Children’s Mental Health & Learning During COVID: A Series

/in , ,

By Zach Clay, Licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy

During this unprecedented and often challenging time in the world, we need to consider the impact everything has on children. The COVID-19 pandemic can be particularly tough for children’s mental health and their ability to learn. NOAH’s Behavioral Health team shares expert insight, best practices, and resources in this series of posts to help children maintain mental health in the era of COVID-19, social distancing, and distance learning.  

Adjusting to Changes in School and Learning

School is important for children. Even with more children learning through homeschooling or virtual schools before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, most children were still attending school in-person. When schools had to close and switch to remote learning in early 2020, children and families across the county faced a major adjustment.

While education is the primary goal, the school environment also provides access to friends, teachers, routines, and so much more. All of these things are critical for children’s academic and social development. On top of that, many students rely on schools for mental health care, along with nutritious and consistent meals.

Children experienced these changes while living through the uncertainty because of COVID and things outside of their control. That is a lot to ask of our kids.

How to best support children’s learning

Regardless of whether school is virtual or in-person for your child, this school year is different. Navigating remote learning or new rules, restrictions, and cancellations of regular school activities will be something parents and children need to do. Here are a few tips:

  • Set and keep a routine. Children benefit from routines, particularly in stressful times. Routines offer people of all ages comfort and predictability, so parents and other caregivers benefit too. Setting and keeping routines help children cope and can make school time more productive. More on coping skills for children in our next post!
  • Understand that (mis)behavior is often caused by emotions. Often times, a child may misbehave or have negative reactions for basic, emotional reasons. Frustrations with remote learning, cancelled parties, or other disappointments and unmet expectations can cause these emotions and behaviors. As the parent or caregiver, make the connection first to help change the behavior.
  • Develop important life skills. Remote learning can help children learn important self-regulation skills. Virtual classrooms and independent classwork offer the chance to set new goals, be accountable and independent, and learn to adapt if needed.
  • Be engaged in their education. This is always important for parents and caregivers to do. Ask about what children are learning and what they think is interesting. Help them organize their school day if it is virtual. Guide them through big assignments, help set goals, and give them choices about how you can help.

Monitor screen time

Screens are part of our daily lives. Before the pandemic, kids may be used to screens for fun activities like watching shows, being creative, and connecting with friends. Now, screen time might also be their classroom, group activity, class project and other extracurricular activities increasing their screen time even more. Here are some tips for managing screen time:

  • Kindness and some compassion go a long way. We are living through a once-in-a-lifetime event with the COVID-19 pandemic. A little unstructured screen time may be an important break or comfort for many kids. Letting your kids know that you understand their needs is a simple way to reduce stress for everyone.
  • Screen time can be a bonus. Try using extra screen time as an incentive for good behavior. If you try this, let your child know exactly what they need to do to earn the extra time. Write down the goal together and post it in their workspace as a reminder.
  • Keep a schedule. This can be part of the routine mentioned above. It’s helpful for kids to know when they’ll be allowed to use their devices. For example, maybe they always get 30 minutes before dinner. That structure helps kids know what to expect and can limit their requests for more screen time.
  • Set the example. It is so important for parents and caregivers to lead by example. If you set down your phone or tablet during set times (during dinner, after school/work, etc.), your children will be more likely to do the same. Plus, we all need to take breaks from technology and media, and we can all benefit from less time with our devices, and more moments with our kids.

Remember, we are all living through a challenging time, and children are experiencing everything happening around them. Spend some quality time with your child, which is proven to help kids feel appreciated and loved and gives them confidence in adapting to changes. NOAH offers comprehensive behavioral health services to help parents, children, and families during COVID-19 challenges, remote learning adjustments, and everyday life.

Above all, parents should know this: Do the best that you can. Your child appreciates it, even if they don’t show it now.

Get Well with Food: How nutrition helps you recover

/in , ,

By Stephanie Olzinski, MS, RDN & Nicole Vaudrin O’Reilly, RDN

Proper nutrition helps the body fight infections and heal from surgery or wounds, colds, the flu, COVID-19, and other illnesses and injuries. When your body is going through the healing process, it generally increases the need for calories and specific nutrients. When an illness, like COVID-19, affects appetite, taste, and smell, eating well can be even harder.

Here are recommendations to have a balanced, healthy diet to help your recovery.

Hydrate: Fever, vomiting, and diarrhea can all contribute to dehydration, not to mention being hydrated is helpful for relieving cold symptoms as well.  Try to increase how much water you drink. Adults should try to drink eight 8-oz glasses of water every day when they aren’t sick. Adults who are recovering from an illness should drink 3 liters / 100oz / 12 8-oz glasses of mostly water every day. If you really want to help your body, add 1-2 servings of electrolyte drinks, like Pedialyte, Gatorade, or Emergen-C per day to stay hydrated. That can feel like a lot but sipping on small glasses of water every 15 minutes throughout the day can make it easier.

Food Frequency:  Small, frequent meals and snacks can help with meeting your increased needs, even when you’re not hungry. Try to eat small, healthy snacks or meals, or drink broth, supplement shakes, or smoothies every few hours.

