2 YO Separation Anxiety at Night

Hi,

me and my wife have a 2 year old who has never had any sleeping problems in the past. Infact, she has been a great sleeper since the day that she was born (I can hear some of you swearing at me now!).

As she has been such a well rounded, determined and independent toddler, we decided to take the opportunity to have a break. We went away and left our daughter with her nanna's - 3 nights at one and 2 at the other. We normally have to drag her from her nanna's houses kicking and screaming.

Since getting back, and only for her night sleep (not her afternoon nap) she has developed seperation anxiety. All the usual symptoms: wont sleep, calls out for "mommy", gets out of bed, works herself up, etc. Of course, if either me or my wife sleep on the floor she is fine. She may wake a couple of times, check that we are still there and go straight back to sleep. For about a year now (other then being dropped off to day care) she has always had an issue when my wife leaves (even if it is only for 10 minutes to the shops). She would eventually calm down after 10 minutes or so and be fine.

After some very recent research we know that it is normal, especially at this age and the time away from her has probably contributed to the anxiety.

Anybody who has any ideas on how best to get her back to sleeping alone, we would really appreciate it.

Welcome to BB :). It is pretty normal for this to happen, I went through something similar with my DS2. Something that worked well for him was to put a musical cot toy with lights in his bed with him. It was a Fisher Price aquarium type toy that had bubbles, etc. I told him it was his special toy, just for bedtime, and he became quite excited about using it. This helped make going to bed time a positive experience for him again. I also told him that if he woke up at night, instead of calling out for me, he could turn his special toy on. This worked a treat, he was comforted by the light that came on and the music that played.

I hope you find something that helps :)

I think the best thing is to offer as much reassurance as you can to reduce the anxiety and wait it out. A comforter or special toy may also help, as Trish suggests.
If you leave her at night, do you try "I'm just going to x and I"ll be right back"? Then come back obviously. Adn do it again and again, till she's secure in teh knowledge that you will come back and goes to sleep (it takes a while for this to work)