There are so many things that cause anxiety for children: a new place, new people, a stressor like the start of the school year, or an upcoming exam. Divorce, peer pressure, over-scheduled days, making a decision\u2026 they can all trigger anxiety in your child. In fact, about 25 percent of children ages 13 to 18 will experience anxiety at some point with about 6 percent suffering from severe anxiety disorder. While finding the root cause of your child\u2019s stress is paramount to helping him, it\u2019s important to find a way to help your child cope while he\u2019s working through his troubles.<\/p>\n
![\"breathe](\"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/breathe.jpg\")
One way to help calm your child\u2019s fears during a stressful situation is diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing. Children prone to anxiety tend to practice shallow thoracic breathing, which uses upper chest muscles rather than the diaphragm and can cause headaches, fatigue, cramps, and muscle tension. However, engaging the diaphragm with deep breaths gives your child the oxygen he needs in difficult times.<\/p>\n
Research finds that most children 10 and older practice thoracic breathing regularly. This type of breathing is highly ineffective. Thoracic breathers tend to take 15 to 22 breaths for every five to eight breaths taken by belly-breathers. The shallow breaths deprive your child of carbon dioxide and can result in hyperventilation, which causes its own set of problems.<\/p>\n
Not sure if your child is a thoracic or belly-breather? Conduct a small test to find out. Put your hand on your child\u2019s stomach and ask him to breathe normally. If you find very little movement in his stomach as he inhales, chances are that he\u2019s a thoracic breather.<\/p>\n
Teaching your child to breathe with his diaphragm will help him calm his heart rate during stressful situations. And according to studies, deep breathing can be as effective in combating anxiety as the antidepressant imipramine.<\/p>\n
So where do you start? One of the most important things to remember is that children will mimic what they see you do, so don\u2019t just direct your child; practice the breathing exercises with him and he will learn that much faster. Follow these easy steps to get started:<\/p>\n
There are many other ways to practice diaphragmatic breathing that are accessible through an Internet search. The important takeaway is to make sure your child knows how to calm himself during an anxious episode. While parents work hard to nurture and protect their children, the reality is that we won\u2019t always be by our children\u2019s side to remind them what to do. So the more you can make belly breathing a habit, the better prepared your child will be in the future.<\/p>\n
Do you have some tricks that help your anxious child work through his feelings? We\u2019d love to hear what else works!<\/p>\n
Sources:\u00a0<\/span> There are so many things that cause anxiety for children: a new place, new people, a stressor like the start of the school year, or an upcoming exam. Divorce, peer pressure, over-scheduled days, making a decision\u2026 they can all trigger anxiety in your child. In fact, about 25 percent of children ages 13 to 18 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,135,531],"tags":[75,137],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deep-breathing","category-gozen-anxiety-relief","category-parents","tag-anxiety-relief","tag-deep-breathing-2","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNational Institute of Mental Health<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nAnxiety and Depression Association of America<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"