With cases now confirmed in New Jersey, many parents are concerned about how the Swine Flu (H1N1) will affect them and especially their children. Constant television reports with people wearing masks and scenes of emergency rooms can be scary scenes for young children to digest. The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper is offering advice to parents whose children are aware of the news around them.
“Whenever there is stressful news pervading the airwaves, children can be very vulnerable to the resulting effects,” says Dr. Richard Selznick, child psychologist at The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper and Director of the Cooper Learning Center. “I saw this after 9/11. There were many anxious children coming into my office at the time who seemed fundamentally shaken by the events. With the current concerns regarding Swine Flu, the first place to look is your own anxiety.”
Dr. Selznick notes that while you can’t control all of your emotions, it is important to not overwhelm children with your own fears and concerns. As a general rule, look for the opportunity to answer questions in fairly straight forward terms. Do not provide too many statistics, or medical terminology, in your explanation. Try and talk in terms of “likelihoods” and do not use the word “never,” as in “it can never happen in your school.” Above all, do not have the child continually exposed to TV or radio news, which is designed to get people’s attention.
Some things that parents can observe when their children may be encountering internal stress is:
- Disturbed sleep patterns.
- Differences in their appetite
- Drawings that may depict a scary situation
“Many times we can see our child’s frustrations come out when they are sitting down drawing pictures. If you see something that may be out of sorts in their pictures, ask them about it and ask them to describe the scene. This may be a great opportunity to calm their fears,” says Dr. Selznick.
Tips for Parents
• Call your pediatrician if your child has flu symptoms (fever, headache, tiredness, dry cough, nasal congestion and body aches).
• Remind children to cover their cough and sneeze.
• Most importantly, remind children to wash their hands frequently
Bedtime is also a time when children have a tendency to “open-up” to their parents. When sitting down to read your evening books with them, you are in a comfortable environment for them. This provides an opportunity to talk openly with your child about anything that they may have heard about Swine Flu that you can clear up for them.
The most important thing a parent can do for their child during this elevated time of concern is make sure they are teaching their children proper hygiene. Talk to your children about always washing their hands and covering their coughs and sneezes with a tissue.
Remember, children look to adults for guidance on how to react to stressful events. If parents seem overly worried, children may panic. Parents should reassure their children that health and school officials are working hard to ensure that people throughout the country stay healthy.