Around 35% of American children suffer from stress-related symptoms such as headaches and stomach pain. Pressures like bullying and the fear of academic failure fill them with dread.
As a parent, there are things that you can do to help relieve your child’s anxiety. While you might not be able to eliminate stress in its entirety, you can take their mind off their troubles. It’s also important to make your child feel safe and loved when they’re going through rough times.
Check out this guide to learn more about how you can ease stress in children and help them develop valuable coping skills.
Don’t Try to Eliminate Stress
As much as you would like to protect your child from stress, it’s not possible. There will always be something that has the potential to cause your child some level of anxiety.
When it happens, instead of shielding them from the storm, teach them how to face it head-on. Over time, they’ll learn how to tolerate anxiety and use healthy coping strategies to combat it.
Help Take Their Mind off Their Troubles
One of the best things you can do to handle anxiety in children is to take their mind off it for a while. Break out their favorite board game and play with them.
Take them over to a family member’s house. Read them a story or take them outside to play. All these activities are fun, and they’ll help relieve the symptoms of child stress.
Don’t Avoid Things
Most people have childhood anxiety over going to the doctor. Needles are scary, but sometimes, they’re an inevitability.
You can’t skip out on your child’s appointment because they’re afraid. You also can’t remove them from the doctor’s office if they start to cry.
If you do, you’ll teach your child to run away from the things that cause them the slightest bit of stress. Don’t Invalidate Their Feelings
Going off our last point, if your child does begin to cry in the doctor’s office, don’t invalidate their feelings. Allow them to talk about what they’re afraid of and sympathize with them.
Acknowledge their fears and reassure them that you’ll be there for them to help them get through their appointment.
Make Your Child Feel Safe and Loved
The last way to ease childhood stress is to make your kid feel loved. If they know they can talk to you about anything, they won’t be afraid to come to you to get things off their chest. That means more to a child than you could ever know.
While they might not be able to control what they’re stressed about, establishing a routine gives them something they can hold onto for stability.
How to Deal With Stress in Children?
Stress in children is more common than you think. Kids face many things throughout their day that can cause them anxiety. The best thing you can do as a parent is to teach them how to cope with it.
Instead of shielding them from stress, help them tackle it head-on and reassure them that you’re there for them.
Enrolling your child in an afterschool care program will give them the building blocks they need to overcome anxiety.