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Reduce Stress for Children During the Holidays
The holidays are the most exciting time of year for children
- and the most stressful.
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For parents with children younger than 8 years old, the Texas
Medical Association offers the following.
Try to maintain your child's regular sleeping, eating and
playing schedule. Familiar routines provide a sense of
security. When planning a visit to grandma or another
holiday event, give your child advance notice.
Involve your kids in simple tasks, such as decorating the
tree and baking cookies. Children derive a sense of belonging
from taking part in holiday traditions.
When decorating the tree, hang the larger, unbreakable
ornaments on the lower branches and the smaller, fragile ones
on the higher branches out of children's reach. Your
children will enjoy touching the safe ornaments, and you will
not constantly be saying, "No, don't touch." For the
same reason, place fragile, small and breakable decorations on
mantles or high place where your kids cannot reach them even
by climbing.
Let your children decide whether they want to sit in
Santa's lap. Young children may perceive that big,
furry-faced man as a monster until they are 5-6 years old.
After a special event like talking to Santa, help your
children label their feelings: "Sounds like you're
excited." By accepting feelings, children can begin to
cope with them in many ways.
When shopping with a preschooler, use a stroller, plan
rest stops and snacks and be prepared to leave earlier than
expected if necessary.
When children get cranky or tired, suggest a soothing
activity. Let them play in the bathtub (with
supervision) with plastic cups and bubbles, or give them a
pail of water to "paint" the sidewalk or fences.
Before Christmas pack up old toys except for one or two
favorites. In mid-January, when children are tired of
playing with the new toys, bring out the old ones. They
will seem like new.
Avoid stress yourself. Be realistic about how many
holiday cards you can address or gifts you can wrap in one
evening. Children can sense your tension and often react
by whining, clinging, fighting and waking up at night.
Sometimes putting away a chore so you can read a story to your
child is best.
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About The Austin Diagnostic Clinic
(ADC)
Serving families since 1952, The Austin Diagnostic Clinic (ADC)
is a multi-specialty clinic with more than 115 physicians
representing 21 medical specialties. ADC provides quality
primary and specialty care to residents across Central Texas at
locations including North Austin, Round Rock, Southwest Austin,
San Marcos and Westlake. ADC utilizes an electronic medical
record system for the most efficient medical record keeping, and
an e-Access program allowing patients to request appointments
online. It accepts some of the most utilized health insurance
plans available in Austin and Central Texas.
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