The problem of stress and adaptation in children.

What are the symptoms of stress in a child?

Physiological:

• insomnia,
• loss of appetite,
• headaches and dizziness
• enuresis, encopresis, constipation, etc.

Cognitive:

• memory impairment,
• attention,
• regression in development, etc.

Emotional:

• outbursts of aggression,
• irritation,
• fears,
• anxiety,
• depressive components, etc.

If the effect of stress is prolonged, it leads to disruption of the functioning of the psyche and the body as a whole.

And if adults have some skills to cope with stress, then children do not yet have these skills and children cannot even explain what is happening to them.

Therefore, it is paramount to pay attention to the fact that the child is stressed.

Sometimes parents themselves are in a difficult emotional situation and do not notice that the child is already traumatized. They learn about this already when psychosomatics or other disorders appear, such as neurotic or phobic manifestations.

If you notice that your child has experienced stress, communicate with him gently, calmly, and give him the opportunity to speak out.

Since children don't always understand their emotions, help your child identify and respond to them.

Reinforce your child’s emotional support with the following phrases: you are protected, I’m on your side, I’m nearby, I love you, no matter what happens.

It is also important to spend a lot of time with your child during these difficult moments.

Fairy tales and metaphors, games and special exercises are good for relieving and reducing stress.

During times of stress, stabilization is important for a child.

Make a schedule, plan things. You can do this together on a large sheet using crayons and colored pencils. Having a clear structure for your days will help your child calm down a little. Therefore, your daily routine will also be very important.

Don't forget that during times of stress, proper sleep, proper nutrition, walks and a calm atmosphere at home are important .

If you can’t cope with stress on your own, contact a specialist.

It happens that parents themselves have not yet learned how to support themselves under stress, so you can always start learning together with your baby.

Features of childhood stress

Adults, busy with their own affairs, in most cases believe that children have a pleasant and joyful life. They take the stress that arises for them as a whim, which many try to eliminate with the help of a belt, standing in a corner and other punishments. Thus, they only aggravate the problem and prolong the child’s stress state.

Childhood experiences, against the backdrop of adult problems, seem insignificant to parents. In everyday life, adults may not even notice changes in children. And this is very dangerous, since in the future, neglecting the problems of children at an early age will affect the formation of their character, behavior, and attitude towards their parents.

Causes of stress in children

Anxiety and worries for babies begin from the diapers. At this time, most mothers, with their care and constant presence, neutralize stressful situations by creating comfortable conditions. As children grow older, parents pay less attention to them. Stressful conditions that arise in them, due to misunderstandings among adults, can become longer lasting and develop into severe forms. The main causes of stress in children:

1. Family: the appearance of a second child, parental scandals, divorce, hysterical behavior of one of the spouses.
2. Medical: fear of injections, pain, fear of visiting a doctor, injuries and other situations.
3. Social: conflicts with other children, competitive relationships, quarrels, fears when meeting new people;
4. Misfortunes, troubles, catastrophes: the passing of a close relative, sudden, strong life changes;
5. Fears – conscious, unconscious, instilled by parents, age-related.
6. Emotional stress from prolonged viewing of TV, sitting at the computer;
7. Household: a change in the environment in the nursery, a forced change in established habits, a comfortable state.
8. Other reasons that cause discomfort in children include potty training, proper table manners, etc.

Stress caused by one reason gives rise to changes in behavior in other areas. Problems in the life of parents together, which are incomprehensible to children due to their age, also cause strong feelings. Stress can also manifest itself in the appearance of illness. If it is not resolved, the cause is not eliminated, then the disease often becomes chronic.

Symptoms of childhood stress

To help cope with discomfort, you must first determine what caused it. Recognizing stress in children is quite difficult; it occurs individually for each person. General signs only help to determine that something is going wrong in their life. The main symptoms indicating stress:

• mood swings;
• poor sleep, nocturnal enuresis;
• unexpected tantrums;
• abdominal pain, headaches;
• absent-minded attention, problems with concentration;
• the appearance of isolation, the desire for solitude;
• at a young age, the manifestation of bad habits: hair twisting, nose picking, finger sucking, nail biting;
• teenagers begin to demonstratively behave defiantly and lie.

