Baby Development at 9 Months Old!
At nine months of age you may notice that your baby has developed what is commonly referred to as “separation anxiety”.
This can be troubling for parents, who do not realize this is a perfectly normal stage of development. Fortunately there are little things you can do to help your child with his anxiety around “strangers”.
If your baby is showing an extreme attachment to you or his dad and refuses to have anything to do with anyone else take care, as this is so very common but can make it difficult for you to leave him even with his grandparents.
Sometime between 4-7 months, babies develop a sense of object permanence and begin to learn that things and people exist even when they’re out of sight. This is when babies start playing the “dropsy” game — dropping things over the side of the high chair and expecting an adult to pick them up (which, once retrieved, get dropped again!). The same thing occurs with a parent. Babies realize that there’s only mom or dad, and when they can’t see you, that means you’ve gone away. And most don’t yet yet understand the concept of time so they do not know if or when you’ll come back. Whether you’re in the kitchen, in the next bedroom, or at the office, it’s all the same to your baby. You’ve disappeared, and your child will do whatever he or she can to prevent this from happening.
Source: Separation Anxiety
Easing your child’s separation anxiety can be anxiety producing more for you as the parents, since it then makes it difficult to leave little one, even if it is to just run errands.
There are a couple of ways to deal with leaving your child. Help him transition by having caregivers approach slowly and let him make the initial move toward them, giving him his blanket or pacifier as this is something soothing to him and helps him cope with his own anxiety. Sucking is his way of calming and soothing himself.
At this time, travel and strange environments may be more difficult with your little one as well. Being in new places around new faces can disrupt his sense of predictability and security. He may become cranky and clingy. Having books and toys available as well as his blanket or security object (transitional object) around may help him ease into new situations while traveling. He will also need to decompress so make sure you spend some one on one time with him to help him do this.
This is a fun age so try to enjoy him and what he is experiencing at the moment.
