• Know that your influence is, and will continue to be, important to your child’s development.
• Know that children are often sensitive to their parents’ moods. Often, when children are stressing out, they want to near their parents, but when parents are feeling stressed, they want to have some space from their children. If mom’s response is made in a reassuring, unexaggerated and matter-of-fact way when leaving, such as acting like she is going into another room, then her mood won't signal to her child, "Hey! Something big is happening!"
• Do less talking and more walking. Often, parents drag-out the leaving process, turning it into an event with talking, extra hugging and coming back and forth to see to their crying child. This attention usually makes thing worse. The hardest, but perhaps best, thing to do when leaving your child is to leave quickly.
• Put yourself in your child’s shoes. Remember that if you had someone hold you all day, and suddenly that person was gone, you would be stressed, too. In the interest of making “leaving time” easier, do more brief coming and going activities when you aren’t really leaving the house. As your child becomes satisfied that you always return, he or she may become less anxious when you leave. Leave quickly, but when you return, hug and nurture your child.
• Help with a soothing scent. Get one of your sweaters or a throw blanket and wrap your child in your belongings. Rock and gently massage your child before you leave. The comfort might help lessen the anxiety.
• If a caregiver is taking over for you during the day, make sure he or she does not hold the crying baby and wave goodbye – activities such as these reinforce both parental and child anxiety. Instead, ask your caregiver to start with fun activities for the three of you, then slowly lessen your own involvement in those activities so that your leave is less noticeable.
• Redirect. When your child notices that you are gone and becomes upset, quickly start a new and engaging activity to redirect their attention.

“Separation Anxiety” courtesy of www.parenting.org, a service of Boys and Girls Town