As babies grow, each age comes with unique developmental traits and challenges. When my baby was just nine months old, I noticed that the separation anxiety of the little one was gradually manifesting. The arrival of this phase brings us a series of emotional experiences and family challenges.
My daughter-in-law went to work after her maternity leave, and the baby was taken care of by my grandmother. When the baby is six months old, there is no separation anxiety, and anyone can hold it. The daughter-in-law goes to work in the morning, and the little one will not make trouble. At that time, the daughter-in-law was still a little lost, she felt that the little guy was not close to her, and there was no such feeling of mother-son affection.
Now that the baby has entered the stage of nine months of age, the baby's cognitive ability has been significantly improved. Your baby is becoming aware of the separation between himself and his primary caregiver and the emotional rupture that this separation can cause. As babies develop attachments to their primary caregivers, they show an increasingly pronounced anxious response to being separated from them.
Now every morning when the little guy sees his daughter-in-law packing up her things and preparing to go out, he keeps watching her crying and chirping, and wants her to hug him. The overall manifestation is crying, worrying, and uneasy. The little guy reached out to grab and hug his daughter-in-law, but he was actually expressing his dependence and need for his daughter-in-law.
Many times when the little guy is drinking milk and sees his daughter-in-law go out, he immediately refuses to drink milk and keeps crying. In order to appease the little one, the daughter-in-law held him in her arms and patiently said to him, "Mom is going to work, and I will play with you when I get home from work, and you listen to grandma at home." As if he could understand, the little one stopped crying, and then the daughter-in-law went out to work.
Every morning for the next day, the little guy cried when he saw his daughter-in-law preparing to go out, and then my mother said not to let the baby see it when she went out. So when my daughter-in-law was about to go out, my mother carried the little guy into the room and didn't let him see her go out. That's fine, at least not crying in the morning. But at noon or in the afternoon, the little one began to cry again and wanted to go out and wait for his daughter-in-law.
The daughter-in-law is not at home, my mother will have a hard time with the baby, and the little guy is always crying, probably thinking about his daughter-in-law. The little one's separation anxiety caused some challenges for my mom, and in the face of his crying and emotional reactions, my mom chose to carry him on her back and coax him. Often in the process of coaxing, the little one falls asleep.
In fact, establishing a warm, safe and stable home environment is essential to relieve your baby's anxiety. Parental support and patience can help your baby gradually overcome separation anxiety and build a safer emotional connection.
Although separation anxiety can pose some challenges for families, it also marks an important step forward in your baby's psychological development. It shows that your baby has begun to form a strong emotional connection with their primary caregiver, which is a crucial step in their development.
In the face of the little one's separation anxiety, the daughter-in-law felt a little relieved. Because she felt the dependence and trust of the little one on her. 她现在总是和我说“你看，小家伙心里还是有妈妈的，小家伙会认妈妈啦！”现在只要媳妇在家，小家伙谁也不要，就要她。
每次媳妇抱着他的时候，我们伸手过去要抱他，他居然把头转向另外一边，明显地拒绝了我们。 小家伙奶奶看到这场景就说黏着妈妈吧！一直挂在妈妈身上吧！哈哈哈...... I didn't expect the adults to be jealous of who the little guy likes.