We did go back into the living room where I kept her on my lap with her steadfastly looking in the opposite direction, as though she thought that if she couldn’t see them, then they weren’t actually there.

I scooped her up, held her close, spoke soothingly to tell her she was safe and who the person was, but she was inconsolable at that moment as she was still in the throes of shock and fear.

She cowered by the front door wailing, with tears streaming down her face and calling for me. We had an example of this in our house recently.Ī family member was coming to visit, and although we had told our 21 month old that they were coming, when she came down from her nap and wandered into the living room to see them, she didn’t recognise the face, had an absolute shock to her system and ran screaming from the room. So what is Stranger Anxiety in a two year old?įor some children, there comes a point when being in the company or presence of adults other than members of very close family can cause them to panic, scream, cover their eyes, cling to their parent and try desperately to hide from that person.įor some children this may be any adult, for others it will be particular people, for example men with beards, men in general, people who are loud, a particular person, a grownup who appears when the child is not expecting them to and therefore frightens the child just by their appearance in that place and their continued presence near them. It is called Stranger Anxiety or Stranger Suspicion, and it occurs in children from around the age of two to two and a half years old.īecause this phase is less universally recognised and spoken about, it hits parents as a huge surprise when it happens.Īlso, because it raises such big emotional responses in the children, parents can feel really worried that something is wrong with their child or that something bad has happened to their child to cause this response. There is an almost equally common phase of toddlerhood that is much less known and talked about.

If I asked you about separation anxiety, most parents of a child aged 16 months and above would have knowledge and experience of this too. If I were to ask you about the terrible two’s, whether your child has been through it or not you will have some knowledge about what the term means and what parents and children go through during this phase.

Cry of fear stranger