In my experience the worst age for trying to settle in a new child minded child is between6 and 8 months, when they seem to be much more aware of their surroundings and who is taking care of them.

The hardest baby that I had to settle was a 7 month old boy that I will refer to as Jake.

Jake’s mum was understandably nervous about leaving her baby with a child minder.

She asked if she could bring along his own pram, hoping that by having something that was familiar may help him to settle in with me.

The first time that I layed him in the pram he screamed blue murder.

So I started to push the pram gently forward and back, this did give the desired result and he went to sleep.

After a few days of doing this Jake seemed much calmer.

Until one time my phone rang and I reached across to pick it up, by doing this my head moved out of his eye line and he screamed again.

. As soon as I looked back at him he settled again.

As the weeks passed and Jake grew he would be happy to play with my baby toys provided that he was sat on my lap. if I attempted to put him down, the terrifying screams started again.

The other children started to refer to him as screaming Jake.

Then several months down the line while I was cuddling him he saw the other children playing on the floor and leaned towards them, so I slowly and gently sat him on the carpet. He held onto my trouser leg for reassurance and used his other hand to play with the toys.

By taking things at a speed that Jake was comfortable with we progressed to him crawling away from me whilst watching that I was still there looking at him.

When Jake started to walk, he would venture away from me and then keep coming back for what I called ‘a top=up cuddle’

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When I took the children to a toddler group; if I needed to use the bathroom I would take Jake with me, Until he was confident enough to stay with the other children from my setting, The other adults told me that he never took his eyes off the door waiting for me to reappear.

By taking baby steps and being patient with him Jake became so relaxed with me that one day when his granny came to collect him rather than his mum, he wouldn’t let her put on his coat, wanting me to do it for him.

More on settling in a new child hhttps://thenextbestthingtomummy.com/settling-in-a-new-child-minded-child/ere

And more on seperation anxiety here

As always questions and comments are welcome.

Until next time.

Karen

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