Strong separation anxiety for the first time at 15 months... is DS late or is it something else?

[connyrabbit]

I was so glad to see that months were going by and still no sign of that separation anxiety everyone talks about between 8 and 12 months.
Then suddenly last month DS started panicking when I left him with someone else while I popped into another room.
The first I saw of it was when running into his childminder at the park, the next day he saw his grandparents, same thing and so on. It's been over a month now.
In doubt I stopped the childminder immediately (she had only looked after him 3 times 3 hours anyway).
I turn it round in my head at night and come up with lots of theories such as that he is such a bad eater that he is perhaps just hungry all the time..etc.

But maybe it is a normal phase? Has anyone else had a child with separation anxiety at that late stage? Did anything help?

He was such an outgoing and confident child, and now he is so afraid of everything...

Thanks for your help all.

My DS is 14 months and has been having a bit of a phase recently where he started crying if I left the room and was clinging to me like a little chimp when we met anyone he didn't know well; bedtime was also becoming a bit of a trauma whereas it had always been fine. I had heard that separation anxiety can peak at around this time and even come on much later.

After a month or so my DS seems to be calming down a bit now. Has anything changed recently? I think my DS was a bit freaked out when I dropped the last breastfeed so needed extra reassurance. Or of course it could be he is perhaps teething? I don't think it's too late for separation anxiety though so he might just need some extra cuddles and lots of practice of you telling him you'll be back then coming back. He'll be okay.

My dd didn't have any separation anxiety until around 15 months either. I was worried that she didn't tbh and relieved when she started crying when I left her! It's a very normal phase at this age when they are becoming more aware of strangers and who they feel comfortable with

there's a really good video about this on this website somewhere - it can't be far as I saw it on the home page this morning ...? it might help.