Shows anxiety with strangers

Your Child is now increasingly attached to you and other family members and becomes anxious when left with a stranger.

Stranger anxiety is a healthy and normal development. While younger infants may be happy to be held by strangers, when children are around 6 months old, they often develop signs of anxiety when left with strangers.

This happens because children are now much more attached to their parents and those close to them and don’t have such bonds with strangers. Being away from mommy or daddy now can cause them a lot of pain and anxiety.

How to support this development
Help Your Child manage strangers’ induced anxiety by introducing the little one to new people gradually: for example, have a new babysitter spend some time around the house before leaving the little one alone in their hands. If Your Child cries when meeting new people, hold the little one and calmly explain who that person is and that there’s no need to be scared.

Note: All children develop differently and at their own pace. For children born preterm, the referred timeframe for achieving the various developmental milestones might be incorrect.

Sources: The information and graphs about when children reach specific milestones are taken from various sources, including the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Denver Developmental Screening Test, and the State Institute of Early Childhood Research, Germany (IFP).