Anyone deal with bad separation anxiety in a 4-5 year old?

Little background info: I have three kids- 2 boys (ages 6.5 and 4.5) and 1 girl (age 2). I work in a preschool and all my kids came to daycare at my school starting from a few months old. My 4.5 year old has suddenly developed a severe separation anxiety with me. He has never had this issue before. I am the music therapist at our school, so I see his class twice a week for music, and I often see him in passing in the hallways, etc. A little over 2 weeks ago, this started out of seemingly nowhere. He will cling to me at drop off, sobbing when I finally detach him from me, but then is usually fine within a few minutes. I know he has a great time once he gets over that initial separation. But then every time I see him throughout the day, it starts all over again. I should mention that it is with everything, not just school. He does soccer and dance and it's the same thing. We've been to 2 birthday parties since this started and he has hardly been able to participate, if at all. It's breaking my heart. We try to keep our goodbyes quick. And I try to build him up telling him how brave he is and how much I know he loves (wherever we are going). Any tips or advice?

Anyone deal with bad separation anxiety in a 4-5 year old?

My son did something similar. I used to tell him that Mommy will always come back and that I love you so much. That seemed to help him a bit. Just time helped him the most.

Anyone deal with bad separation anxiety in a 4-5 year old?

Hailey is 3.5 but yes the exact same thing from Hailey at school or most times when i have to leave her. We were in NC a few weeks ago with friends and the ladies went out to lunch, Shaun said she cried so hard she threw up.

She saw the daniel tiger episode recently about grown ups always come back... and it actually made it worse. It was the only day last week at school that she had a bad drop off, every other day was amazing.

Shes been sick this week so im sure it wont go well tomorrow. But the aides and teachers say shes fine once shes in the class room so i dont feel horrible anymore.

Re: Anyone deal with bad separation anxiety in a 4-5 year old?

No advice, but my sis is dealing with this with her almost 5 year old son. I'd love to hear some advice as well, so I can pass it on to her. She is at her wit's end.