How You Can Support Your Kids When Stress Gets the Best of Them
Halloween just happened and now the holidays are fast approaching. If you are a parent, you know this is the time of year you start to notice behavior changes, more emotions, and bigger reactions. So why does this happen every year?
First remember, you are not alone. As exciting and fun as the holidays are, they also bring with them their own challenges. Holidays come with a lot of changes. This includes changes in diet, routine, sleep patterns, and social interactions. Although so much joy is felt this time of year, there is an increase in demand on their nervous system.
(A note on the nervous system: We experience the world with our nervous system. It is the communication center for our brains to our body. Our nervous system processes stress, hormones, and how the brain is reacting to the child’s environment. At Dover Health Care Center Chiropractic, we do not believe there are bad behaviors. There are just behaviors that give us insight into the brain and nervous system function of the child.)
Depending on the age of the little one, their brains and nervous system are still developing and working hard to figure out how to handle the new stressors that come each year with the holidays and the new demands that are put on their nervous systems. When a child has a change in behavior it is often to cope with too high of stress or demand on their nervous system. This can lead to anxiety and poor behavior in children.
Sugar and Behavior
From Halloween until the New Year, kids have an increase in sugar, harmful dyes, and have more changes to their routine. As a society, we eat more sugar in the last quarter of the year than any other time of the year. As delicious as those cookies and pies are, sugar is inflammatory to the brain and body of all people. We all know we need to consume with care when it comes to sugar, but this time of year we just consume more in general.
Since sugar causes inflammation, sugar is harmful to the brain. It is one of the most inflammatory products we can consume. What happens when kids eat sugar is that it decreases oxygen to the brain and puts the brain into overdrive. Their brain becomes over-stimulated. This can lead to hyperactivity, sleep disruptions, and a harder time regulating their emotions.
As pediatric chiropractors, what we notice is that sugar can push children into having an overactive sympathetic system. Often it feels like the child is always on the go and never stops moving, talking, reacting, and interacting in their environment. They often struggle to sleep and just be calm. Their brain is stressed and pushed into sympathetic dominant states. When sugar is involved it is hard to get them to rest and calm down, so their brain stays in a state of stress. This leads to behavior struggles and the child struggling with emotional regulation.
Chemicals in Food
Food dyes and chemicals in food negatively affect the child’s brain as well.
What we know is there is a link between food dyes and ADHD, behavior changes, asthma, and allergies. Unfortunately, food dyes are not regulated well in the USA. This puts a lot of burden on the parents to have to regulate the food and read all labels. It does take a little extra work, but to limit the negative effects of food dyes we have to read labels and dig deeper into understanding the effects of food dye in our food.
Red dye particularly, is shown to have a negative effect. Some children are more sensitive than others. Studies show that food red dye particularly has more hyperactivity reported in children under three and 8/9 year olds.
Although hyperactivity is the most common association with behavior and food dye, there are other signs and symptoms to look for if your child is consuming food dyes. Symptoms reported are an upset stomach, migraines, irritability, and struggle with concentration. Toxins such as food dyes are potent to the brain. The body often responds in various ways, including poor behavior and physical complaints from the child.
Routine:
Both children and adults do excellent with routine. When routine changes, especially for those kids who struggle with their brain health, behavior, emotions, and sleep, they have bigger reactions and more struggles this time of year.
Routine is key to help children have a wonderful and happy holiday. Having a routine leads to better sleep, less anxiety, and more time with loved ones.
One of the best things a consistent routine offers is improved mental health. Having a routine allows the child to have expectations. It can make transitions easier because they already know what will happen. This reduces stress, therefore improving mental health.
Predictability, like that which is provided for with consistent routine, helps children feel safe and protected. Children who struggle with surprises and inconsistency, might have a sense of not feeling safe in certain environments. When we create consistency in routine through the holidays it can make managing the magical moments better with more positive emotions because of the safety and predictability provided by the environment and routine.
Ways to help:
Here are some ways to help your child this holiday season:
Eat a diet of real foods. Real food nourishes the brain and the gut. Food can literally be used as a resource for behavior and to enhance your family's mood. To note, we know there are picky eaters out there and some children will only eat a handful of foods. Try adding in a spoonful of bone broth a day for nutrition.
Eliminate an inflammatory food group. Here us out on this. You are busy and it is hard to get your child to eat healthy. There are a few large inflammatory food groups: Diary, sugar, gluten, and food dyes. It is often too hard for a family to eliminate everything that fits into those categories. What we recommend is pick one that may be easiest to fulfill. Maybe eliminate food dyes or just gluten. Slowly moving away from inflammatory foods and into nutritious foods can lead to a healthier child.
Be consistent on a routine. As we discussed earlier, people as a whole do great on a routine. There are so many benefits. When times get stressful, a routine may be the best thing for your child. The best time to start a routine is today.
Start Pediatric chiropractic care. Many parents are taking their kids to see OT, Therapists, and movement specialists, but the one provider most left off the list is the pediatric chiropractor. Chiropractic focuses on the communication between the brain and the body. At Dover Health Care Center Chiropractic, we are looking to answer two big questions: How does the child process their world and is anything altering the way their brain is receiving and sending information? When we can remove interference from the nervous system with chiropractic care, children (and adults) thrive in the management of the demands of their environment.
This holiday season does not have to be so stressful. Taking steps now can help prevent holiday meltdowns and help with emotional regulation.