Saturday, May 2, 2009

Steps to Overcoming Fear of Swine Flu (H1N1), and Pandemic, with Your Children

Steps to Overcoming Fear of Swine Flu (H1N1), and Pandemic, with Your Children
by LaSara Firefox, MPNLP, www.lasarafirefox.com, www.GratitudeGames.com

  1. Research the topic. Read sites like the World Health Organization, and your current local coverage. Have there been any confirmed cases in your region? Probably not!
  2. Address any fear present in yourself before you have a conversation.
  3. Address the issue with your child, or children. Ignoring it will not help your child to work through the fear.
  4. Cite the facts of the current situation, in a calm and restrained way.
  5. Tell your child that there have been many other pandemic and other scares that didn't pan out as expected. (In other words, all of them, since 1918, right? (SARS, Avian Flu, killer bees, ebola...remember?)
  6. Let your child know that all measures are being taken that are necessary at this time; if further measures are required, we will all know.
  7. Explain that those who are most at risk are NOT your child, or you (unless this is not true); most at risk are infants and young children, very old people, and people with compromised immune systems.
  8. Explain that the more people who get the flu and recover, the better off we all are. That we create immunities, and the immunity itself helps to stop the spread of the illness.
Any other ideas? Add them here!

peace, and gratitude,
-LaSara
(aka @yoga_mama on Twitter.)
http://www.lasarafirefox.com
http://www.GratitudeGames.com

(Republish, repost, reprint, copy this article at will. Please leave author info and link intact.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very thoughtfull post on overcoming fear .It should be very much helpfull.

Thanks,
Karim - Creating Power

paula said...

I truly agree with your thought...Personally I feel the best way to combat fear is to confront it.Talking about health , kids and adults can fight any disease if they have strong immune and it can only come from good eating habits.Kids copy parent behavior .Quality decisions must be made if we want to feed our kids healthy foods and for every parent it’s really tough when one is surrounded by processed food products. One of the best ways to improve your children health is to develop a routine. Healthy eating habits