{"id":252719,"date":"2025-07-10T05:57:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T05:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/252719\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T05:57:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T05:57:23","slug":"parenting-how-to-manage-my-daughters-health-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/252719\/","title":{"rendered":"Parenting: \u2018How to manage my daughter\u2019s health anxiety?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week on Parenting, one mother asked for advice helping her daughter get over her health anxiety after a period of illness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy seven-year-old has been having a really bad time health-wise since March,\u201d she told Moncrieff<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis seems to have knocked her, and she has some subconscious anxiety.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s now having crying episodes [but] never seems to know why she\u2019s crying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re happening at school, at home, et cetera, with no trigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe says she feel sad and doesn\u2019t know why; she\u2019s mentioned worries about death at other times and is very clingy \u2013 please answer this question for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Crying Crying unhappy kid girl sitting on the floor. Image: Anastasia Vishnickaya \/ Alamy. 5 March 2015<\/p>\n

Family psychotherapist Joanna Fortune said that while this little girl was the focus of the letter, her mother was likely still feeling the impacts of this health scare as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our children are sick, we feel that as parents as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how bad the health situation we are talking about, but even if it\u2019s at mild to moderate level but it\u2019s been rolling and repeated for months, that\u2019s exhausting, that\u2019s draining, and that is worrisome.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a parent, you\u2019re also holding this, and I think this is a good place to start is really check in with yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I mean by that is not go, \u2018Yes, I\u2019m worried\u2019, and verbally reason yourself out, but really check in – \u2018Where do I hold that worry? Where am I feeling it now? Are my shoulders stiff?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Leftover emotional residue’<\/p>\n

Joanna said that our bodies will “encode\u201d distressing experiences, which could be causing the letter writer\u2019s daughter to cry for seemingly no reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she says, \u2018I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m crying\u2019, and you say, ‘There\u2019s no trigger’, what you\u2019re saying is there\u2019s no obvious, overt, visible trigger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is a trigger; it\u2019s coming from deep within her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s whatever she\u2019s holding, the leftover emotional residue of all of that anxiety and worry of being unwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Woman Woman holding hands with young girl in hospital. Image: RubberBall \/ Alamy.<\/p>\n

According to Joanna, Children in Hospital Ireland<\/a> can be a great resource for play-based therapy for children in these situations.<\/p>\n

However, she said that it might be harder to get an appointment over the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt home, I would say increase sensory play like slime, Play-Doh; messy, tactile play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s making your skin itch thinking about it, just look at ways that you can contain it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can wrap the table in a bin bag for example, you can put down bath towels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a couple of examples of this on short little videos on my social media that would be much easier to look at than try and verbally describe.<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThose are there for sensory play, but also try body movement \u2013 think about dancing, swaying, chasing, spinning round and round, moving her body in lots of different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanna said that \u201crhythm and synchrony will activate the parts of our brain that we rely on for regulation\u201d, and that frequently moving her body in this way will hopefully help this girl’s nervous system to settle itself.<\/p>\n

Main image: Young girl in a hospital bed, talking with her doctor and nurse. Image: Erickson Stock \/ Alamy. February 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n