ABSTRACT
The author describes two families, the first one in greater detail than the second one. The first case is about a little girl, the only child in the family, who was unable to separate from her mother and to start nursery school. Her mother was also stuck with issues of separation and could not contain her daughter's distress. The Health Visitor had referred Poppy and her mother directly to the author, after having attended a discussion group for Health Visitors. In her letter, the Health Visitor wrote that, already at the age of eight months, Poppy would become very upset when strangers looked at her, so that the developmental checks were difficult to complete. The second case is about a little boy who could not separate from his mother to go to nursery, and the mother who was unable to help him because she had not mourned the death of a previous baby.