Stress also causes accompanying manifestations in children: daytime fears, nightmares, a sharp reaction to a minor problem. During times of stress, there is also a sharp decline in performance in school.

Healthy eating for stress

Poor quality food has a negative impact on the body. Basically, those products that are sold in supermarkets cannot be called healthy. The choice of food, especially for children, must be approached carefully. Eating bad food reduces the baby’s body’s resistance to stress factors. Food should be rich in vitamins and minerals in the quantities required for the body, this is called a balanced diet. If the diet is unsystematic, semi-finished products, supermarket dishes, and fast food predominate, then the functioning of the brain and nervous system is disrupted, and the child’s mood becomes too changeable.

Magnesium deficiency as a stress factor in children

Today, children often lack magnesium in their bodies. If you notice that your child is too excitable, has become restless, irritable, gets tired quickly, or is depressed, you should take a magnesium test to determine its amount in the body. Magnesium is an essential microelement. It regulates how much energy a cell produces and uses. Responsible for calming the nervous system. Even if the stress factors are minor, but there is a deficiency of magnesium in the body, the child will be stressed.

A lack of magnesium leads to energy being used inefficiently. Inflammatory processes in the body begin to become active, metabolic processes occur outside the norm, cells of various systems and organs are destroyed when they should not be. Children with magnesium deficiency often weigh more than normal and accumulate fat tissue. Because of this, they are prone to hypertension and insulin resistance develops. If the problem is not solved in time, the child will develop such serious problems as obesity, as well as diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The cause of a lack of magnesium in the body is, in most cases, poor nutrition. This not only increases stress, but also contributes to the development of various diseases. Mostly, children who have a lot of table salt in their diet lack magnesium. It enters the body not only with salty home-cooked dishes. An important role is played by “hidden” salt, which is found in large quantities in semi-finished products, sausages, etc. Refined products do not contain magnesium or have a minimal amount of it. Energy drinks, which many teenagers abuse, are also a factor in the development of magnesium deficiency in the body.

Magnesium is also less easily absorbed due to aspartame and glutamate. These are food additives that are found in the vast majority of fast food and processed foods today. They also remove magnesium from the body. As a result, people who eat such food get emotional disorders, not to mention a number of diseases of different organs and systems.

The period from November to March is characterized by a decrease in the amount of magnesium in the body. Another reason for the lack of this element: stress. The more nervous and worried a child is, the less magnesium he has in his blood. The need of children's organisms for this element is greater than that of adults. This is explained by growth processes. Children need approximately 6 mg of magnesium per 1 kg of weight. Toddlers under 3 years old need 50 to 150 mg, children 4 to 6 years old need 200 mg, children 7 to 10 years old need 250 mg, and a child 11 to 17 years old will need 300 mg magnesium.

Here's how you can increase your magnesium levels:

• introduce green vegetables into your diet
• eat more fruits, grains and cereals
• introduce into your diet foods containing vitamin B6, which helps magnesium to be absorbed in the body (brown rice, potatoes baked in their skins, bananas, buckwheat, etc.)
• replace table salt with sea salt
• use a minimum amount of salt when preparing dishes

Today, the drug Magne B6 is used to prevent magnesium deficiency. It helps prevent the effects of stress on the body. "Magne B6" helps magnesium to be absorbed and enter properly into the cells of tissues and organs. Doctors prescribe Magne B6 drinking solution to patients over 12 months of age. Magne B6 forte can be taken by children over 6 years of age. The dosage of the drug may differ in each individual case, therefore self-medication and independent prevention are not recommended. Be sure to consult a doctor if you suspect a magnesium deficiency in your child’s body, or if tests reveal a decrease in the level of this element in the blood.

If there is a sufficient amount of magnesium in the body , children have good memory, which is reflected in their academic performance. They are in a good mood and feel good. Manifestations of autonomic dysfunction are minimized. If a child suffers from headaches, you should also suspect a lack of magnesium. Headaches are often triggered by stress. Often, not only taking one magnesium drug is required, but complex therapy, which is prescribed by the attending physician.

