Helping children overcome stress

The world is confined and it stresses and scares us. Children, behind their carefree air, can also have fears. How can I help them?

First, the child stress is not always to be avoided. Its severity depends on its reactions to stressful situations.

Stress can be positive : generated by the child’s everyday situations, like going to school, getting vaccinated, going to the doctor. Children have to go through these situations, it teaches them to manage frustrations.

It will be considered tolerable when the child goes through a situation that he cannot manage alone. This can manifest as nightmares or decreased appetite. This may be the case now, during this period of epidemic and confinement. The child realizes that something new and stressful is happening to the parents, but no one really explains what it is.

Several solutions are available to parents. The first is to try to chat with your child, to find out what they understand about the situation. He may see it much more serious than it really is. If so, it’s interesting to explain to her what’s going on in simple words and answer her questions.

Children who have trouble falling asleep or who wake up at night with nightmares can also have breathing exercises that the parents will have explained during the day. It will also be a moment of sharing with parents during the day, which will reassure him and help him move towards more autonomy.