Hello everyone.
I have had a 2 year old dcb in my care for a year now. He has certainly come a long way this past year, shares, loves to read and learned so many new things and words. His mom is always saying how much he has learned with me.
However, his behaviour the past week or two has me questioning if I should keep him on.
He has been crying and clinging to dad at drop off each morning for almost 2 weeks. Previously he would walk right in to my house and barely even acknowledge dad - he was ready for the day! Now he arrives cringing, and after dad leaves, no matter what I try to distract him he stand there and looks like a sad puppy sucking his thumb, puppy dog eyes. He just literally stands there. I try and try to distract and engage him but he will usually start walking towards the bedroom area where his playpen is. The other kiddos can see that he is upset and will walk over and hand him toys, pat his back etc - its really cute actually seeing a bunch of almost 2 year olds be so empathetic with him. I end up putting him back in his playpen and bring him back up again after an hour. Same thing again most of the time. Its so frustrating. He is becoming a disruption to my attempts to do crafts, circle time etc.
He also is barely eating. Snacks or lunch. He will literally just sit there in his highchair sucking his thumb or covering his face in his hands and not touching his food.
I have spoken to Mom, texted her photos of him thoughout the day and we chat almost every day at pickup. Both of us have no idea what has gotten into him. Nothing has changed here at daycare, routine wise, no one new. Same at home, hes on the same sleep schedule and routine at home.
I am less than 3 weeks away from my due date so things here have been very laid back as well the weather is not helping with us having to stay indoors quite a bit.
I am truly at a loss. I don't know what to with this little guy. I am not minding him wanting to go back to the playpen so much right now, but after this baby is born and the weather is nicer we will be spending as much time as possible outdoors and I cant' accomodate him wanting to stay in his playpen all day.
Any suggestions??? Thoughts??? Thanks in advance.