Holiday Stress And Children
The holiday season is upon us, and for many people that means decorating the house, baking cookies and shopping at the mall. The sound of Christmas music can be heard everywhere you turn. But if you listen carefully, you’ll hear more than just Bing Crosby dreaming of a white Christmas. Those other sounds you hear are children who are suffering from stress associated with the holiday season.
Families want their holidays to be special and happy for everyone, especially the children. But what many parents fail to remember is that the holiday season can be a time of hustle and bustle…and a never-ending whirlwind of stress for their children.
Think about it. Because children are especially vulnerable at this time of the year, it’s important to remember that they need to find some time to relax and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year. But how can parents expect children to relax when they are running around like crazy, shopping, baking, decorating, and becoming stressed at the thought of blowing the holiday budget after just one trip to the mall.
You can help your children beat the holiday stress beast by following these tips:
• Adhere to your usual routines. Children crave structure, so late bedtimes and long trips to crowded malls can be major stressors.
• Discuss holiday plans well in advance, and include children in the process. Let the child who lives in two homes know the visitation schedule well ahead of time and make sure the child has time to enjoy events at both homes.
• Avoid empty promises. Hinting that an absent parent may be home for the holidays will only lead to disillusionment if the parent cannot be there. Be realistic about what presents are likely to arrive; even Santa has limited funds!
• If children seem upset, encourage them to express their feelings. Reflect back what they are saying and empathize.
• Limit the amount of time children spend playing video games or watching television.These can be convenient “babysitters” for overly busy parents, but children need physical activity more than ever to avert stress.
• Be sure children get plenty of rest. Lack of sleep increases irritability.
• Try to maintain a healthy diet that allows for a few treats of the season.
• Recognize the importance of family traditions and try to sustain them. Whether it is baking special treats, using holiday calendars to mark off the days, or reading wellloved stories together, traditions reassure children.
• Choose holiday events and activities carefully. Not all children are naturally outgoing and social. Honoring temperament and personality will make for a happier holiday.
• Remember to laugh together—always a great way to beat stress and boost moods!
Symptoms Of Children Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a condition that is defined by certain behaviors and thought patterns, some of which are the opposites of one another, yet can exist at the same time. Although the core troubles of Bipolar disorder are the same for children as they are for adults, often the specific behaviors are different, and vary according to the age and developmental level of the child. Importantly, often a child or adolescent is unable to say that they are “depressed” or “sad,” or “angry, ” “out-of-control,” “exuberant,” “irritable,” or “confused” (all common symptoms of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents). Rather, they may say that they are bored, angry, short-tempered, or “just don’t want to” when it comes to expected chores or duties, like school, extracurricular activities, or friends.
Bipolar disorder in adults and adolescents appears to be a pattern of cyclic recurrence over the lifespan: long periods of normal mood and behavior with episodes of abnormal mood (depressed, manic, or mixed) and behavior. However, in children, bipolar disorder seems to be more of a chronic and persistent alteration in mood and behavior with some periods of time being worse than others, but not usually intervening periods of normalcy. Some experts describe the child at risk for bipolar disorder as those that experience both positive and negative mood states very deeply, intensely and dramatically and who have great difficulty regulating, modulating and controlling their moods and behaviors, leading to noticeable interpersonal and social difficulties.
So,how can you determine if your child is suffering from bipolar disorder? The AACAP says that youth who have the disorder may begin to show either manic or depressive symptoms:
Depressive Symptoms:
* Irritability, depressed mood, persistent sadness or frequent crying
* Thoughts of death or suicide
* Loss of enjoyment in favorite activities
* Frequent complaints of physical illnesses, such as headaches or stomach aches
* Low energy level, fatigue, poor concentration, complaints of boredom, etc.
* Major change in eating or sleeping patterns, such as oversleeping or overeating
Manic Symptoms:
* Severe changes in mood compared to others of the same age and background - either unusually happy or silly, or very irritable, angry, agitated or aggressive
* Unrealistic highs in self-esteem - your child feels all powerful or like a superhero with special powersSignificant increase in energy and the ability to go with little or no sleep for days without feeling tired
* Increase in talking - your child talks too much, too fast, changes topics too quickly and cannot be interrupted
* Distractibility - your child’s attention moves constantly from one subject to the next
* Repeated high risk-taking behavior, such as abusing alcohol and drugs, reckless driving or sexual promiscuity.
