18 m.o. scares of new faces and very clingy

[Sushimania]

I am going back to work when my 18 month old baby turns 2. At the moment, she is extremely clingy. She would not let me out of her sight even for 30 seconds. Plus she does not take to new faces at all. I am getting worried how she will cope with daycare when she is two years old. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Practice helps with this kind of thing. If she's never stayed with anyone else then she's going to be understandably thrown if you're not there. So you'll have to start by leaving her with people she knows to begin with and for short periods of time... say 30 minutes... and build up from there. And when she starts daycare spend a week or two getting her acclimatised to the environment and the staff, building up the time from a few hours to the full day. There's a big difference between 2y.o. and 18 months. I'm sure she'll be fine by then.