Why does my baby cry when I leave the room?

The NHS describes separation anxiety as very common between about six months and three years, and as a normal part of growing up. It describes the crying as a sign of a strong, secure attachment: your baby is upset because you matter to them.

What follows is the NHS's description of separation anxiety and of what it says helps. It is a general picture rather than a description of your own baby, and the people who know your baby are your child health nurse, GP or paediatrician.

The age range the NHS gives

The NHS describes separation anxiety as very common between about six months and three years, and as a normal part of growing up. It describes children growing out of it as their confidence grows, and it gives no age at which that happens.

What the NHS describes it as a sign of

The NHS describes separation anxiety as a sign of a strong, secure attachment. Your baby is upset because you matter to them.

Leaving your baby with someone else

The NHS describes leaving a child with another trusted caregiver as something that does not damage them. It describes small experiences of saying goodbye and then having a happy reunion as how a child learns that people come back.

What the NHS describes as helping

The NHS describes starting with very short separations and building up from there, and leaving a comforting object with your baby, something that smells like you.

On the goodbye itself, it describes saying goodbye with a confident smile and a wave, because babies read tension.

When the dates are not yours to choose

The NHS describes starting with very short separations and building up. Many parents do not get to choose when a separation happens, because a return to work or a first day at care can arrive on a date someone else set. How the NHS's description fits around dates you did not choose is a question for your child health nurse, GP or paediatrician.

Where Wriggler fits

Wriggler has no part in any of this. Crying at the door is not something a tracker records, and the description above is the NHS's rather than Wriggler's.

What Wriggler's free tracking holds is the ordinary shape of a day: when a nap started and ended, when a feed happened, how many nappies there were.

If something about the crying worries you, your child health nurse, GP or paediatrician is the person to ask.