Setting in nightmare

[Letti505]

Hello,

First time poster here. I have a 11 month old who is breastfed and quite clingy. I go back to work at the end of the month and he’s been having setting in sessions at nursery for 4 weeks now. He isn't settling well at all. We’re having another week of settling in and he is supposed to start.

Hes been going at different times of the day, during lunch and hasn’t eaten anything.

I can’t afford not to go back to work. Does anyone have any tips on what I could do to help him settle? I’m feeling like such a bad parent. My first went to nursery at 18 months as I was studying and the transition was a lot smoother.

thanks

Unfortunately it's the age. Children settle much better at 6 months or 18 months but between about 10-14 months is the worst. In my experience. I've known several children of around 11/12 months to take weeks to settle.

Suggestions:

• send with comfort item or something that smells of you that they can cuddle
• make handovers very quick. Lingering will only make things harder as baby will pick up on your potential anxiety at leaving them.

4 weeks sounds a long time but sometimes too many settling in sessions just makes things worse and you would be better off just plunging in the deep end and doing their full hours. They will settle much better once on full hours rather than being collected after a couple of hours at random times of the day.