It's taken me a long time to write this because I honestly feel so embarrassed at the current situation but I am desperate to help my little girl. I work part-time from home 10-20 hours a week and have had the same babysitter coming to my home since my daughter was 4 months until present (10 months). Her separation anxiety is intense. Once she realizes its the babysitter and mama is leaving (either while awake or after she wakes up from naps) she will freak out. It used to be long bouts of crying but now she just shuts down and only wants to nap or rest quietly away from the sitter. She will take a bottle and have her diaper changed (albeit while crying) and then just wants to be left alone until mama comes back. Based on our schedule this combines our morning and afternoon nap so she's basically sleeping or sort-of sleeping from 9 - 3. There haven't been terrible consequences for her sleep but isn't it just awful to imagine her so miserable? This has been the situation since she was about 5.5 - 6 months old. She has done it for other babysitters so its not a particular aversion to the one she knows.

Gosh I would love some actionable advice or a story about how a similarly willful and mama-attached child grew out of this at this point.