<font color="119911">elch,
check this out from the Sleep FAQs answered by Tracey Hogg tat busybee has posted :
Q: Okay, another one: You’ll sometimes see questions from parents with babies that are probably a bit older, who ask, “My child has learned how to fall asleep on her own, either using pu/pd or otherwise, but how do I get out of the room – she cries if I don’t stay until she falls completely asleep.”
T: And the way to handle that is to leave, and have a minute out of the room and then come back. Because she knows you’re physically present, because you’ve gone through the pick up and put down, but you just haven’t left the room at the right time, way back when you first taught sleep. And now you are the prop in the room-- not the physical prop – and that’s when you leave and come back and leave and come back, for a minute at a time. Now that is a lot older, usually you’ll see that at 10, 11, 12 months, when they “make” you stay in the chair, because the minute the chair creaks, or the door, they pop their head up above the bumper. Because they haven’t really learned how to go to sleep, not safe, secure, and confident – there are some anxieties attached to it. And that’s because you probably didn’t leave before they were fully asleep when they were younger.</font>