Leaving 1-year old for first time

[TaraMc]

Hello,
My husband and I have a 9-month old son. I work full time and my husband is a stay-at-home dad. We live in a different country to our families and have yet to use a babysitter. As a result, my son has spent pretty much every minute of his life so far with me, DH or the pair of us. He's not comfortable being left with, or even held by anyone else, although I guess this might be normal enough for any kid of his age..? When he turns 1, DH and I are planning on going away for 5 nights and leaving DS with my sister. She is going to fly over about 5 days before we leave so that DS can get to know her. But DH is now starting to panic and is afraid that it will be extremely traumatic for DS to go from having us around 24/7 to gone from his life completely (albeit temporarily) and being left with a relative stranger. So I guess I'm looking for reassurances! Is this a traumatic thing for a 1-year old to experience? Or is DH being paranoid?? We took out insurance in case..!
Sorry for the long post!
Thanks in advance.

Hi

You may be surprised at his resiliance- he may not mind at all. Perhaps he'd be glad of a change!

I'd advise that she spends time with all of you in his home (so familiar) then short periods with you out (go food shopping on your own, for example) Building it up, rather than doing it suddenly will help.

Does he go to any playgroup type things at the moment? It might help if he does so he's used to other people even more.

Hey there!

Yep, that's what we thought we would do - have him spend increasing amounts of time with my sis on their own in the days before we leave. But I think my husband would like a written note from a paediatrician telling us that it will be in no way distressing for our son and that we should go off and enjoy ourselves! Oh well, fingers crossed that he enjoys the change like you say - my sis might even spoil him and let him chew the remotes.

Thanks for your reply.