Toddler anxiety

[Lskaife1]

Hi 😊 I've looked online everywhere and can't seem to find any advice or similar situations to what my daughter is going through right now. She turned 2 in May and is a chatty happy little girl most of the time. Very recently we dropped my wife and her mummy off at her work for the first time in a while due to lockdown. We were going to the park to meet her grandma straight after. She was happy enough to go until we actually got there and she saw her grandma. First of all she's not that close to her grandma but we've met her recently and she waa fine. She was heartbroken when I stopped the car and immediately started crying. When I tried to calm her down and get her out she clinged to her seat belt. It must have been about 2 minutes when I decided to go back to the car because she was so upset. I said I would drive around to the other entrance and meet her grandma on the park. She was fine again until we got near the park and she saw her grandma again then she started again. Anyway I didn't know what to do for the best so I tried to reassure her on a bench for a minute but she wouldn't calm so I took her home. I'm not just talking crying I'm talking panicking and sobbing. Then a couple of days later we had a similar situation when my wife took her to her mum and dad's (daughters nanny and grandads) who she is close to and she's fine with them everytime. When they got there they opened the door to my brother in law and she immediately started panicking again and the same situation happened where she wouldn't calm at all. She knows who her uncle and aunty are and have spent time with them even very recently but again she's not very close. She tried taking her into another room to calm her but it didn't work. So today we thought we would invite them into our house with it being her comfort zone and the same happened. However I took her into the other room and she calmed abit more this time. So my question is has anyone been in or heard of a similar situation? Would anyone have any ideas or advice on what we can do next because we don't know what to do for the best. Do we keep pushing it and hope she can get passed it or do we back off and not mention anything. It's such a sad situation to be in. I should also mention that she will say hello and bye to strangers on the park etc. Thanks in advance for any comments

[LouiseTrees]

This is very common with kids and lockdown. Unfortunately you just have to keep exposing them to the same people a few times and they will adjust again.

[aimzxd]

Yup. My baby was looked after by my mum pre-lockdown and loved being at her house. After restrictions eased he screamed bloody murder when i took him there. My mum rocked him, cuddled him and sang to him till he settled. Took a good 45 mins and she wouldnt let me take him to comfort him. Now he loves going there. With my DP parents I kept taking him off them when he cried and think it made him worse, just hated to see him like that. He's getting better with them but thats 5 visits a week over weeks. My mum can comfort him like I can now, but DP parents cant. I dont know if its because I took him when he lost it instead of letting them calm him or some other reason. I think you need to let the family members reassure your DC and take a step back.