Dealing with Pediatric Anxiety: Strategies for Parents and Caregivers

Are you worried about your child taking shallow breaths, getting sick, or showing negative thoughts? If you are seeing these symptoms, then your child is dealing with anxiety. Anxiety is a common feeling of worry, uneasiness, or fear of certain situations or things. It can affect both mental and physical health. Many things can make your child anxious which need to be addressed to ensure their proper mental growth. As a parent or caregiver, it’s your responsibility to help your child to overcome this. Read this article to learn strategies that help you deal with an anxious child. Log on to www.doralhw.org for a consultation.

Tips for dealing with an anxious child

Experiencing anxiety in children is normal, however, you can help your child deal with anxiety. Here are some tips that allow you to deal with your anxious child:

1. Understand the triggers that cause anxiety in your child:

As a parent or caregiver, you need to understand the unique experiences and needs that trigger anxiety in the child. The best way to do it is to listen to them carefully when your child talks about their anxiety and the type of situations or difficulties they are worried about. If you suspect that your child may have some degree of anxiety, encourage them to tell you how they feel by asking questions such as:

• When do they experience these feelings?
• What are the changes they experience when having those feelings?
• What thoughts do they have about the situation that causes those feelings?
• How do they cope with these feelings?

For instance, if your child tells you they feel sick at school (and you think it’s because of anxiety, not illness) then you can ask them:

• Where were they when they felt sick?
• What was going on?
• How did they manage that?

If you have a toddler, preschooler, or primary school-aged child, you should keep a diary to record their experiences over a week or two to see if there’s a pattern, for example, if they become anxious at certain times or places, or around certain people. This will help you identify the problem and teach them how to deal with that situation.

2. Validate and empathize:

Children’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences are real to them, no matter what you think about those experiences, for them, they are real; and you need to hear, validate, and understand that. You should try to ask about these thoughts, emotions, and experiences when you and your child are calm, have time to talk, and no one will interrupt or distract you when you talk with your child.

• If your child is young, then you should try talking with them by engaging them in activities like drawing while talking.
• With adolescents, those times when you play with them alone or take them for a ride are a wonderful opportunity to talk. In case your adolescent doesn’t make eye contact, it means you don’t spend much time together and he/she is not comfortable opening up with you. In that case, you can encourage them to talk with siblings or other family members, friends, a coach, a teacher, or a GP.

You can also take the help of a counselor at school or university they may feel comfortable talking to. This way they can express their feelings and when you empathize with them by putting yourself in their shoes, they believe their feelings, thoughts, and experiences are valid and important. So, they can also listen to your solution to overcome what bothers them.

3. Respect their feelings, and empower them:

Keep in mind that when you validate your child’s feelings, it doesn’t mean you should agree with them. Instead, you should guide them by showing empathy and encouraging them to face their fears boldly. For instance, if your child is terrified of visiting a doctor, tell them, “I know you feel scared to meet the doctor, but I know you are strong and brave and can handle this. This feeling is natural, but you can overcome this with our help.” This way your child gets validation but also gets inspiration that gives confidence to be brave for the situation.

4. Help your child to manage their fears:

Don’t try to teach your child to avoid things that they are afraid of because it may make them better in the short term, but never allow them to overcome their fears in the long run. So, instead, guide them on how to manage their fear. Talk with your child when he/she is calm and start a conversation about things that help them to manage their fears and worries when they occur. For example, guide them that they can try:

• Practicing deep breathing and muscle relaxation.
• Using positive self-talk (for example, I got this, I can do this, I can try this, etc.)
• Thinking of a safe place, such as their bedroom or favorite place outdoors to calm yourself down. Then, gradually face fears by exposing them to feared objects or activities.

Praise and reward brave behavior: The goal is simple, to praise or reward your child when they overcome the fear, not avoid them.

5. Build healthy habits in your child to support mood:

Incorporate healthy lifestyle habits into your child’s routine. This helps to lower stress and support a positive mood. It includes:

• Make them active: Encourage your child to play outside for at least an hour every day. Or make them join a sports team, bike, or walk to school, or dance at home to their favorite music.
• Eat healthy: Make sure you make healthy meals every day which include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and protein-rich foods. Make sure they don’t skip breakfast.
• Get plenty of sleep: Make sure your school-aged child gets at least 9 to 12 hours of sleep every night, and teens need 8 to 10 hours.
• Build a family media plan: You should set healthy guidelines around entertainment screen time on how long they watch phones, TVs, and laptops, and what they see and play.
• Set up a family routine: Create a regular schedule for playtime, mealtime, and bedtime. This helps your child feel safe and secure.

Don’ts with anxiety in kids

Certain things you should avoid doing when kids have anxiety:

• Don’t label their emotions ‘bad’ or ‘unnecessary’: Never label their thoughts, emotions, and experiences as good or bad. For example, do not say, “It’s bad to think you will fail because when you label them, they often internalize this and think “they are bad.”
• Don’t try to eliminate anxiety: Don’t ask your child to eliminate anxiety because it is a useful emotion that makes you aware and prevents dangerous situations in life. For kids with anxiety disorders, you should understand what helpful and unhelpful anxiety is. For instance, it’s good to look both ways when you cross the road, so that you can prevent an accident (in case a speeding car is coming on the road) by moving out of the way. So, make sure you teach your child how to overcome anxiety by learning techniques that allow them to tolerate it. Over time it will diminish.
• Minimizing anxiety: Your child can’t minimize their experience if you tell them to. Their feelings of anxiety are real, that’s why they are suffering. Instead, you should teach them how to face things that cause anxiety by listening to them with empathy, compassion, and kindness; it becomes helpful and effective when they face their fears.

Anxiety is a common feeling for everyone, but for kids or teens, it’s hard to deal with. They don’t know how to ask for help and overcome anxiety by themselves. So, as a parent or caregiver, it’s your responsibility to understand their feelings and help them overcome them. Use the above-mentioned tips to deal with anxious children and support them to overcome their fears and become brave for life.

If you need help for your anxious child, visit our behavioral health specialist in Brooklyn clinic to get professional medical help. Call us to book your appointment now!!!!

Doral Health and Wellness has several urgent care clinics around New York that can cater to your family’s medical needs. We also have the best medical providers, physicians and staff that are highly trained in their respective specialties. To know more about the locations of our urgent care clinics, you can visit us at Doral Health and Wellness. If you are looking for urgent care near you, you can visit Doral Health and Wellness Urgent Care. We provide urgent care for common illnesses and injuries. Additionally, we also provide comprehensive care for any related injuries and health problems. We also offer other services, such as vaccinations, immunizations, and blood testing. For more info, visit us or call 1-347-384-5690.