How long does the strangeness last in the baby?
Normally, children start to become strangers at an age of 6 to 9 months. A frequency peak is described in the 8th month, on which the synonym “8-months anxiety” is based. From the 2nd to 3rd year of life onwards, the fear of strangers usually subsides on its own.
Of course, the beginning and the end of the stranger behavior varies individually. Some children start to become strangers late in life and stop after a few months. Others start to become strangers at the age of 8 months and stop strangers at the age of 2 years or even later.
In most cases, strangers regress as part of the development of social behavior as soon as verbal communication improves. There are also several factors that can influence the duration of strangerhood. One of these is the child’s characteristics, such as the child’s general character and current feelings.
On bad-tempered days, children tend to stranger more than on other days. In addition, there are also very shy children, in whom the phase of strangeness simply lasts longer than in sociable and curious children. The mother can also have an influence on the duration of the strangeness.
An open and sociable nature has a positive influence on a shorter stranger phase. If the parents receive frequent visitors, it is also more likely that the child will be less likely to spend time with strangers, as he or she is used to contact with visitors who are strangers at first. An obtrusive and penetrating behavior of supposed strangers is considered a counterproductive factor. It is important to accept the child’s strange behavior and to give it time and space.
What are the foreign phases?
The extraneous phase typically begins in the 8th month of life. Therefore, one speaks also of the so-called 8-month strangeness. At this time strangers express themselves with crying and screaming.
In the further course of time, the reactions shift according to the child’s stage of development. An older child who can already walk will start crying less. Rather, it will run away from the stranger and hide behind the legs of the person it trusts or signal its wish to be taken in its arms.
It will also watch the stranger closely with suspicious looks or turn away its gaze shyly. The older the child is, the more clearly it can show or communicate that it is afraid of the stranger and does not want to be near him. However, it is not possible to generalize the whole thing completely and assign a certain behavior to an age of the alien phase. Every child has different intensities and different ways of being a stranger. At the age of 2-3 years, the stranger phase generally subsides.