Some of these signs are similar to those that occur in teens with other problems, such as drug abuse, delinquency, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or even schizophrenia. A child and adolescent psychiatrist can only make the diagnosis with careful observation over an extended period of time.
If you suspect that your child has bipolar disorder (or any psychiatric illness), CABF suggests you take daily notes of your child’s mood, behavior, sleep patterns, unusual events and statements made by your child that cause you concern. Share these notes with the child and adolescent psychiatrist who you choose to evaluate your child. Because children with bipolar disorder can be charming and charismatic during an appointment, they initially may appear to a professional to be functioning well.
Adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder can be effectively treated. The Surgeon General’s Office says that many children are treated with mood stabilizing drugs like lithium and valproic acid, which helps reduce the number and severity of manic episodes as well as prevent depression. However, the use of lithium can cause toxicity and impairment of renal and thyroid functioning, so it is not recommended for families unable to keep regular appointments that would ensure monitoring of serum lithium levels and of adverse events. The AACAP says that psychotherapy is also used to help a bipolar adolescent understand himself or herself, adapt to stresses, rebuild self-esteem and improve relationships.
The CABF says that many parents of children with bipolar disorder have discovered numerous techniques referred to as therapeutic parenting. The following techniques can help calm your child when he or she is symptomatic and can help prevent and contain relapses:
* Practicing and teaching your child relaxation techniques
* Using firm restraint holds to contain rages
* Prioritizing battles and letting go of less important matters
* Reducing stress in the home, including learning and using good listening and communication skills
* Using music and sound, lighting, water and massage to assist your child with waking, falling asleep and relaxation
* Becoming an advocate for stress reduction and other accommodations at school
* Helping your child anticipate, avoid or prepare for stressful situations by developing coping strategies beforehand
* Engaging your child’s creativity through activities that express and channel his or her gifts and strengths
* Providing routine structure and a great deal of freedom within limits
* Removing objects from the home (or locking them in a safe place) that could be used to harm himself, herself or others during a rage.
The National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association suggests these additional ways in which you can help your bipolar child:
* Read about bipolar disorder, and share what you learn with your family. Your doctor can suggest resources to help you learn more.
* Encourage your child to join a local support group. You can accompany your child and share information and experiences with the support group.
* Offer a great deal of emotional support. This step involves understanding, patience, affection and encouragement. Do not put down feelings expressed, but point out realities and offer hope.
* Never ignore remarks about suicide. Report them immediately to your child’s therapist.
Treatments For Bipolar Disorder
Medicine Treatment
The drugs typically prescribed to bipolar children are the same used to treat adults–mood stabilizers:
* Lithium.
* Depakote (generic name valproic acid).
* Tegretol (carbamazepine).
or antipsychotic drugs:
* Thorazine (chlorpromazine).
* Haldol (haloperidol).
* Risperdal (risperidone).
* Zyprexa (olanzapine).
Each of these drugs potentially can cause side effects, which can range from dry mouth and weight gain to liver damage and suppression of bone marrow growth, so treatment should be carefully watched.
Many of these drugs have been prescribed to children for years (Depakote, for instance, is an anticonvulsant used to treat seizures), but it isn’t clear what dose is best for each child, at what age. Nor is it clear how effective these medications are for psychiatric disorders in kids, expert says.
Expert estimates at least half the children diagnosed with bipolar disorder will respond to treatment. The rest may need to try different combinations, especially since many have multiple conditions. Some children won’t respond to anything.
Intervention Treatment
Some successful treatment of childhood and adolescent bipolar disorder has proven to require interventions on several strategic fronts:
1. thorough and accurate diagnostic evaluation of the child. As bipolar illness in childhood is commonly confounded by multiple disorders, it is vital to the treatments success that all disorders be discovered and addressed. Many of these disorders can be helped with appropriate use of medications, such as mood stabilizers, antianxiety medications, antidepressants, neuroleptics, and stimulants. Also, individual and family therapy is often beneficial for the patient, and can specifically help with issues of family conflict, self-esteem, relaxation strategies, mood and anger control, and better communication.
2. evaluation of the school environment and its impact on the current situation. Very frequently school and peer issues can lead to and/or perpetuate an environment in which the child’s mood disturbances can take root and grow. It is important, therefore, that assessment of the school be done so that modifications to the demands placed on the child may be appropriately completed so as to best create an environment that fosters recovery while not unduly affecting the educational process. This usually involves the interaction of the school counselor, principal, psychologist, teachers, and parents. Some interventions include psychoeducational testing, speech and occupational therapy, in-school counseling, curriculum modification, resource classes, behavioral modification systems, ARD meetings, self-contained classrooms, and alternative placements.
