4 month old funny around people he does know!

[Gingerniffler]

So I have a 4 month old son. He’s the first grandchild on both sides so everybody is always round seeing him. He sees both sets of grandparents regularly as well as his great granny.
However.
If I’m not in the room with him, he cries. And I mean cries. He can get himself into such a state which is horrible to see. But immediately when I show up or I take him, he calms down.
I’m at a loss because he knows these people. He’s seen them a lot from he was born. I am obviously his primary caregiver and he’s attached to me but it can feel isolating and overwhelming when I can’t leave him with his grandparents for a few hours to get other things done in my life.
People have said to me you just need to leave him, let him cry it out, he’ll get used to it. I don’t want him to cry it out because he can go on and on. Bright red face, tears down his cheeks. I don’t want everyone’s experience of my son to be that he screams whenever he’s with them. And I don’t want his experience with them to be that he always needs to cry.
I’m at a loss. People are telling me he’s too attached to me which makes me feel a bit horrible because I don’t know how it got to that. I feel like I’ve went wrong somewhere.
Long rant sorry. Anyone else experienced this?

Does he do it when you’re not in the room but they aren’t there?

That age… mine did it whenever I left room

He’ll sort of whine whenever I’m not in a room but he won’t hysterically cry the way he does when other people are holding him and I’m not there.

@Youheshetheysaid He’ll sort of whine whenever I’m not in a room but he won’t hysterically cry the way he does when other people are holding him and I’m not there.

It sounds like seperation anxiety.
It re-appears at several points during babies & toddlers development and key moments like being left with other family members or starting nursery are big triggers for it.
Good news is it's temporary - they do get used to being with other people but it takes time.
At 4 months he's probably still not got his head around object permanence - the idea that something or someone can still exist even if you can't see them. You can help him with this by playing lots of games like peekaboo with him and also have him sat in a room with someone whilst you go in and out talking outloud - he'll learn that you're still there even if you're not in the same room as him.
And maybe try being away from him for smaller amounts of time and build up to a few hours or try doing other activities - at 4 months my baby would be happy being taken for a 30 min walk in the carrier (he hated his pram bassinet) by my MIL because he was distracted by what he could see but if I left them together in the living room for the same amount of time he'd cry because he missed me.

You’re lucky!

Mine did and my nct class babies did in every scenario! It passed by 6 ish months