Empowering Women in Chiropractic - Dealing with Pediatric Stress During the Holidays

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Hello everybody, it's Dr. B and Elizabeth here. We are gonna share some tips and tricks for the holiday season because. Eh, stress gets a little wonky during the holidays, and we've probably seen that already ramp up just since Halloween. So we want you and your families to have the most blissful holiday with the least amount of stress and tension within the family.

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So we are gonna dive in and dig in, and we are going to go to our PowerPoint and make sure that we are on point for this. Elizabeth, you're gonna take a little nap from me while we're no candy. She's been on a roll since Halloween, but not a sugar roll. Okay. She's gonna take a nap and we are gonna share with you some blissful ways for your holidays.

How's that? And ChiroSecure, thank you for giving us this opportunity to share our messages with other chiropractors out there and the world and how we can make. Families, healthier, happier, and the power of chiropractic. So you guys rock. Thank you for always having our back. Alright, so let's just go through some really basics, um, basic things to think about, to spread the word to your practice communities.

First of all, predictability. Here's idio. Brains want predictability. We want to be able to know or predict what it's gonna feel like in different situations. If we're afraid it's not gonna feel safe, then the brain we go into what I call limbic lock and load mode. And our reasonable rational ability kind of flips offline.

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So then we get tantrums we get bouts of. Restrictive behavior. I don't wanna go. Or the other thing that you can see is where I don't feel good. I have a headache, I have a tummy ache, whatever. Okay. The mind is extremely powerful in, holding us back from things that might be a little bit scary.

So we've all heard about the Sunday scaries, where adults, kiddos, everybody across the board is dreading Monday because they're either having to go back to school or to work or so forth, and those environments might. Not feel the safest. So what are predictability boards? Here's the scoop. Especially during the holiday seasons, kids are excited, especially going into Christmas season, right?

Santa's come in, what are the presents and so forth. But they also might be hesitant, not under understanding or knowing what it's gonna feel like going to Aunt Martha's house for dinner or going to a party at . Joe and Alicia's house, whatever it is. So you can get a calendar, just get one of those flexible laminated calendars.

And you can put, depending on the age of the kiddo, if they're, if they don't lead, use stickers. Okay. Pictures, and I advocate using pictures for everybody actually, but putting pictures of what is going on certain days in the next. Month and a half or so, so they know how many more days until this, that, or the other.

And then if it's a place they haven't been to before, this is where it gets tricky. I. It's just like the kiddo that is used to going to Aunt Martha's after school every Wednesday, and they're cool with Aunt Martha's house. They know what it smells like, how light and bright it is in there. How loud Aunt Martha talks, how touchy feely things are, and their brain, their ability to adapt in that environment is good.

So they're very calm, cool, collected. However, if you pick them up on Wednesday and said, we're not gonna go to Aunt Martha's today. We're gonna go to Sam's house instead. And they've never been to Sam's house and their brain doesn't know what it's gonna be like at Sam's house. Here comes the problem. They don't want that change.

They don't. They can have a come apart, have a meltdown, dig their heels in, suddenly get sick, you name it. All right? So give them as much. Predictability and input into their brain as to what, as, as much as you can, as to what that environment's gonna be like. And so what you might wanna do is if they're gonna go to somebody's house that they've never been to before, or are you picking up that when you go to that house all the time, the kiddos have less than stellar quote unquote behavior.

It might be something about that environment. So talk to them beforehand. What worries you about going to Sam's House? What worries you about going to this party and see if you can get them to understand what's happening. And then we teach them some tools and tricks to feel more calm in that environment, such as humming, singing, taking deep breaths.

And I do that by saying, pretend that you're smelling a flower. And you're smelling it, and then you're blowing off the pedals who? And they can practice that with a little the little pinwheels that you see in the summertime in gardens. Or sometimes you can find 'em on Amazon at the dollar store or whatever, like a pen or pencil that has a little pinwheel on it, and get them to start practicing these calming techniques so that can help in those environments that are to their brain.

A little bit treacherous deep pressure. Oh my gosh. Okay. Deep pressure fires, proprioception and proprioception is very grounding and calming. So you can do some deep squeezes in their extremities all along their arms, up to their. Up to their shoulders, both extremities. You can teach them to do squeezes on themselves.

You can use things like under Armour or Tighter clothing that gives them that it, it's a little bit more squeezes. It's, it compresses their body a little bit more. That can be very grounding and calming. They have they have pressurized. Caps hats and beanies and things like that, that have pressure in them, that give them a little bit of calming proprioceptive pressure.

So these are all things to think about to get them compatible to their environment. Keep routines as much as possible if we can advocate. A, that they keep their chiropractic adjustments on a regular basis, especially during the holidays to help minimize the stress load. But try to, during those vacation times, keep routines as much as possible.

Meaning getting up about the same time, going to bed, about the same time um, spending family time at the same time, maybe even having . 15, 20 minutes of reading time like they would during the school time, try to keep 'em on schedule on a routine as much as possible. If, especially with a two week window between Christmas and New Year's, they can really get off track.

And then trying to get them back on track right before school starts again can be a little bit troublesome. Okay. So maybe the first week you can be a little bit more lax, but then that gearing up towards going back to school. Start getting 'em that routine again. Food prep, this can be a big one, especially with families across all ages and all stages that maybe have food restrictions, gluten-free share, dairy-free, that type of thing.

