When parents leave the home (or leave the child at a child care center), they can try the following strategies: Encouraging the person caring for the child to create distractions Leaving without responding at length to a child's crying Remaining calm and reassuring Establishing routines at separations to ease the child's anxiety Feeding the child and letting the child nap before parents leave (because separation anxiety may be worse when a child is hungry or tired) If the parents must momentarily go to another room in the home, they should call to the child while in the other room to reassure the child.