Sudden development of seperation anxiety

Redpunto

I have a very confident 3 and a half yr old who has never had seperation anxiety, she is incredibly outgoing and will join in with anything, she started playschool in September and ran in and have had no problems up until last week. It was just a bit of moaning at that stage, yesterday though she was screaming, kicking her legs, i tried to reason but the teacher said to leave (which went against every bone in my body), i hung around a couple of minutes and it seemed to work.

I left her out today, just to give her a break and went to drop her off at her nanny and grandads (which happens twice a week and never any problems) and the same thing happened. She did quietin down after a few minutes after I left but god is it stressing me out. Im now worried what'll happen tomorrow when i go to drop her off.

Could something have happened to her to cause her to start suddenly reacting like this?

Is it all an act? Surely at this stage I thought we were plan sailing in regards to her being happy to go to playschool. We were planning for her to start "big" school next year as well but now maybe she wont be ready.

Cheers

Quality

Could she be coming down with a cold or illness, sometimes kids get a bit more clingy when they are unwell?

Redpunto

You know what, she came down with a temperature yesterday, coincidence??

Its been going on a couple of weeks now but ya never now. Thanks

Quality

She might have been brewing a bug, My daughter always got a bit clingy when she wasnt 100%, we always knew when she wasnt going to be well as she would play up on us.

I hope things are a bit better for you this week.

Victor

Has she had any incidents? My nephew became clingy for periods after 2 events (a) my brother being away for a week (b) when at a bouncy castle type event he returned to "the
wrong daddy" and freaked out when he realised it wasn't his daddy.

tantipie

i think this happens alot,,,the novelty has now worn off,,keep trying her,,she will get used to the idea of going everyday eventually,,,

GS.ie

Redpunto wrote: »

You know what, she came down with a temperature yesterday, coincidence??

Going to show my age here (47 :P) but is there not someone (your mother / father) that could have answered this question ? Sometimes I wonder how we (our generation) survived pre WWW :D:D.

lostinnappies

illness can make seperation anxiety worse. With my little fella he was very similar to your little girl. Very outgoing with nothing but fun and play in his mind. At about the age of 3 he began to get clingy and started hiding behind me. It was very strange.

He suddenly became aware after falling over one day in the creche (not badly) that mummy wasnt there to pick him up and check he was ok. If he wanted to go home he couldnt there and then because mummy wasnt there. It never bothered him before. He was old enough at that age that I could talk to him and explane that mummy is always close by and that if he ever needs to go home his teacher will call me. He did try it at one stage. His teacher called and I spoke to him on the phone and told him he was to play for a little longer and I would be there to pick him up. It slowly subsided. It might be something similar to your situation.

I would also like to agree with you that just leaving them crying in the classroom is not the way to do it. Seperation anxiety will only get worse and it will be more traumatic for her. You are the parent so you decide what is best for your little one and dont let any teacher tell you otherwise... you will only be kicking yourself for succombing to their will instead of listening to your instincts. good on you

Redpunto

Thanks guys, her temperature is still there so I havent tried the school again yet, we've going to nan and grandads later so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks:)