Protein: Protein is essential for maintaining muscle mass and for building and repairing body tissues. So as your body is healing, you will need more protein. We recommend eating a variety of protein-rich foods like chicken, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, and seeds. Protein powders or drinks can be helpful if you need to increase your protein, especially if your appetite, taste, and/or smell are impacted because of your illness.

Nutrient-Dense Foods: These are foods that have a lot of vitamins and minerals – important for health. Examples of nutrition-dense foods includes fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, lean meat, skinless poultry, peas and beans, and healthy fats like avocado, nuts, and seeds. Nutrition helps when you’re recovering from being sick or injured, so try to eat as many of these foods as you can.

Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamins D, C and E, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids help your immune system heal from being sick or injured. Taking a daily multi-vitamin with these nutrients can be a good way to have enough but ask your doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements. The best way to get these important vitamins and minerals, though, is in what you eat. Eat as many nutrient-dense foods (listed above) as you can every day – at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables (frozen, fresh, canned, blended in smoothies, vegetable-based soups, etc.). Choose whole grains (brown rice, oatmeal, whole grain bread, whole wheat pasta, corn, or whole wheat tortillas) and include plenty of eggs, meat, dairy, healthy oils (olive, canola, avocado, flaxseed), nuts/seeds, and seafood.

Probiotics: Antibiotics are a powerful tool against bacterial infections, but they can disrupt your gut microbiome (the good bacteria and other microbes living in your intestines that help you digest your food), leaving you with side effects like diarrhea. If you need antibiotics, consider taking a supplement or eating plenty of probiotic foods during and after treatment. Since probiotics are also bacteria (what the antibiotic will be fighting), be sure to take your antibiotics and probiotics supplements or foods a few hours apart. Fermented foods are the best source of probiotics and include yogurt, kefir, cheese, sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, and probiotic drinks – Yakult or Bio Salud.

It is amazing what nutrition can do for our bodies and our daily lives. Nutrition helps our overall health by assisting our body in fighting diseases, recovering from illness and injury, and so much more. NOAH’s team of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN) works with our patients because nutrition is a big part of your overall health. Talk to one of our RDNs today to learn more.

Children’s Mental Health & Learning During COVID: A Series

/in , ,

By Zach Clay, Licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy

During this unprecedented and often challenging time, we should consider the impact it has on children. The COVID-19 pandemic can be particularly tough for children’s mental health and their ability to learn. NOAH’s Behavioral Health team shares expert insight, best practices, and resources in this series of posts to help children maintain mental health in the era of COVID-19, social distancing, and distance learning.  

Help children understand COVID

It is approximately 11 months after the COVID-19 pandemic began. In many ways, we are still adjusting to different phases of routines and “normal” life activities, and that includes children. Parents and caregivers should be able to talk about the impacts of the virus to help children understand without causing them to feel overly worried or anxious. NOAH experts support the following recommendations from the Child Mind Institute to help guide parents and other caregivers in these conversations with children.

  • Welcome their questions. Kids have questions! Any parent, teacher, grandparent, neighbor, babysitter, and friend knows that children have many questions. It’s a good thing because curiosity is an important quality in kids. Questions can range from serious, like “Will Grandma be okay?” to the much less serious, like “Will my favorite videogame store still be there?”. Encourage their questions and take their concerns seriously. Your goal is to help your children be heard and to answer their questions with fact-based information.
  • Don’t avoid questions you can’t answer. Telling a child “I don’t know.” is an acceptable answer when it is the truth. There is a lot of uncertainty right now, and things change frequently. While we want to tell our children that everything will be “back to normal soon,” we may not know. Helping your child learn how to accept uncertainty is key to reducing anxiety and helping them build resilience.
  • Be developmentally appropriate. Being honest is important, but that doesn’t mean giving too much information which can be overwhelming or confusing for children. Answer their questions honestly and clearly, and if they have follow-up questions they will ask because you have shown them you will answer their questions.
  • Deal with your own anxiety. We are living through a global pandemic and economic crisis. This isn’t an easy or normal situation for anyone of any age. It’s okay, and expected, for parents or caregivers to have sadness, stress, or anxiety about everything happening. But don’t try to talk to your children about their questions or stresses if you are feeling anxious or overwhelmed. Take some time before having a conversation or answering your child’s questions because it will be hard to help them if you are struggling. If you are experiencing stress and anxiety about COVID-19 or anything else, NOAH’s counseling team is available.
  • Be reassuring. Children may be worried that they will catch the virus or become afraid other people they care about will become sick. Reassure them that children don’t usually get very sick, and that as a family you are doing everything you can to keep them – and other people – safe and healthy by wearing masks, socially distancing, and following other recommendations.
  • Focus on what you’re doing to stay safe. Children will feel safe by having parents and other caregivers emphasize the safety measures that you, and others around you (like teachers, coaches, etc.) are taking. Remind kids that washing their hands is helping everyone by stopping the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses.

Keep talking to your kids. When they know you will answer their questions, help find answers together, tell them the truth, and help them feel calm and safe, they will likely keep talking. Many children (and adults) are visual learners and might enjoy learning about the virus with a comic book created by NPR. More on this series for Children’s Mental Health & Learning During COVID to come!