My youngest daughter was like this. For me I knew where it came from. Myself and her two elder sisters were at a friends place with her two children and another friend and her child. The other visiting friend went into premature labour. I delivered the baby, ambulance arrived and she asked me to accompany her to the hospital. I left without being able to explain to my kids. This freaked my youngest out and from that time on she would watch me like a hawk and freak out if she couldnt see me. Sorry to say she didnt get out of this until she was aound 6 years old.

At times like these you need minties.

Just give the toddler a toy they don’t usually play with or a Coles catalogue to look at. If you give a book, it will be destroyed within 5 minutes.
If you can have someone that can mind your child until you get out of the shower nothing will be destroyed by your toddler and that will help you enjoy your shower longer.

I think that at that age it is very common for babies to have separation anxiety, so screaming when you leave the room is not uncommon at all. I do understand it is hard though, but try to see the big picture that this won’t last forever. Same as when you drop your kids off at child care and when they a little older pre-school and school; it is important to make the good bye’s brief but positive. Let your child know you always come back, but consistency and a clear routine is the key.

My 4 year old did the same thing. It has only recently stopped. I just kept reassuring him and whenever I left the room I didn’t let myself react in emotion. I just left with no “fuss”. Eventually he knew he was ok and the tears stopped. It broke my heart though and was so hard to persevere. Hang in there mumma!

The only way to stop this kind of behaviour is to stop rewarding the behaviour. If your child thinks throwing themself at a door is going to get a reaction, and I’m presuming it does, then they are learning to do bigger and bigger things to get the desired result – you coming back. You will need to look into some self soothing techniques and don’t give in. If you are worried about them potentially hurting themself, buy a playpen and have them comfortably settled with some toys before leaving the room if possible.

My youngest did this. She was relentless so I pretty much just took her everywhere with me. ( I know that’s not always an option for everyone though.) She is now probably the friendliest, most confident one of my kids ( and theyre all pretty friendly and confident) and we are still really close. It really doesn’t last forever as hard as it can be at the time.

After reading some of the other posts, I think maybe you could look at some books to read your child about being away from them in another room. Kids go through stages of getting anxious when their parents aren’t around but it’s important to keep cool and just remind them you are here. You could even try turn it into a game and use walkie talkies.

My almost 18 month old gets pretty sooky and loud when I leave the room. I try to have his favourite toys near him, play some background music. It’s common for seperation anxiety to hit around this time. He usually calms down within a few minutes, but if he were to be at a 10 after 10mins I would go to him. It’s tricky, wanting them to learn to have some distance but wanting them to know you’re there

Let him scream it out. This is a way for him to learn to calm himself. I know it can be hard that you have to listen to him but it is for his own good about learning about boundaries. If you pay attention each time he does this he sees he is getting attention and will continue this. Do you really want this to keep happening for the next few years? If you decide to have more children you don’t want him teaching them bad habits.

Im so sorry youre going through that. When my kids were young – there was definitely some tears when they couldnt see me – but that was normal for the developmental stage and definitely calmed down shortly after. I would always talk so they could still hear my voice. Or keeping them occupied with a fun toy etc

Wow. This is a bit extreme. Did anything trigger it? My (then) six year old suddenly got extremely clingy after I went away by myself for a week. A couple of months after I got back she got crazy clingy. I solved the problem by putting a photo of myself in a keyring thingy, putting it on a lanyard, and she had it with her for comfort.