3. evaluation of the home/parental environment and its impact on the current situation. Home life can also contribute to the development and/or continuance of a child’s or adolescent’s bipolar illness. Like school modification and intervention, family and home modification may be necessary to best create an environment that fosters recovery while minimizing the disruption to the family and child’s lives. Family therapy and couples therapy are often very useful in this regard, and can address issues of parental roles, parental modeling, interfamily conflict, better communication, behavioral reward systems, and defining family members’ roles and responsibilities.
4. Education (also known as psychoeducation) about childhood bipolar disorder and its associated illnesses, and nature and expectable course of the disorder(s), the importance and limitations of specific treatment modalities.
Bipolar Disorder In Children Is Serious
Bipolar Disorder in children has long been an overlooked health problem, and the subject of much professional debate.Although some as young as 2 have been diagnosed and certain signs, like severe sleeplessness, may even begin at birth. Symptoms of the condition often include
* Rapid and extreme mood swings.
* Temper tantrums and violent rages.
* Night terrors and sleep problems.
* Irritability.
While it is fairly well known to the general public that “manic-depressive illness” is fairly common, affecting up to 1.0 to 1.5 % of the adult population at some point in life, it is not commonly recognized that bipolar illness in childhood and adolescence is also a major health problem: adolescents run a similar rate of risk as do adults, and a significant number more also report notable and disturbing subclinical levels of mood problems similar in quality to bipolar disorder.
Although considered rare, the exact rate of bipolar disorder in children remains unknown, although epidemiological studies are underway to determine this. Bipolar disorder in children and adolescents is arguably more significant of an issue than it is in adults. For example, if it is assumed that 1% of children and adolescents at any given time suffer from bipolar disorder, this naturally occurs during critical phases in child development, and not only can show itself with behaviors and feelings not typically viewed as part of a “depression” or “mania” but can interfere with the normal developmental processes of childhood. Add to this the diagnostic difficulties in distinguishing between disorders that have similar characteristics in children (such as delinquency, anxiety disorders, psychosis, ADHD, and learning disorders) and there is a significant number of children and adolescents both correctly diagnosed and misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.The problem, experts say, is that bipolar disorder is being overlooked in many children, and the drugs they’re given can actually prompt more aggressive or psychotic behavior. Children left untreated can hurt others and themselves, and they may be at higher risk for drug and alcohol abuse and suicide.
Depression and mania in children can, if untreated, affect school performance and learning, social interactions and development of normal peer relationships, self-esteem and life skill acquisition, parent-child relations and a child’s sense of bonding and trust, can lead to substance abuse, disruptive behaviors, violence and aggression, legal troubles, and even suicide. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among children and adolescents, just behind accidents and violence. Moreover, depressive and impulsive thinking, poor frustration tolerance, aggression and intrusive/disruptive behavior can become part of a child’s developing personality, leaving long-term effects in place for the rest of a child’s life.
“What we see over and over again is that thousands of these kids are being flipped into mania, probably way before that would happen naturally, as a result of being put on stimulants and antidepressants,” says experts . Childhood bipolar illness is a serious problem that demands a serious treatment approach. However, one obstacle to eliminating bipolar disorder in children is first to recognize it for what it is. Often children’s behavioral problems are only brought to professional attention when they are obvious: they may cause classroom disruption, expulsion from school, school failure, or injury to themselves or others. These behaviors may be seen as symptoms of ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, “truancy,” “delinquency,” or other vague problems and never recognized to be manifestations of an underlying mood disorder. It is important to determine if bipolar mood problems are a part of the overall behavioral picture, because many effective therapies and interventions are available today.
How To Help Baby Fall Asleep ?
* Keep bedtime and naptime schedules the same every day, as much as possible.
* Most babies sleep well after a feeding and/or a bath. Hold baby to feed—do not give baby a bottle or sippy cup in the crib.
* Make sure baby’s crib is away from loud noise. Keep things quiet for 1 hour before bedtime. Soft lighting helps baby get sleepy.
* Gently massage baby’s belly, arms, and legs.
* Even babies like to hear a quiet story or song before bedtime.
* Consider using a pacifier when you place baby on the back for sleep (if baby is breastfed, wait until she is 1 month old or is used to breastfeeding).
* If baby spits out the pacifier after falling asleep, you do not need to put it back in her mouth.
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