The Most Common Symptoms of Stress at ChildrenDoes your kid often complain about stomach aches, does he have nightmares, is he always nervous? There is definitely something going on with your child. Now the first step would be an appointment to his paediatrician. If the doctor confirms that he doesn’t’ suffer from any disorder, it is highly possible that he suffers from stress. Children are not just beings that play, eat, sleep and listen to their parents. They have feelings, their own personality and perceptions about life. Most of the times, they are affected deeply by what happens around them, and your stress can easily reflect on their life as well. The reactions can vary, from simple nervous states to physical symptoms, but the good thing is that we can prevent this from happening. PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL SYMPTOMS OF CHILDREN’S STRESS One unpleasant event in the child’s life can be enough to trigger serious affections to any child. Few examples of such situations are: • The divorce; • Changing the location; • The death of a dear person; • Frequent fights between the parents; • Intensive extracurricular activities; • Tiredness caused by improper diets, a sedentary life or the peer pressures. All those stressful activities can increase the adrenaline secretion, make the heart beat faster and raise the arterial tension. As a result a series of physical and emotional symptoms such as the ones mentioned below appear in our children’s life and start to affect their overall health. 1. Skin diseases; 2. Repeated infections; 3. Sleep disorders; 4. Asthmas; 5. Fever ; 6. Headaches or stomach aches. Generally, stress affects differently children, depending on certain elements, such as their age, personality, and the duration of the exposure to stress or the intensity of the stress factors. The most common change produced by stress on children is the changed behaviour. You don’t have to worry though. Everything can go back to normal if you learn how to help your child go over the difficult moments of his life.
PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN – NERVOUS AND AGGRESIVE At this age, children slowly become more independent and try to discover their personality. As they start understanding more about the world around them, they also get more exposed to stressful situations. Their stress manifests through cry attacks, fear, sleep disorders or lack of appetite. Now if you notice that your kid starts to act differently and becomes more agitated, it is obviously that your child’s suffering can be caused by stress and you have to take action at once.
DURING SCHOOLTIME Pupils react to stress by decreased ability of focusing to lessons, isolation tendencies, confuse feelings and guilt feelings. They lie without a reason, they have the impression that nobody loves them or they refuse to go to school, and those are just of the symptoms that can indicate high levels of stress at pupils.
TEENS At teens, the symptoms of stress are very different from those that we can notice to smaller children. The majority of their reactions are on an emotional level: • They are anxious and depressed; • They have negative thoughts and feelings; • They lose their vitality and self-confidence; • They are against anything and anyone; • They skip school; • They start consuming drugs and alcohol.
RULES FOR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS There are few key rules hat you can use in order to hep your child release the stress burgeon. The basic elements you have to include in your strategies are: - MORAL SUPPORT; - THE ABILITY TO ANTICIPATE THE STRESSFUL MOMENTS; - FINDING THE BEST SOLUTIONS IN ORDER TO AVOID STRESS GET TO YOUR CHILDREN. Remember: children that have a calm personality will support better the changes and the stress that come with it. But this doesn’t mean they are immune, they just don’t make a fuss about it! Pay attention: the power of the example can be very efficient, as if your child sees you all jumpy whenever you have to deal with stress, he will learn that he should react identically if something unpleasant happens to him/her.
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