The effect of stress on the body

When stressed, the level of mental tension increases, the child is in a cheerful state. The psyche is busy with over-control. This leads to the fact that various little things cause anxiety in the baby, he is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The baby develops anxious expectations, for example, he is constantly afraid that something will happen to mom and dad on the way from work (they will be hit by a car, attacked by a robber, etc.).

Stress causes insomnia. This manifests itself with restless sleep and very difficult falling asleep. The child’s memory is deteriorating, it is difficult to keep attention on one object or the teacher’s story. Stress interferes with the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, endocrine systems and brain. The adrenal glands begin to produce excessive amounts of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Children get tired very quickly when they are stressed. The muscles of their body are tense, especially the axial muscles, which leads to pain.

Stress increases the risk of cardiovascular pathologies by 4 times. They affect self-control, worsening it. The impulsive behavior that occurs in children can be mistaken for lack of attention and hyperactivity disorder. In 10-25 cases out of 100, relapses and exacerbations of diseases of internal organs are recorded in a child under constant stress.

It is not easy for children to live in the modern world: they have no less tasks, responsibilities, and temptations than adults. Every parent has a question about how to recognize and understand in time that a child is experiencing stress. How to recognize the symptoms of childhood stress, given the child’s age, and how to help?

Stress is an extremely negative state. Chronic stress can cause psychosomatic disorders and lead to serious and difficult to overcome consequences.

Signs of stress in children

In children, stress is often associated not only with problems in kindergarten or school, but also with a lack of parental attention. And it is important that loved ones understand what is happening to the child and can help him in time. And therefore it is important to understand the symptoms of such conditions:

Under 2 years of age:

• The child is irritable;
• The child refuses to eat (and he can either actually lose his appetite or do it demonstratively, “out of spite”);
• There is deterioration in sleep.

For preschoolers:

• The child becomes more demanding and hot-tempered than usual. Outbursts of aggression appear or intensify/increase;
• Children's fears intensify, including those that the child has already managed to cope with;
• There is frequent, sharp and unreasonable deterioration in mood, tearfulness;
• Speech defects appear or worsen.

For younger schoolchildren:

• Schoolchildren quickly get tired and complain of lack of strength;
• Nightmares appear or intensify;
• Whims become more frequent and even permanent. The child behaves provocatively not from time to time, but every day. Parents of previously calm children should pay special attention to this “sign”. If whims persist for a week or longer, then we can talk about a stressful state;
• Children complain of headaches, nausea, discomfort and pain in the heart area;
• The child talks about the desire to return to the preschool past, behaves like a child;
• Parents notice frequent attempts to deceive them;
• There is a constant reluctance to go to school and communicate with friends;
• Closedness appears or intensifies, the child withdraws into himself.

Please note that the older the children, the more stressful they are. The upside to this is that adults are more likely to notice problems more quickly. The negative side is that it is easy to confuse a stressful state with simple fatigue, bad character and the like.

How to help a child?

1. The first and simplest and at the same time effective way is to help with games. If the child is ready to accept you into his games, play out the traumatic situation with him. Let the child act as an offender or a victim, as a teacher, and not just a student, and become the father or mother of a family for a short time. If a child is scared or very upset about something, model this situation in a game. But now everything must end well. Using toys, tell your child how and what he could do or how he should behave if the traumatic story repeats itself.

2. Use art therapy: listen to beautiful music with your child, dance to it (just be sure to do it together), draw, sing, read books.

3. Relax and have some fun: fill the bathtub with water and sail the boats together. Just lie there, cuddling and chatting about everything in the world, without being distracted by work, TV or phone calls. Go into the forest and scream at the top of your lungs.

If none of the above helps, and the child still has not regained consciousness, then you should not delay, you need to contact a psychologist for help.

Childhood stress and its prevention

Stress is an integral part of modern life. Every person experiences stress at one time or another. But if this person is an adult, then there is hope that he will cope with stress quickly and without consequences. The situation with stress in children is much more complicated. Without the help of parents, and often a professional psychologist, a child cannot cope with stress.

