What Can I Do?
You have the power to help us help kids lead longer, healthier lives.
Here’s how: research shows that the right kind of support and care can mitigate the impact of toxic stress in children and help them bounce back. There are ways parents can support a healthy stress response: sleep, nutrition, exercise, mental health, mindfulness and healthy relationships. These things help to decrease our stress hormones and inflammation for healthier brains and bodies.
Below, you’ll find practical tips on how you can incorporate these building blocks into your kid’s day. We can help kids bounce back, together.
Supportive Relationships
Safe and nurturing relationships can help protect children’s brains and bodies from the harmful effects of stress and trauma – and even reverse the damage. Parents with high ACEs may find giving this support harder than those with a relatively secure childhood. To do the best job for your child, you need to have some support for yourself.
Sleep
Children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may have an especially hard time getting enough sleep. Helping them get a good night’s sleep – every night -- is an important step toward helping them cope with hardships from their past. Get sleep tips here.
Nutrition
Kids with early exposure to ACEs are more likely to indulge in compulsive overeating. Regular family mealtimes can help protect against that, but they’re losing ground as families grab fast food on the way home or arrive too late for dinner. Learn how to revive the family meal and other nutrition tips.
Exercise
When it comes to your kids and good health, exercise is likely just what the doctor ordered. Not only does exercise help kids ward off obesity and related disorders, but it may help kids who’ve experienced childhood trauma fight depression and other ACEs-related mood disorders. Plus as a bonus, they may be sharper and more focused at school. Here are some ways to get moving.
Mental Health
There’s a strong link between ACEs and mental health disorders. Children three to five who’ve lived through traumatic events have a hard time calming themselves down or making friends. Later in life, adults with ACEs are at a higher risk of developing depression, substance abuse disorders, and other mental health problems. Learn what you can do to protect yourself and your children.
Mindfulness
Children exposed to ACEs may have difficulty controlling their impulses when faced with stressful situations – and if you’re a parent with high ACES, you may have the same problem. But exercises involving deep breathing and mindfulness – that is, paying close attention to what you are feeling and experiencing – can help you stay calm and in control.
Nature
Do you feel better after you’ve spent time in the park, walking in the woods, or along the beach? Time in nature can help counteract some of the key impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Doctors are starting to study the benefits of spending time in nature. Early results show that time in nature reduces stress hormones, like cortisol, in our body, increases attention, and improves our mood.