{"id":260,"date":"2009-05-05T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2009-05-05T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ehealth.cooperhealth.org\/?p=260"},"modified":"2009-05-05T09:00:51","modified_gmt":"2009-05-05T13:00:51","slug":"talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Talk to Your Children About Swine Flu and Similar News Events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/ehealth_20090505story.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[260]\" aria-label=\"External link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1005\" style=\"margin-left: 18px;margin-bottom: 12px\" title=\"ehealth_20090505story\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/ehealth_20090505story.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a>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. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cooperhealth.org\/content\/ChildrensHospital.htm\">The Children\u2019s Regional Hospital at Cooper<\/a> is offering advice to parents whose children are aware of the news around them.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u201cWhenever there is stressful news pervading the airwaves, children can be very vulnerable to the resulting effects,\u201d says <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cooperhealth.org\/content\/FindAPhysician.htm?mem_id=805\">Dr. Richard Selznick<\/a>, child psychologist at The Children\u2019s Regional Hospital at Cooper and Director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cooperhealth.org\/content\/learningctr_home.htm\">Cooper Learning Center<\/a>. \u201cI saw this after 9\/11. There were many anxious children coming into my office at the time who seemed fundamentally shaken by the events.\u00a0 With the current concerns regarding Swine Flu, the first place to look is your own anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Selznick notes that while you can\u2019t control all of your emotions, it is important to not overwhelm children with your own fears and concerns.\u00a0 As a general rule, look for the opportunity to answer questions in fairly straight forward terms.\u00a0 Do not provide too many statistics, or medical terminology, in your explanation.\u00a0 Try and talk in terms of \u201clikelihoods\u201d and do not use the word \u201cnever,\u201d as in \u201cit can never happen in your school.\u201d\u00a0 Above all, do not have the child continually exposed to TV or radio news, which is designed to get people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>Some things that parents can observe when their children may be encountering internal stress is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Disturbed sleep patterns.<\/li>\n<li>Differences in their appetite<\/li>\n<li> Drawings that may depict a scary situation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cMany times we can see our child\u2019s 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,\u201d says Dr. Selznick.<\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 1px solid #cccccc;margin: 10px 0px 10px 20px;padding: 5px 10px;background: #f2f2f2 none repeat scroll 0% 0%;width: 250px;float: right\">\n<h3>Tips for Parents<\/h3>\n<p>\u2022 Call your pediatrician if your child has flu symptoms (fever, headache, tiredness, dry cough, nasal congestion and body aches).<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Remind children to cover their cough and sneeze.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022  Most importantly, remind children to wash their hands frequently<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Bedtime is also a time when children have a tendency to \u201copen-up\u201d to their parents. When sitting down to read your evening books with them, you are in a comfortable environment for them.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[293,616],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"has-excerpt","5":"has-more-link","6":"post-260","8":"format-standard","9":"category-kids-connection","10":"post_tag-h1n1","11":"post_tag-swine-flu"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Talk to Your Children About Swine Flu and Similar News Events - eHealth Connection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Talk to Your Children About Swine Flu and Similar News Events - eHealth Connection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"eHealth Connection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-05T13:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/ehealth_20090505story.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cooper University Health Care\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cooper University Health Care\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cooper University Health Care\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/#\/schema\/person\/2c005609082bfcff6406277fb92b7d0f\"},\"headline\":\"How to Talk to Your Children About Swine Flu and Similar News Events\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-05T13:00:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/\"},\"wordCount\":528,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"h1n1\",\"swine flu\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Kids Connection\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/ehealth\/2009\/05\/05\/talk-children-swine-flu-similar-news-events\/\",\"name\":\"How to Talk to Your Children About Swine Flu and Similar News Events - 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