Symptoms of stress in preschool children:

• increased demands and frequent expressions of indignation;
• “return to childhood” (a 3-5 year old child puts a pacifier in his mouth again, urinates in his pants, etc.);
• excessively intensified childhood fears - cannot sleep due to fear of death, etc.;
• frequent outbursts of aggression, constant nervousness or low mood for no apparent reason;
• the appearance of speech defects;
• hyperactivity or, conversely, decreased activity;
• tearful reaction to new people or new circumstances.

Symptoms of stress in children of primary school age:

• frequent complaints of headaches, pain in the heart, nausea;
• nightmares;
• fast fatiguability;
• constant desire to get into some kind of trouble, to cause harm to oneself;
• constant whims and defiant behavior for a whole week or longer;
• lie;
• return to the previous age level: a fairly mature child begins to behave like a little one (“falls into childhood”);
• frustration for no apparent reason;
• preoccupation beyond measure with one's health;
• reluctance to attend school and hang out with friends - isolation, detachment from the world;
• aggressive attitude towards others;
• pedantry and maximalism in housework and schoolwork: the child tries too hard to be constantly praised;
• low self-esteem;
• causeless anxieties, worries and fears;
• decline in academic performance due to deterioration of memory and attention;
• speech impediments or nervous tics: blinking, swallowing, winding curls around fingers, etc.;
• worsening sleep and appetite or, conversely, constant drowsiness and increased appetite.

Causes of stress for children of all ages can include:

• parental divorce;
• parting with dear people;
• death of a loved one;
• disasters, injuries;
• childhood fears (being alone, fear of monsters, etc.);
• use of violence;
• the appearance of a new child in the family;
• moving;
• death of a domestic animal.

Prevention of stress in preschool children

• In order to prevent stress in preschool children, it is necessary to allow them to sit in silence for several hours every day. You should turn off the radio, computer and TV.
• Communication is also a good way to prevent stress. Try to talk to your baby as much as possible so that he expresses everything that worries him, tells him what interests him, and shares his impressions and thoughts. At the same time, it would be a good idea to hug your child more often and take him on your lap.
• If your child is tormented by any fears or nightmares, talk to him about it (under no circumstances laugh at his childhood fears!), try to explain to him that he is completely safe.

Prevention of stress in children of primary school age:

• The main method of preventing stress in children of primary school age is to demonstrate love for them on the part of their parents. You must show your readiness to help the child in any situation and support him.
• In addition, parents should be fairly open and honest with their children.
• You shouldn’t lie to them that a loved one has left somewhere if this person is no longer alive. It is necessary to explain to the child in gentle ways that his loved one now lives in another world, that, unfortunately, they can no longer see each other. The child must realize that this happens to others, that nothing can be done, he must live on, keeping in his heart and memory the image of a dear person.
• Parents should be sincere with their children during divorce. Under no circumstances should a child be forced to choose who to live with: with dad or mom - adults should decide this.
• If your child has difficulties at school, do not shift the responsibility for neutralizing them onto yourself. Encourage him to independently solve these problems by discussing with him possible causes and ways to overcome difficulties.
• Never compare your child with others or put psychological pressure on him. Don't force him to study only with an "A" and to be the first in everything.
• Try to increase your child's self-esteem. Find an activity in which your child will be truly successful. A child who is confident in his abilities is less susceptible to stress.

Consequences of stress in children

• If the cause of stress is watching shocking television programs, then the consequence may be cruelty and cynicism, the desire to cause pain to oneself and others.
• If the cause of stress is violence, then the consequences of stress can be the child’s isolation and mental problems.
• In especially severe cases, stress can lead to a delay or even stop of mental development. Such a person will never be able to get rid of psychological trauma, will never grow up.
• After experiencing stress, a child may develop heart or infectious diseases, stomach ulcers.
• Stress in children can lead to the development of neurosis.
• Children who have experienced stress tend to acquire chronic diseases: asthma, diabetes.

Unfortunately, stressful situations are inevitable in a child’s life. But you can smooth out the negative impact of stress by raising your child correctly and helping him cope with life’s difficulties.