Today I am Writing about PTSD and children.
Many children who are in Foster care or kinship care have suffered from some type of trauma even if the owner trauma they suffered is being removed from their home they may have P TSD. P TSD stands for post traumatic stress disorder. Many children how who are removed from the home suffer from P TSD including our 3 grands. Monkey and princess were preschoolers when they were diagnosed which was soon after leaving their home and coming to live with us. We are going to share with you what we have found out by researching PTSD not just what it is but also how it is caused and possible treatments were also going to share with you some of the challenges that we have parenting children with P TSD.
The definition of P TSD or post traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition triggered by a traumatic event. A dramatic event is something that is very scary dangerous or violent. It could be something that was done to the child or to a loved one of the child. The child then has a feeling or fear of hopelessness that comes after the dangerous or horrific events. Examples of a traumatic event are an accident, injury, death of loved one, illness of a loved one, fire, crime, storm, natural disasters, community violence, violence in the home, abuse, neglect homelessness, bullying, terrorism, poverty, and any other type of situation that would make the child and fear for his or her life. Not all children you experience a traumatic events will develop PTSD. It depends on the child’s age and development level the severity of the event the amount of destruction that was seen and the history of dramatic events such as how many how many and how often and what kinds they had seen before period it also depends on the way the parent or caregivers reaction to the event. P TSD is present and all ethnic and economic children. This is widespread across the country.
PSTD is diagnosed with symptoms that last longer than one month. Symptoms or signs of P TSD and children are included to but not limited to the feelings of helplessness and uncertainty. They could have suppuration anxiety fear of uncontrollable crying screaming. They may regress and returned to bed wetting or baby talk. They may not develop to the next growth stage. We can see a change in behavior changes in sleeping patterns changes in eating patterns. Older children tend to have problems and school. Children that are suffering may not be able to participate in activities with other children. They may complain of physical aches and pains where there is no physical evidence for those pains. Children also can have a loss of a weariness intense or prolonged psychological distress at the external cues often referred to as triggers. Children with P TSD can be very irritable angry and have aggressive behaviors. These children often have temper tantrums or melt Downs. They can be hyper sensitive to sound and light. They can also have an exaggerated startle response and have continued problems with concentration. They often have difficulty sleeping falling asleep and staying asleep usually this is because of nightmares or night terrors that makes them a frayed to go to sleep. These children can have a feeling of restlessness and it feeling of being a lost. Often children with P TSD have impaired relationships with adults And other children.
Children with P TSD sufferer from anxiety and sometimes also depression. These children can have flashbacks where they we live the traumatic event. The flashbacks can be at night as nightmares or night terrors. Flashbacks I usually brought on by a trigger. A trigger for a child can be anything that reminds them of the event. They can be a place a person a smell or the taste they can be anything. Trying to figure out the exact trigger is very difficult because there can be so many.
I would like to tell you about a situation that princess had She was at visitation eating dinner with her father. As quoted from the case manager nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Our little princess just became very upset. She began to cry and she wanted media papa. She said that she didn’t want to be there anymore and she kept saying that he scares me indicating her father. Would you not know what the trigger was or what happened that startled that response before then she had valiantly gone to see her father on 4 to 5 occasion’s with no problems. We can make guesses but personally I think it was the fact that he brought fried chicken to eat for dinner and when he lived with her and they lock them in the Room there was working at a chicken place and smelled like fried chicken so I believe that smell of the fight chicken triggered something that reminded her of what had happened or what she felt and she became very upset and that was why she wanted out of the area and that’s why she was afraid of him. At that time the only thing that we were able to do was to remove her from the situation to remind her that she was safe I talk to her counselor the following day letting her know what was going on. It’s very important to make sure that children with PTSD in therapy. It’s also very important to communicate with their therapists or counselors any types of triggers that you notice or changes in behavior make sure that you let the therapist know what happened Before & After the behavior that helps to target the trigger so we can help them heal.
The good news is that there are some things that we can do to help these children that suffer from P TSD. The 1st and most important that we need to do is to reassure them that they are safe. We need to give them a safe place to be. As care givers for these children we need to be patient without its not their fault. We need to make sure that the children understand that this is not their fault. They need to know that the traumatic event was not their fault and no response to traumatic event is also not their fault. In creating a safe place for them you need to maintain a regular home life this means continued with scheduled mealtimes and a normal scheduled. There is no time frame for how long the symptoms can last sometimes it’s a lifetime. You sure to support the child and that the child sees the caregivers supporting each other.
Children that suffer from P TSD cannot be disciplined like normal children. Because the child always expects the worst reward and punishment systems normally do not work for the site of child. In another episode we will be discussing discipline.

The next most important thing that you need to do for a child suffering with PTSD is to get them professional help. When searching for a consulate were therapist look for one who has experience with children with PTSD. Make sure that it is someone that will come to your home or they have an office that’s easy to get to. And most importantly make sure that they use evidence based practices these are practices that have been proven to work at other times he. Not all practices work on all children so you may need to try different things. The goal of the treatment should be to address those feelings of helplessness and worry. It should be able to make the child feel safe and returned them to age appropriateness.
We continue to struggle with nightmares and night terrors from all 3 of the children. Before princess moved in with her father and was reunified she was still haven’t regular episodes of night tears. She often woke up screaming yelling no or stop. Sometimes she didn’t even wake up. We would often go in to check on her and she would still be sleeping. The only thing at this point we could do for her was hug her hold her and keep telling her she was safe. Monkey has nightmares more than night tears. He often wakes up screaming and talking about monsters things that of a tapped him and again we hugged him and assure them that he is safe we remind him that he’s at our house. We have purchased anti monster spray if you need some ill explain to you how to get it. All you really have to do is fill up an empty bottle and put a post it note on it or a label. Due to his bed whether we wake up monkey around 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. every night. Sometimes when we wake him up he is in the middle of the night now and he can stand up and fight us scream he tries to hit is very disoriented and doesn’t know where he is. Again we just reassure him that hes at our house that he is safe and that we love him. Our little sunshine has always had issues sleeping through the night but we have noticed in the last 6 or 8 months that she has been waking up crying and going back to sleep within a few minutes it almost seems like the same type of night terrors that our princess was having. Sunshine does not have PTSD label as of yet. Right now she’s been diagnosed with developmental delays. Because of her exposure to meth alcohol pot and opiates prenatally we know that she’s going to have more issues as we go along and that is another show as well we will be discussing math and the effects that have on children.
We are constantly having issues with our monkey and his melt pounds he has very aggressive behavior he has been diagnosed with the PSTD as well as ADHD. He needs to sleep with a large nightlight or even the bedroom light itself on. He does not sleep through the night he often wakes up between 2 and 4:00 a.m. sometimes when he can’t go back to sleep he goes to the couch and lays in the living Room or comes into our Room and sleeps next to our bed. Monkey has extreme issues with schedule changes. He must be on a regular schedule of school home bedtime eating times or a becomes out of control he gets angry he heads he throws things he cries he screens. A change of his schedule is a trigger of for him. So his other triggers are still unknown. We do know that 1 trigger that we have been working with is if you drive to the side of town where he used to live with his parents he becomes very agitated and upset because he thinks he going to go back. The child had been returned to his parents on 3 different occasion’s before staying with us this long This time.
We continue to daily struggle with unknown triggers and all 3 children even though we only see princess a few hours a week. Monkey continues to be in therapy weekly. We take a lot of time to continue to reassure them all that they are safe and that we will keep them safe. We also make sure that they know that they are loved and they are wanted. At this point all we can do is continue with normalcy keep them on their schedules and constantly reassuring reassuring them.