<P> Stranger anxiety is a form of distress that children experience when exposed to strangers . Stranger anxiety and stranger fear are two interchangeable terms . Stranger anxiety is a typical part of the developmental sequence that most children experience . It can occur even if the child is with a caregiver or another person they trust . It peaks from 6 to 12 months but may recur afterwards until the age of 24 months . As a child gets older, stranger anxiety can be a problem as they begin to socialize . Children may become hesitant to play with unfamiliar children . Foster children are especially at risk, particularly if they experienced neglect early in their life . </P> <P> The anxiety children experience when meeting a stranger is based on the sensation of fear they develop when introduced to an unfamiliar factor in their life that elicits the feeling of fear . They are not born with the awareness that meeting a stranger for the first time will cause them to be fearful . The child discovers this feeling when facing the stimulus, in this case a stranger, for the first time . Experiencing fear causes toddlers to sense they are in a potentially threatened position and therefore, they go towards their caregiver in order to seek protection from the stranger . This reaction enables children to develop instincts to guide them when they feel endangered and seek the protection of a familiar and trusted individual to ensure their safety and survival . The stimuli which provoke a child's anxiety in the presence of a stranger are influenced by the individual's age, gender and his or her distance from the toddler . When a child is in the company of an unknown child, he / she is less frightened than if he / she were with an unknown adult . This is due to the height of the individual . The taller the person, the more frightening he / she seems . In addition, children are more fearful of a stranger when they are standing in close proximity to them, while their caregiver is farther away or completely out of their sight . The gender of the stranger contributes to the level of anxiety a child experiences . When in the presence of a male, the child feels more anxious than in front of a female . </P>

When do babies start to have stranger anxiety