11m old crying at bed time

[Amand34]

My nearly one year old has been settling himself to sleep for 6 months but in the last 6 weeks or so cries and cries when he goes to bed. He will only fall asleep if he’s in my arms (which is absolutely fine and I’m happy to do forever 😂) but I just wondered if anyone had experienced anything similarl around 10-12m. I wouldn’t say teething as he’s had no new teeth since this started x

This is peak time for separation anxiety. It's unfortunate, but it's common.

@Didimum oh bless him! So would you suggest just continuing what I’m doing? Is it a longer term thing? I go back to work in 8 weeks so don’t want to make this worse on him!

I would begin a bedtime routine where you try popping in and out frequently to let him know that you always come back, so his anxiety about it decreases. With my twins, we did something called 'the kissing game' where you put them to bed and say 'I'll be back in a minute for a kiss!' and you just pop out the door and go almost immediately back in and give them a kiss. You repeat that again and again, increasing the time you are gone for – only by a little – so they very much trust you will come back. The idea is they will not be distressed and be tired by then and go off to sleep. It worked well with our twins.