Wednesday, February 13, 2008

On Separation Anxiety

Of course, a big factor complicating this daycare stuff is the fact that Noah is eight months old. Why didn't somebody tell me you can't start daycare at the height of separation anxiety? I read in my favorite parenting book that separation anxiety is triggered by a baby's newfound independence and mobility, as if their bodies want to take them away from home base, but their minds are programmed to check back in, and check in often. Basically it's nature's way of making sure babies don't crawl off into the sunset. With his early crawling, it should be no surprise that Noah is suffering from a major case of it. He actually has very little stranger anxiety, unless the stranger wants to separate him more than 3 inches (3 feet on a good day) from his mommy or daddy. He even has separation anxiety if one of us is holding him and the other one walks away. We have learned that if he's playing happily on the floor, and we need to move away from him, it helps if we crawl. So now, yes, we often crawl from room to room. He's training us well.

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