I have a 17 month old child in my child development center. She has been there since she was a few weeks old. She cries constantly, except for occasionally when she is being held. The mother claims she is a "happy baby," but she does not play with toys, read books, interact with other children, smile at her caregivers, or even her mother when she picks her up. In fact, I have worked with her for 8 months, and have never seen her smile or laugh. She doesn't eat or sleep well because she is crying constantly. There are no tears, only very loud crying. I worry that something is wrong physiologically or neurologically, but the mother says her dr. says she is OK except for being underweight. She doesn't respond to stimuli like other children her age. What could be wrong, and how can I approach the parents, since I am not to "diagnose" problems. The parents are well aware of her lack of adjustment, but don't acknowledge that that is unusual.:confused:

This is very sad and a question that really only a doctor can answer.
Is the instructer of the child development class aware of this?
The mother needs to be told in detail like you just said on here that her baby is not eating sleeping and so on. Maybe the baby is happy at home, but is having separation anxiety.
Or could be something more serious.

If she's been there since she was a few weeks old, there shouldn't be any separation issue going on...
You'd think that she'd be accustom to going.
If this was happening in my area, social services would be contacted.
I'm not sure what they do from there, but they probably check out the home environment to make sure the baby isn't being neglected or abused.

Separation anxiety hits around 6 - 9 months and peaks at 12 - 15 months and is gone by 24 months. So, this is not separation anxiety.

She is underweight you say. I wonder what her family life is like. Single mother? Married parents?

This most likely warrants a written explanation from her doctor or social services should be called. By this age the crying should be a minimum.

There is probably something going on in the home that Mom is not telling you.