3 year old separation anxiety

[dcb67]

My question is in regard of a three year old male who displays signs of separation anxiety to a peer at his daycare. The child will follow his peer around all day and will become excessively worried if he is about to become separated from him. He cannot chose activities for himself instead he follows his less aggressive peer's decisions. When this child is picked up at the end of the day he becomes very active, laughing running and jumping, and will hold his peer very hard and often attach himself to his peer's mother. He has recently told his parents how upset he was that his peer would not let him open his birthday presents. He aslo stated that he no longer wanted his younger brother and that he would rather become part of his friends family. This child also experiences nightmares. Often during naptime he will yell out or start to cry. Recently he had called out "NO, that is not nice." and then in a long drawn out scream he yelled his peers' name. I am concerned that he is developing or has developed a separation anxiety to his peer. I also fear that he is developing an obsessive attatchment to this child. These behaviors have been going on for seven months. As a daily caregiver what can i do? Is intervention necessary? What can I tell concerned parents?

[kck]

I don't know what to tell you, but I definitely think it should be addressed.  How about a counselor for very young children?  There is obviously a reason for the attachment, but I don't know what it could be.  It sounds like a very strange situation and hopefully it can be resolved before it gets worse.  It doesn't sound like normal 3 year old behavior.

[blondie72]

I do not know that a child can become obsessivly dependent at 3 yrs old.  Does this child have any siblings??  Maybe this person reminds him of a brother or a cousin or maybe just another friend he knows from his neighborhood and he feels he really knows this person and feels very comfortable with him.  Is it affecting the other child??  I know my nephew who is 3 seems to idolize my daughter who is 5.  He will come over to the house and dress up in her dress up clothes and do everything she does.  He will throw a fit when my sister comes to get him.  I know this is a little different situation but he is only 3.  I am sure this is something he will grow out of.  I would talk to his parents and see what they have to say.  Hope this helped a little.