DD suddenly having problems at nursery

[SydneyB]

DD has been at nursery for, 4 days a week for nearly 3 months now. She started when she was 6 months old and settled in really quickly and has been happy there. But after 2 weeks holiday she has been really unhappy there. We'd expected this after 2 weeks of loads of attention from us but the problem seems to be that she doesn't like to be put down. Apparently she is now quite scared of the other children and is only happy if her (very lovely) keyworker is sitting with her or someone else she knows there. The minute they leave her she screams. Otherwise, she's sleeping and eating there and all fine but obviously they just can't sit there with her all day. This has been going on for 2 weeks since we got back and I just don't know how long to leave it before thinking of other options. Has anyone else had a similar experience and have any thoughts as to how we can get through this?

That would make her about 10 months now?

My DD and DS went through a phase about this age and was very clingy/screamed her head off when being put down. It didn't happen with kids, only men or people with hats on!

With DD it lasted about 6 weeks and she seemed fine when I took her in to nursery a bit earlier when the place was empty and she could get used to it and the kids gradually came in instead of being taken into a room full of kids!

It does get easier and she loves going now, even gets excited at the door before we go in!

She's 13 months now and completely different to how she was 3 months ago x

She's just shy of 9 months. We can't really take her in any earlier as we like her to do as short a day as possible so DH drops her off at 9 and it opens at 8. Her keyworker thinks perhaps they should let her cry for a bit so that she learns that nothing bad will happen if she's left on her own with the others. She can't crawl yet and I think its the ones that crawl and toddle that worry her. Not sure I can hang in there for 6 weeks!

We get this a lot when children have been on holiday or after a long weekend, they are out of their routine.

Try and stick with it, we usually find it's not as long as 6 x weeks more like 3 weeks before they settle again.

It will probably help that it is 4 x days.
as quite ofter if there are only 1 or 2 days with long gaps in between then this also upsets routines.

Try and be brave

What is she like about being put down at home? DD went through a phase just before she learnt to crawl of not wanting to be put down - I think (probably over analysing) that she had worked out from others at nursery that crawling was a possibility but couldn't do it so she was getting very frustrated.

How much leaving her "on her own" do they want/need to do?

She's funny about being put down in the house if other people are here and is definitely going through a more picky-uppy stage so perhaps that is it. They don't actually leave them on their own - its just that they obviously can't carry them around all day. Went to see a childminder this weekend and am considering that if this week doesn't improve.

Thanks all for reassuring posts. So she had much better days mon and tues but has now come down with ANOTHER nursery bug which means she now probably won't be back in there until Mon, which means she'll have forgotten it all again.. sigh.