Children can have a lot of anxiety when facing the big bad world outside. After all, they’re only young, so not only is everything bigger than them, but they also have absolutely no experience and no idea what to expect! And that can make the world a very scary place to be, even if your child is usually outgoing and brave and wants to try lots of new things. 

And there’s no situation that causes anxiety like having to see the doctor, or any other healthcare provider. Hospitals and small scale surgeries can be some of the most fear inducing places on the planet, and kids are always going to need a guiding hand in dealing with their thoughts and feelings when stepping through the door for an appointment. 

But it’s not a lost cause – your child doesn’t have to hate the hospital forever! Sure, the hospital is never going to be a ‘nice’ place to visit, but addressing these anxiety corners is essential for helping your child grow up feeling secure in themselves, and in their place in the world. So with that in mind, here are some of the best ways to help your little one when you have to take them along for a checkup. 

Pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness. Female patient listening to doctor in medical office. Support people living with tumor illness.

Stay Calm and Confident Yourself

Kids always pick up on the way we feel about things, and if you’re anxious or nervous yourself about taking your kid along to an appointment, it’s a good idea to try and calm down before you talk to your child about attending an appointment. If you tend to pace or chew on your lip, for example, try to cut back on these behaviors, so they don’t slip out when you’re trying to amp your little one up for a trip to the doctor or optician. 

At the same time, make sure you show your child how confident you feel about how things are going to go. Be sure to smile and seem laid back, so your child knows there’s nothing to fear. Go about your normal routine, don’t rush, and even have a sing-song in the car on the way there – all of these actions help to remove the idea that the day of an appointment is a ‘significant’ day, when it’s just a day like any other. 

Visit a Professional Who Knows How to Work with Kids

It’s always best to work with a healthcare professional who knows the kinds of fears kids have when coming to see a doctor or dentist. These are the people who will know how to put your child at ease, and explain everything they need to know in easy to understand terms, and that’s invaluable when your child has healthcare anxiety. 

Not only that, but these offices will also be stocked with toys and treats, such as a jar of lollipops, to give to kids who hate having to come along but sit through the appointment anyway. This will help your child to establish a bond of trust with this particular doctor or nurse, and it’s a good way to start showing your child that the hospital isn’t necessarily a scary place to be. It can’t be when there’s toys to play with and plenty of sweets to chow down on! 

Let Your Child Know What to Expect

As we mentioned above, kids have absolutely no idea what to expect when they go to see a healthcare professional, simply because they’re too young to have the experience of a couple decades or more of visiting the doctor’s office. They need things spelled out for them, in a clear and obvious way, that’ll help them to stay focused. The fear of the unknown is very common, and it’s the possibility of bad things happening that’s really putting your child on edge. 

So be sure to explain what’s going on to them yourself. Make sure they hear it from you, the most trusted person in their life, so they know that you’re here for them, to help keep them calm and safe. And when you’re proven right about what happens during an appointment, it’ll only help your child to trust you more in the future! 

Promise Something Nice Afterwards

Kids respond very well to being treated to something nice, and even when you’ve already let them play with the toybox in the doctor’s office, or they’ve been given a sticker and a candy for their good behavior, make sure there’s also something nice lined up to do afterwards. This helps to reinforce the idea that a healthcare visit isn’t a scary thing, and can lead to many good things in life, and it’ll certainly motivate your child to come along without putting up a protest. 

So take them out for food you don’t usually eat, like pizza or ice cream, or take them along to a playpark and let them go wild on the swings. As long as it’s fun, and you don’t usually get to do it, it’ll be a worthy treat that’ll help a healthcare appointment seem far less scary. 

Let Them Take a Soothing Toy Along 

Finally, if your child is young enough to still carry a teddy bear or a doll everywhere with them, let them take it along to see the doctor or the dentist with as well. This toy is clearly soothing to them, and will help them to sit still as tests are being done, at least. 

Not only that, but if they have a ‘comfort blanket’ with them, and aren’t forced to leave such an important item at home, they won’t be thrust into a scary situation with no way to ‘retreat’. As long as they can hug something they love really tight, or hide their face in it, it’ll be a great item for reducing anxiety levels both now and in the future. 

If your child hates hospital visits, there are many ways you can help them face up to their fears, especially with ideas like those above! 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to undergo a gastric band surgery to look nice, the problem is when we have anxieties about how we look that affect our daily lives. While there are no quick fixes, there are so many little ways that we can start to feel better about ourselves. 

Find the Good Things About Yourself

You might think that your teeth are desperate for custom dental veneers and fixing up, but if you are looking to feel better about yourself, it’s about focusing that spotlight on the good things about a situation or about yourself. You can apply this to how you look, by looking for the attributes you believe are great, but also, you can do this by finding positives in situations. Sometimes, our minds can go down the “chaos theory” route of events, especially when it comes to our insecurities. If we start to berate ourselves for eating a whole cake, thinking that the whole day is ruined, we can instead think about how delicious that cake was and leave it at that! But the important thing to do is to practice this way of thinking. Every night before you go to sleep, write down three things you did well that day, however small they were. When you look at your notes at the end of the week, you will be surprised as to how many positive things there are. 

Do Not Weigh Yourself Everyday

If you are particularly worried about your body image, weighing yourself as soon as you get up can have an instant impact on your mood. It’s important to remember that your weight can fluctuate between 5 lbs and 6 lbs in the space of 24 hours. While you may be on a weight loss regime, and you want to see how you are going, the best thing to do is to hide the scales so you weigh just once a week, rather than standing on it every single day, and fuelling your negative thoughts. 

Stop Social Media Stalking

Nobody will admit to spending so much time on Instagram being envious of others and how they looked. The fact is that you are you, and when we start to look at other people with completely different body types, this is a very simple way for us to confirm our worst fears. Having a social media detox is going to give us that all-important breathing space, and when we come back to it, we might just realize how we feel about ourselves by not being on social media. 

Pay Attention to the Compliments

We’re always working hard to improve ourselves, but this means that sometimes we can find ourselves being very “tunnel vision” in our approach. Sometimes, we can dismiss complements or ignore them, purely because they don’t line up with how we view ourselves. But if we start to pay attention to those compliments, and write these things down, we are forcing ourselves to pay attention. This can be a key way to accepting the good bits about yourself, so you can look at yourself more positively in the long run.