Severe attachment anxiety aged 5 months

[SleepyAlpaca]

I have a 5 month old son. We have just been on holiday and tried to leave him with a baby sitter for 2 hours (so we could have dinner) but each time we were called back within 30 minutes because he was inconsolable. He'd been fed just before we handed him over, had a clean nappy and no other obvious causes for distress and settles within seconds of myself or my husband taking him from the baby sitter. Any suggestions on how to deal with this? We don't often leave him with a sitter but I have to go back to work in August and am worried how he'll cope with the nanny.

hi, I have a 1yr old (dc3) who can be like this. its perfectly normal although frustrating!!!
she was even like this with 1 set of grandparents at first so to get her ready for me going back to work we did lots of little practise goes at our house. We also found that once I did go back to work they found she was more settled if they had her at our house rather than theirs.

Have you sorted a nanny yet? I would suggest if poss doing some practise days where you are around aswell as the nanny so that he gets used to the nanny but with the 'safety' of still being in close proximity of you. Play lots of peekaboo type games together. Hopefully then as he gets to know the nanny better and feels comfortable with her he will settle ok for her.

Thanks! We're actually having my cousin as an au pair really, so at least he's already met him and can spend more time with him over the next few months. Just so frustrating and heartbreaking to watch him screaming for me...

My 5 month old would lose her shit if we left her with a babysitter she'd never seen before. It's totally totally normal...here we call it 'making strange' and some babies do it earlier than others.

It will be fine with a regular nanny/au pair after a few weeks, they'll develop their own bond. I'm going back to work soon too and have the same worry but hoping it will be fine, it was with my first

My eldest daughter took against the whole world apart from me from being about 4 months old and would scream bloody murder when anyone else held her-she just about tolerated her dad. I was dreading going back to work when she was 6 months old (my mum was having her) so we had to literacy force her to get used to it. She did get better, but only with very familiar people and situations, like nursery and school. We used to spend lots of time preparing her for new things. But I have to say, she is such a confident 7 year old now-happily stands up in front of the whole school to read in mass. It makes me very proud. Rainbows was the making of her-she cried the first week, made me stay in the car for a few weeks but then happily trotted off without me. Your ds will be ok too-I used to worry so much but it all turned out fine.