Tips For Helping Relieve Your Child's Anxiety Through Pediatric Massage

If your child is anxious or has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, you might not know how to help him or her. This could be extremely frustrating for you because it might hurt to see your child not feeling his or her best. One practical step that you can take to reduce your child's anxiety is to take your child to a center that specializes in pediatric massage. Pediatric massage helps children to relax physically, which can then translate to their emotions being soothed. Here are some tips to make pediatric massage as effective as possible.

1. Get Pictures Ahead of Time

You want to be sure that you go to a center that specializes in pediatric massage. However, your child might be nervous about going to a new place for a new experience. You can help reduce this overall anxiety about the massage by asking the therapist to send pictures of everything that your child is going to see when he or she gets there to your phone. You can then show your child these pictures and help him or her get used to the idea before the appointment.

2. Create Signals

You are going to be in the room with your child the entire time during the massage, which will help your child feel more at ease. You want to come up with a system that will allow your child to communicate with you in order to tell you that he or she is okay with what is going on or not okay. This could be as simple as a thumbs up, thumbs down communication system. Make sure that you share whatever communication system that you figure out with the massage therapist so that he or she can show your child that he or she understands. This will help reduce your child's worries about the session because he or she will know that anything he or she expresses will be understood.

3. Stay Constant

Try to make sure that you always get the same massage therapist and the same room whenever you take your child in for a massage. This consistency will increase your child's sense that he or she is going to be able to predict what will happen and make your child feel more at ease.

4. Talk About It Afterwards

Finally, take the time to talk to your child about it afterwards. Ask your child how the massage made him or her feel. Encourage honesty.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in massage therapy, such as Excellence In Health Chiropractic & Rehab Clinic.

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