Used to love nursery but now cries every morning

[Liff]

I have a 17 month old who, for the last 8 months has loved going to nursery but now, for the last couple of weeks, has cried every morning when we drop him off and apparently cried most of Friday afternoon. Nothing has changed, his carers etc are all still the same. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have any advice?

Ds started nursery when he was 2.5 and for the first 2 months he loved it then we had about a month of tears. He is now fine again and skips into nursery. I just kept telling him that nursery was fun and I know that one of the nursery nurse's spent lots of time cuddling him and telling him stories which I know helped.

I think with your ds it may be his age. I can remember ds would get a little worried around his age if I left the room when we were at m&t groups. He is probably just beginning to understand that you are somewhere else when you leave him at nursery I don't think they quite understand that up until this age. Does he have a favourite carer that could spend some special time with him at nursery just to help him and do something that he really enjoys like playing with a favourite toy from home or doing painting or something?

I hope he is more settled soon.

DS has been in nursery since he was 1 and at 2.5 he had a similar time, as did his friends, some were due to the move up to the pre-school unit, but others didn't move, so we put it down to developmental changes in them. My friend has a cunning way to get her dd excited, which is to say to her what will her friends say if she doesn't go, and she answers 'where's ....' and 'I'm here, i'm coming' so maybe play up the popularity vote to encourage him. I did that with my ds, instead of talking about nursery i'd talk to him about who he would play with that day.
good luck.
x

ds has been to nursery since he was 6 months, and loved it. He would get all excited and impatient as he arrived at the door etc, until recently (he is 2 in august)when he has started crying when he is left there. He 'recovers' quickly with cuddles from the staff and the distraction of slides/ball pits and friends.
It's just a phase...it's just a phase...it's just a phase...

Thanks for your messages - fingers crossed it is just a phase then, it was worse than ever this morning...