Separation Anxiety- Help! | Autism PDD

Hi, my son is having extreme separation anxiety at the moment (at 3.9 years). He refuses to stay at kindie so I have to stay there with him. I also have my 3 month bub in my arms as he has decided that he will remain awake for those 2 and a half hours and won't stay in his stroller. Not easy.

My son waits outside the loo and yells constantly, are you okay, are you okay?

When we go shopping (a rare event anyway), he wants me to remain in his view all the time.

He cries hysterically when I need to go for an odd appointment for myself and he has to leave with his dad.

He is sleeping in my bed (sigh!) and wakes up screaming atleast a few times at night.

Childcare is OUT OF THE QUESTION.

I do not know what to do except treat this as a phase which too shall pass. Actually we dealt with this before and he was okay and this was not too bad then. Maybe the arrival of a new baby started this again, who knows.

At early intervention, we have started working on separation thing and I leave him for a few minutes during snack time. They get the timer out and tell him that Mum will be back at so and so time. This timer thing actually is good for waiting as well as it gives them something concerete. He is doing a little bit better now.

Maybe others have more ideas on this one? I am desperate.

Mary

Aside from what you are already doing (great idea w/ the story & calendar,
we do similar for dh who travels for work), I can't think of anything else.
Our dd only has bouts of separation anxiety when she is fearful of her
environment (like drs office etc.), and every once in awhile if I go out (this
saturday, she screamed for 45 mins after I left, dh was home). But, for the
most part, she could care less if dh or I are around. I remember w/ our
older dd when she went through that typical sep anxiety stage, we were told
to just reassure her & overtime, she'd trust & realize we would return, etc.
Hope this works for your son, and before too long he is adjusted to it. Good
luck!

Hi- Have any of you had to deal with separation anxiety? I recently went back to work after a 4 month maternity leave and its been very hard on my son Ryan who is 3.5 yo. He cant express it verbally but hes started waking up 3-4 times a night calling out for me. I then have to go into his room (or else hell get out of bed) and wait for him to fall asleep. Its rough on me because I have to be up at 5:15am. Also, since Im out of the house early, before Ryan wakes up, my poor husband has to deal with the fact that Ryan cries hysterically when he realizes Im not there in the AM. He has to contend with him for an hour before the bus picks him up for preschool.

Its also confusing for him because I do work from home one day a week, so Im there on those mornings, and obviously Im home on the weekends.

I created a social story for him and have a calendar with the days of the week with a picture of me and my husband- we place our picture on the day when one of us will be there in the AM, and I show him these before he goes to sleep at night so he knows what to expect in the morning.

Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.