Understanding Signs of Stress in Your Child
Saying that 2020 has been a stressful year is an understatement. We realize that parents have been dealing with months and months of worries and emotions while doing their best to maintain some level of normalcy for their children. Even so, your children may be feeling stressed even if they aren’t visibly showing it all the time.
Be assured that small amounts of stress are a normal part of life and can even produce a positive response such as excelling at an activity or completing a project ahead of deadline. Causes of stress vary for each person and can be triggered by positive changes, such as the first day of a new school year, or by negative changes, such as the current pandemic. Regardless, helping your child identify the signs and causes of stress, and healthy ways to deal with it are important skills for their well-being.
Children often have short-term behavioral changes and physical symptoms that can be indicative that they are distressed.
Common signs to watch out for are:
Mood swings
Bedwetting
Changes in their sleep and eating patterns
Nightmares and fears at bedtime
Becoming clingier
Being more defiant or “acting out” more than normal
Not able to concentrate or complete tasks (older children)
Withdrawn and preferring to spend time alone
Physical ailments such as headaches or stomach aches
Younger children may start sucking their thumbs, twirling their hair, picking their nose.
Older kids may begin to lie, adopt bullying behaviors, defy authority and begin getting in more serious and dangerous situations.
What can you do to help?
Do your best to make sure that they have proper rest and nutrition.
Make “quality time” for them each day: snuggle, play, and read together with your young ones and find time alone with your older ones to talk about something that interests them.
Help them anticipate and prepare ahead of time for stressful situations, such as talking about going to the doctor and explaining what will happen when you get there a day or two before the appointment.
Teach them coping mechanisms by talking about how you deal with stress.
Encourage them to journal or draw their feelings.
Pick books that include characters in stressful situations your child can identify with to show how the character copes with stress.
Finally, if you observe your child’s symptoms worsening, you should not hesitate to seek professional help. Contact your family doctor, pediatrician, or a trained therapist who specializes in treating children and adolescents.
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