My daughter who will be 6 in May is very stressful and has a major issue with dealing with stress or more importantly change. When we go on vacation or just someplace new she will sometimes cry or more frequently need assurance that we know how to get there. She never wants to try new experiences. She attends kindergarten and becomes frightful if they plan a fieldtrip or practice emergency drills. She also attends a childcare center where they will be doing many fieldtrips this summer. She is always ambivilent about going out and about. She also 3 weeks ago began sleep walking. I'm not sure if this is tied to the other issues. I just need some suggestions to help her deal with life issues and stress and change. I am worried that if anything major were to happen to her she would have an extremely difficult time. Also any resources, books, etc that anyone could suggest would be helpful. I have no explanation for why she is so fearful. Neither her dad or myself are overly protective or have a high level of life stress.
Have you tryed getting ur daughter involved in the trip b4 it happens? Try giving her a map for long trips and pinpointed landmarks along the way. If you know where the field trip is beforehand try taking her there before it actually happens. She may feel not in control of the situation. It worked for me. Hope this helps.
I have a 2 1/2 year old that is the same way! It can be stressful for us (at least for me) because when we go anywhere I always worry that she will have a fit. She is even worse if she is the least bit tired. I wish I had a solution for you but I guess just some kids are more sensitive to things. She has stranger anxiety too sometimes. She has had it since she was 4 months old! People used to look at her and she would start crying!! She is a little better than she used to be. When we go to parties or peoples houses she can have a fit sometimes but once she is there for a few minutes then she is fine. I guess the more you do things the more they will get used to it. Like other people have said, maybe preparing for it before hand might help alittle bit. I can't really do that with my daughter yet because she doesn't understand what is going on fully yet but at least with your daughter you can kind of plan ahead. Good Luck!
T. K
Have you looked into something called Sensory Integration Disorder? It is a disorder that all three of my children have in varying degrees. They are all worriers. They do not like change and have difficulty transitioning from place to place. My daughter is the same age as yours and she has difficulty participating in birthday parties and special classes such as gymnastics. I struggled with why my children always seemed stressed and worried that I somehow was causing it until I found the book, The Out of Sync Child. It helped to save our family. Your daughter may not have it but the book certainly talks about kids with stress and how to manage it.
Good luck!
L. Ann
Hi,
Is this something recent, or has she always been very fearful of new things? It could be she is just overly sensitive and will need a lot of reassurance. As for the sleepwalking, it definitely could be connected to her anxiety levels. There is an excellent article on it here : http://childrentoday.com/resources/articles/sleepwalking.htm
It actually starts to occur around age 6 and most kids do grow out of it. It also tends to be genetic.
Have you tried speaking with her DR?
My nephew has a form of autism and doesn't react well to the unexpected. My sister started using a daily schedule to help him know what to expect. She would discuss it with him the day before and answer any questions he had. It seemed to cut back on his anxiety. Obviously, she couldn't prepare him for fire drills /etc...For field trips and special outings they would look the places up online or look over phamplets of the location. Seeing what the places looked like was a great reassurance to him. Now that he's 17, he can cope with most normal, unexpected situations and is better able to handle the high stress ones too. Good luck!!
D.