Or even dyes in preservatives. We know that during Christmas time we got red dye 40 flying around everywhere. And we know that red dye is very neuro excitatory to the brain. It's just firing those neurons and that's where you get the crazy brain. So maybe have parents prep some food to take along if they're going to a party that is conducive to the needs of that family.

And if we really want to not have to, single out a family or a child within the family or so forth, they don't wanna be singled out. Perhaps you can talk, the parents can talk to who's ever hosting the dinner or the party or something, or the school event ahead of time and saying, Johnny cannot tolerate gluten or dairy.

So what I'd like to do is I'd like to bring a dish over before the party starts. All right. That is a dish that everybody in the party can enjoy, not just us or not just Johnny. So it's out there with all the other dishes on the table, and then when we arrive, it's not that this dish is just for Johnny, it's for everybody.

And Johnny gets to enjoyed as well. So do things along that line against, you're not singling out that little kiddo. For what they can't have, but spin it to what they can have. All right. So food prep and thinking ahead of time. There's a lot of things they can parents can do to food prep and freeze and then take those out and enjoy at different events so they're not having to scramble the day before, the night before with that particular party or dinner party or school party or whatever.

Learn the words. No, forget the words guilt. This is probably one of the hardest things I have, especially with my beautiful mamas. It's okay to say no. I'm sorry. We won't be able to attend that event. Don't overextend yourself or your families. No, I'm sorry. Thank you for the invitation, but we're not able to attend and don't feel guilty about it.

Just like we talk about living within our financial means, we need to live within our our emotional, mental, physical means and not overextend ourselves because that's when the immune system tanks. And once the immune system tanks, now we get all the bugs that are going around. We're more predisposed to that, which leads us into the sugar plunge.

From Halloween, on Halloween through the heart holiday at Valentine's Day, actually through Easter. It's just like crazy zone, right? So let's educate a little bit about what sugar does. What sugar does to the brain. It's like cocaine for the brain. So it ramps 'em up. It is very inflammatory, so it tanks your immune system so we can propose it as we want you to really enjoy your holiday season.

We don't want you in bed and not feeling well and not being able to participate in these fun activities. So let's minimize that sugar intake and maybe look at some alternatives. Okay. Monk fruit, MONK. Monk fruit is a nice substitute for regular sugar. Coconut sugar can, organic coconut sugar, but cut the sugar doses down in when you're, when they're making cookies and these kind of things.

Be mindful of that tech time. What tends to happen is mom and dads get busy. They've got all these things going on, house cleaning, prepping for guests all, and it's really easy to give in to that technology. Tech brain is a real thing. And tech tech use acts like sugar on the brain. It acts like cocaine.

It gives them a dopamine hit. And so it can be really hard to get 'em off the devices and especially during that transition. Let, if you give them the tech device and their hanging out in their room and being able to be on the whatever until the guests arrive, and then you want 'em to cold Turkey, cut it out and come out.

Be responsive to your guests, that might not work so well. So again, keep your tech rules in place just like you would during the school time. Okay. anD avoiding sensory chaos. So malls parties, we know it's sensory stimulation, malls, the bright lights, the music's playing. All that can be a bit much.

So we also wanna . Figure out ways, depending on the child and what gets them into sensory chaos, how can we help that? The deep pressure, again, wearing those tight, tighter, that Under Armour clothing or those tight under garments, can be very calming and soothing. Doing the deep pressure before you go into the mall and all this chaos.

If Johnny starts to have a meltdown, maybe find a dressing room. Where you can go into and do a little humming humming or a little singing and deep pressure. While you're doing that, just reset the nervous system and calm it down. They might need to have some noise canceling earphones on, or some earbuds in something to minimize the noise and the echoing if they're too auditory sensitive.

Maybe wearing a light tinted gray or rose colored tinted. Eyeglass in the mall and those kind of things just to help the glare and the lights and everything coming at you. Look for in, in my program in our Academy of Neurodevelopmental Practices program we've put together, for years we've been doing this, a sensory santa event.

Where a lot of docs are actually putting on safe sensory Santa events and they, there might be ones going on in your communities where you can, or you put one on yourself where kiddos can come and have their picture taken with Santa or whatever, but it's a sensory friendly environment. It's not all this chaos that's at the mall.

So think about help parents understand. The kiddo's brain might look at as I'm going into a war zone, when I'm going to Walmart on December 21st, or Black Friday or whatever, or going to the mall, minimize that before they even get into that situation and have the meltdown, so that way you're not getting the sensory defensive child.

And it's less stressful on the whole family. Hopefully that helps you. Just some key points to, to educate and give to your parents and your practice members. Remember to do this for yourself as well, just as though we wanna nurture and help those that we. We work within our practices. We need to also be mindful and nurture ourselves during this time because it just does get a little chaotic.

So take time for yourself. And with that said, ChiroSecure you are amazing. We wish you all a very merry than Thanksgiving. Yes, Thanksgiving first, and we will see you before Santa and from me to Elizabeth, to all of you out there. Have a great family experience and we're gonna see you in December.

Today's pediatric show look to the Children was brought to you by Chiro Secure .

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