Cool Down Kit

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Calm Down Kit Items for Your Highly Sensitive Child

Any current parent can relate. You’re at a restaurant, the park, or the check out line at Walmart, and something small sets your child off. Sometimes the tantrums are small and your idea of “normal” behavior. Sometimes things get broken. How long will this one last? Will you have to carry them out to the car kicking and screaming?

The doctors at Blue Hills Chiropractic have extensive training in helping the neurology of a child struggling with emotional, behavioral, and high energy. We put this list together from experience working with many parents in Northwest Wisconsin and wanted to share it with you!

On the Go

1. SOMETHING TACTICAL

A fidget toy that a child can use like a spinner or slinky will cause movement of the hands- which often motor movements override emotional signals to the brain.

2. SOMETHING VISUAL

Sometimes a child’s brain needs visual stimulation instead and will distract them. The key here is often repetitive movement that acts almost hypnotic.

3. SOMETHING INDESTRUCTIBLE

Sometimes a child needs to take physical aggression out on something “safe”. That emotional energy wants to exit the body somehow, and turning it from emotional to physical is great.

4. SOMETHING SMELLY

Wherever you are on believing if essential oils help your child calm down or not, smelling something soothing has a positive effect on the olfactory part of the brain. We recommend starting with something like lavender or jasmine.

At Home (use these in addition to the "on the go" suggestions

1. SOMETHING SECLUDED

Thing more specific than the child’s room, as often there’s negative stigma with being sent to your room as disciplinary. It could be emptying out the closet of their room to turn it into a reading nook, or a corner behind a couch in a room you don’t use often. Think quiet, small, and comforting for them.

2. SOMETHING PHYSICAL

Our personal favorite due to its huge effect is a mini trampoline. This movement sends something called proprioception to the brain, which helps calm the brain, as well as overrides emotional signals.

3. SOMETHING AUDIBLE

To go one set further in the private space, include a pair of canister style headphones that block out a lot of sound and have it connected to preloaded music, guided mediation for kids, or just white noise. This helps disrupt negative patterns going to the brain.

4. SOMETHING TO HELP TRANSLATE EMOTIONS

Sometimes a child can calm down easier when they’re able to identify the emotions their feeling. Anger? Frustration? Disappointment? Sadness? For a younger child, having different emoji faces that they can point to or an older child may be able to do a short & easy journaling exercise.

Did this help?

Know that the ability to calm one’s emotions is highly dependent on the strength and integrity of the communication within the brain.

For information on how pediatric chiropractic could potentially assist your child in this process or success stories of parents who were in your shoes, go to: http://www.bluehillschiropractic.com/patient-journeys/

RICE LAKE:

Mon: 9am-5:30pm

Tues: 7am-10am, 3pm-6:30pm

Wed: 9am-12:30pm, 3pm-5:30pm

Thur: 9am-12:30pm, 3pm-6:30pm

Fri: 7am-10am

Sat 8am-11am

CUMBERLAND:

Mon: 9am-12:30pm, 3pm-5:30pm

Wed: 3pm-5:30pm

Thur: 7am-10am, 3pm-5:30pm