How to best support your child in the ER

Peter Levine, PhD, Author of Trauma Proofing Your Kids, shares advice for parents on how to best support your child and keep them calm when they are in the ER
How To Best Support Your Child In The ER
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How to best support your child in the ER

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It's probably likely that at sometime your child will need emergency medical help. That they may be taken to the ER. It's really vitally important for you to be with the child. To calm the child. And for you to stay calm yourself. Because, it's more likely, first of all the calm will help the child. Second, it's more likely that the medical people will allow you to be there with your child if they see that you're calm. Just holding your child, distracting them if, for example, the doctor might be needing to pull out something that the child has swallowed, or something they've put in the nose. And if you can distract the child enough, so that the doctor can pull out the lodge foreign body, and then it's over, and they're crying. And then you can hold them in your arms and soothe them. In our book "Trauma proofing your kids" we give a lot of guidance for different kind of situations. How parents can be with their child. How they can help the child feel protected and safe. How they can help them make sure that there's no residue of shock left from the emergency room experience. Also, the sibling may have seen that, or certainly seen an ambulance come to the house, and they of course have their own fears. So, it's important to reassure them that their sibling is okay. That they are well. And to deal with some of the feelings, and the sensations, and the fears, that they have. But to reinforce that the child is okay. That they took care of the problem at the hospital. And that she's feeling okay. Maybe she needs to rest a little bit now. And that then later she come and play with you.

Peter Levine, PhD, Author of Trauma Proofing Your Kids, shares advice for parents on how to best support your child and keep them calm when they are in the ER

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Peter A. Levine, PhD

Author of Trauma Proofing Your Kids & Developer of Somatic Experiencing

Peter A. Levine, PhD, holds doctorates in both medical biophysics and psychology. He is the developer of Somatic Experiencing, a body-awareness approach to healing trauma, and founder of the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, which conducts trainings in this work throughout the world. Dr. Levine was a stress consultant for NASA on the development of the space shuttle project. Levine’s international best-seller, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, has been translated into 24 languages. Levine’s contribution was honored in 2010 when he received the Lifetime Achievement award  Recognizing Outstanding Professionals in the Field of Child/Adolescent Mental Health from the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center.

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