Anxiety

Does your child show signs of anxiety? www.themighty.com recently posted an article about 14 phrases that kids use to say "I'm feeling anxious."

Does your child say these on a regular basis?

What's wrong with me?

I'm tired

I have a headache

I'm sorry

Can't we stay home?

You do it

Is it time to leave yet?

Don't leave me

I want to go home

Can you turn on the hallway light for me at night?

Don't make me

My body is uncomfortable

I don't feel well

I don't want to

Most kids say one or more of these at times. It's something to look at if you are hearing one or more of these on a regular basis. When is the child saying these things? What is going on right before or right after? Is it around the same person or the same activity?

Before rushing to a doctor for medication, what can you do?

First, you can track how often the child says something and what is going on. Or if the child is showing physical symptoms track those. It may be easy to determine the trigger or there may be multiple triggers. Once you have an idea or ideas on the cause, you can take some action.

What action should you take? First, what is the trigger? If it's change in routine, can you preview changes before they happen to make them predictable. Is there an accommodation that can lesson the anxiety around the situation? The next step is to help your child learn strategies to cope with the anxiety and calm themselves. This could be talking about the situation, drawing, writing, getting exercise or doing yoga.

The anxiety free child, http://anxietyfreechild.com/yoga-for-children-with-anxiety/, explains how yoga can help a child with anxiety. In addition to the poses suggested on the website, child pose is another great pose to slow the body down.