16 month now won’t sleep without me being in the room

[Franktank19]

My baby has always been a great sleeper and self settled. The past few weeks he now gets in such a state when I leave the room and I find it so hard to listen to him cry - he is hysterical. It is just me and him so can’t hand over and go for a walk - it’s very intense so I sit on the floor and hold his hand till he sleeps.
Any advice? Will he ever go back to self settling?

We had the same thing with DS1, at roughly the same age.

It was not fun, but I cracked it by moving slightly further away each night. Story, song, then just sat in silence until he fell asleep.

It took a few weeks though.

Thank you so much I will try this