Contents
Depression in a child, how to determine, ways to deal with childhood depression
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It turns out that even the smallest children are prone to despondency and blues: they feel sad for no reason, lose their appetite … But, unlike “adult” depression, children’s depression is very well disguised and it is not immediately possible to notice it. Sometimes the child himself cannot explain the reason for the bad mood, while the parents immediately begin to blame themselves.
Method one: excessive demands from the parents
Dreaming of raising Newton, Sophia Loren or Cristiano Ronaldo, we often overestimate the capabilities of the baby. Writing him down to all kinds of sections, circles, music schools, we do not pay attention to how his anxiety grows. Feeling heightened responsibility, the baby begins to get nervous, and then simply withdraws into himself, stops playing, walks gloomier than a cloud, spends a lot of time alone, is capricious, constantly whimpers, or even begins to cry for no apparent reason.
Solution way
Let your child choose the activity he or she likes. Perhaps in some circle there is not a very friendly atmosphere, not a very sensitive teacher, which can further aggravate the depressive state … Let the baby find a place where he will be comfortable. Observe the behavior of your son or daughter after class. If he is cheerful, active, then everything is fine. But if he starts moaning and hysteria: “Buy me a pie!”, “Let’s go to the cinema!” – this suggests that there is overwork.
Method two: creating a tense family environment
Quarrels of parents, rejection of each other by family members always leave an imprint on his moral state. Even if you do not swear in his presence, the baby will still feel the tension. If the situation continues for several weeks, the child begins to get irritated, to be depressed – he walks as if he were immersed in the water, they talk about such. The kid is tired all the time, he does not have the strength to get out of bed in the morning, he does everything through I can’t and through I don’t want to.
Solution way
If you cannot rebuild your relationship with your husband or mother-in-law, even in the name of preserving the child’s psyche, it is better to radically change your life. Otherwise, contact with the baby will be lost and it will not be easy to restore his peace of mind. And taking care of the child’s health, both physical and mental, is the first thing to think about.
Method three: ignore the problems in kindergarten
Detachment from mom causes anxiety in the child, and this is understandable. The kid feels like a stranger in a new environment and cannot cope with the growing stress on his own. He has a growing feeling of fear: “If the teacher scolded another boy, this can happen to me”, “What if she complains to her mother?” That is why sometimes a child can dramatically change his behavior: he becomes quiet, distant, whiny, reacts painfully to leaving mom from home, even if she goes to the store. And he simply cannot take root in kindergarten in any way.
Solution way
Try to talk to your child about how his days in the garden are going, encourage him with new toys that he can take with him, ask the teacher every day how the baby was behaving and if he had any conflicts with other children.
Method four: do not prepare for the birth of a brother or sister
With the advent of the second or third child, parents almost completely switch to the newborn, and the eldest gets noticeably less attention. It is not surprising that the baby feels lonely, abandoned.
Solution way
Try to teach the older one to communicate with the younger. Offer him to teach his brother or sister to talk, crawl, play, ask him for help. Let the care of the new family member make the older child important, irreplaceable and very helpful.
It is important to remember that depression is a disease. But there is no need to rush around the baby if his mood suddenly dropped, otherwise he will start using this technique every time he wants to get something. The manipulators of the kids are just great.
When should you see a psychologist? 1. If a child’s behavior changes abruptly and for several weeks he cannot return to his previous state: he cries endlessly, slowly responds to requests, becomes aggressive.
2. If he suddenly began to enter into conflicts with every child in kindergarten.