please tell me this is a phase

**AmyMCGS** · 06-07-2004, 12:14 AM

DD, age 14 months, has developed a very frustrating habit in the last few weeks-- every time she's left alone in a room, she screams and cries as loud as possible until someone returns to the room. Now, it's not like we abandon her or anything~ we're talking about maybe five minutes while I go to the bathroom or go get the mail. It used to be that I could be in the next room for quite a while before she'd even notice I was gone-- but not now. I have no idea why she's like this all of the sudden, so I'm assuming this is just some sort of phase she's going through.

Tonight she screamed so loud and so long that she was making herself hoarse-- all in the time it took me to change clothes and take my contacts out.

This is so frustrating~ Any suggestions?

**mrscornbread** · 06-07-2004, 12:24 AM

Babies do go through phases of development. Look on the internet at Erickson's stages of social development and also Piaget's development theories. I cant for the life of me remember which one describes the stage babies go through when they are no longer able to play games like peek-a-boo because they finally begin to make sense of the world that things go away. She will grow out of it. Hope that helped a little. I cant seem to get my memory together right now because...

THE LAKERS JUST GOT THEIR BUTTS WHOOPED BY DETROIT!

**AmyMCGS** · 06-07-2004, 12:30 AM

Originally posted by mrscornbread
Erickson's stages of social development and also Piaget's development theories.

Yeah.... vague memories from school for me, too. I know logically that this is a phase and she (and I) will get over it, but I'm just so frustrated right now that it doesn't seem like it will be any time soon.

**Julia Kimber** · 06-07-2004, 12:38 AM

My son went through a phase of screaming when he was little Amy but then he just grew out of it, it didn't last long! He's now a well-adjusted man of 30!

Julia

**isaacsmommy** · 06-07-2004, 07:37 AM

Amy,

It's just separation anxiety and she'll grow out of it. Luckily we haven't had to deal too much with it with ds (17 mo.)....but then again, he's used to mommy and daddy leaving him with grandma (20 hrs. a week), and I think that helps. If you ever just need to vent, I'm just a pm away...

Wendy