow up and reaches 4 to 7 months of age, object permanence starts to develop.

With the development of object permanence, the baby becomes more aware of the reality that an object still exists, even if it is removed or kept away for a while. If a baby, who is just few months old, is deprived of his toy, he/she will not make the effort of looking around for it, or being bothered.

On the contrary, if the same is done with a seven months old baby, he/she will be aware that the object can not disappear in thin air, so it must be somewhere around. The same way, when the caregiver is away for a while, the baby is conscious about the fact that the caregiver has gone away and should return. To make them come back, they cry and become anxious.

It is difficult for a baby to be reassured that the caregiver will be back in some time, as they do not have the understanding of minutes, hours or days as yet. This is why they become so stressful during the time period of separation, as they have no clue when the caregiver would be back.

Therefore, one way of reducing such anxiety is to shower love and attention to your child at all times, and to spend quality time with him or her. This way, trust will develop.

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About the author

Erina Tai is a professional blogger who also writes about Pilates dvd and Pilates reformer machine.

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