Helping Your Child Cope With Anxiety
In July of this year, my then 8 year old got a bladder infection from all of the swimming she had been doing. She would literally swim for 2-3 hours every single day and I didn’t think anything of it.
She had good hygeine, went to the bathroom after swimming and changed immediately out of her swimsuit.
However, that wasn’t enough to prevent the UTI. Since she had had them before, I wasn’t too worried because we knew how to treat them naturally and they usually cleared on her own.
This one was a different story. Within 24 hours she was nauseaus, had vomited, wasn’t keeping fluids down very well and was peeing very frequently. Of course it was the weekend, and I couldn’t get ahold of her regular doctor.
I was continuing all of the natural herbs we had used before like D Mannose, Corn Silk and Oregon grape extract but with the vomiting, I was concerned that she would quickly get dehydrated and this could lead to serious kidney issues.
We opted to get her started on antibiotics (this was an instance where they were needed) and her symptoms went away pretty quickly.
Then, in an unfortunate series of events, I left her antibiotics out on the counter all night about 3 days before she was done with her prescription and had to call the pharmacy to make me a new one. They refused because they couldn’t get ahold of my daughter’s doctor (who was out of the country- go figure), but somehow were able to formulate a different antibiotic that has the same action, and we started that until we could go see the doctor again.
About 24 hours into this antibiotic, she developed acute nausea and abdominal pain. Woke up in the middle of the night with so much pain that she was hysterically crying which is not like her at all, and complaining that it hurt when she bent over.
My background in pediatric nursing kicked in and I got her dressed, put her in the car and drove her to the local ER to rule out appendicitis.
We sat and waited in the ER for 5 hours…probably THE LONGEST 5 hours of my life. Got her assessed by the triage doctor who said she didn’t have any signs of appendicitis; said it was likely gastrointestinal irritation due to the antibiotics and asked if we wanted to go home. Something in my gut told me to push for the ultrasound.
There was no way we were going home with her in pain like that.
We waited another hour for the ultrasound, which showed she had mesenteric adenitis (swelling of the lymph nodes in the abdomen) which happens from viral infections or can be caused by a UTI. It is similar to appendicitis, just a different location of the lympatic swelling) There is nothing needed to treat it except pain medication. So for the next 10 days, she had to take motrin and tylenol around the clock to cover the pain.
Mesenteric Lymphadenitis is usually benign and treated outpatient with pain medicine and immune support.
This experience in the Emergency Room left my kiddo with some pretty intense anxiety because start to finish, she had been dealing with UTI symptoms for 6 weeks before the abdominal pain and nausea finally resolved weeks after that ER visit.
As I was walking her through learning how to narrate her emotions and her experience, I recognized that just like adults, she had a very somatic experience that went right along with the emotional experience.
She reported having some emotional flashbacks of being in the ER and being so scared that she was afraid she was going to die. (This is actually an appropriate conclusion to jump to for her developmental age.)
Every time she felt her tummy gurgle from hunger or the urge to use the bathroom, she would panic that something was wrong with her.
She was afraid to sleep alone because when she woke up in the middle of the night with abdominal pain, she was alone.
Needless to say, there were a LOT of emotions she needed to work through in this process, and I wanted to share with you some tools that really helped us support her as she worked through this very scary experience.
This book “A Spot Of Anxiety” really helped her to understand what her body was trying to tell her and it helped us as her parents get on the same page with her about what she needed to move through the feelings. Honestly, I feel that this book is great for adults who also need to understand their emotions, anxieties and how to cope in a way that works WITH your nervous system and not against it.
One of the other tools we found enormously helpful was the homeopathic remedy Aconite. Aconite is a great remedy for shock and fright, or ailments brought on by shock or fright. Thankfully we had that remedy at home already in our homeopathy starter kit. You can grab my favorite home homeopathy kit here! It is full of remedies here that we use regularly for everything from a bug bite to food poisoning, to anxiety.
Prayer was obviously a huge part of the process for her. Whenever she would seem to get overwhelmed by emotion, I would sit down on the floor with her and get out some crayons, paper, and invite her to draw her emotions and name them on the paper. We would then invite Jesus to show us if there were any lies she was believing about what happened to her, and to show her how safe she was. This was something we had to do multiple times over the course of several weeks as she worked through the emotions.
Do you have a child that’s struggling with Anxiety? I hope these strategies help you!
