How to Help Kids Destress
Stress is a condition that everyone experiences from time to time, including young children. Immense feelings of pressure can have an adverse effect on everything from a person's emotions to his health, triggering ailments such as headaches, insomnia and exhaustion. Children experience stress due to a wide array of causes, including divorce, isolation at school, frightening news stories and family arguments. Learn how to ease a child's stress and put his mind at ease.
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Instructions
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Feed your child a well-balanced diet. Proper nutrition can strengthen the body's immune system, making a child far more resilient against stress and some of the health-related dangers of stress, such as headaches and sleeplessness. Make sure your child eats breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner at roughly the same time every day.
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Hear what your child has to say. Sometimes merely listening to a child discuss his feelings can be effective. Reduce your child's stress by asking him to vividly describe all of his emotions, from anxiety and nervousness to fear and uncertainty. Then get to the root of what is making the child harbor these emotions. Listen to your child and abstain from making judgments. Just give him your full attention and concern, because even if his problems seem unimportant or silly to you, they obviously are not to him.
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Encourage breathing exercises. If your child is feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, take him aside for a few minutes and engage in some deep breathing. Sit your child down in a quiet and calm spot and tell him to slowly breathe in through his nose, count to five and then slowly breathe out and count to five. Tell him to envision positive situations as he is doing this, such as success at school and having a fun time with his best friends.
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Talk about keeping a diary. When your child is experiencing stress, speak to him about releasing his emotions through maintaining a personal journal. Getting his thoughts out on paper may assist him in solving problems and gaining clarity and perspective on his circumstances, whether he is having a fight with his best friend or having trouble keeping up in one of his school subjects. A journal entry can be a quick way for a child to decrease his stressful feelings and blow off steam.
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Acknowledge your child's emotions. If you notice that your child is upset or on edge about something, let him know. Alert your child to the fact that you understand his emotions by making a statement such as "I can understand why you're frustrated about this."
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Discuss the idea of physical fitness. Encourage your child to get rid of some of his pent-up frustration and stressful emotions by participating in regular exercise, from playing outside with the family dog to soccer games with the neighborhood kids.
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Tips & Warnings
Children can manage stress much better when they are well rested. Make sure that your child receives a minimum of 11 to 12 hours of sleep every night.
Maintain a positive and nurturing home life and atmosphere. Try to protect your children from difficult situations as much as possible, including parental arguments and financial issues. Even if you may not realize it, these factors can deeply affect a child's stress level.
References
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