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Separation anxiety can occur in an infant as young as six months of age. Although is a normal experience for most, if not all, infants and toddlers, it can continue to manifest itself well into the school years. When this happens, parents need help managing a child's symptoms of separation anxiety.

Toddlers between the ages of ten and eighteen months frequently experience a form of separation anxiety called stranger anxiety. This is the time when a child begins to distinguish the faces of those around him and can differentiate between parent and stranger. By around the age of three years, most children outgrow separation and stranger anxiety, although they may continue to exhibit normal fears associated with individuals whom they do not know.

When a child continues to exhibit the pervasive fear of being separated from parents or caregivers beyond the ages of five to six, there is cause for parental concern. Such a child often manifests excessive nervousness and irrational fear of either being separated from the parent or of the parent dying. Separation anxiety disorder can cripple a child's emotions and cause him significant distress. His fears can hinder the formation of peer relationships and interfere with school attendance.

A child who exhibit symptoms of separation anxiety disorder has frequently suffered the loss of a loved one, family pet, or been separated from his caregiver due to illness or trauma. Children whose parents are overprotective and clingy can also fear separation due to an unhealthy or overly dependent relationship. Some children exhibit fearful tendencies that can be associated with generalized anxiety or the early beginning of a personality disorder. Other children appear to outgrow much of their anxiety as emotions and cognitive processes mature.

A child who suffers with intense fear of separation from a parent or caregiver may also exhibit physiological symptoms such as stomach aches, headaches and bed wetting.

If you are the parent of a child who exhibits symptoms of separation anxiety, you can best help your child to manage his anxiety and its symptoms by doing the following:

1. Find a child therapist who can address the unrealistic anxiety through cognitive and behavioral therapy designed to help your child manage his thought life and his fears.

2. Help the child to experience brief separations followed by consistent unification with you, the parent. Gradually lengthen the separation time until your child can handle your absence

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