Signs That Your Child May Need Pediatric Counseling
As a parent, you want to shield your children from all of the harmful things in the world. However, bad stuff still ends up happening and this can impact young children. Whether your child has recently dealt with trauma or you are worried about mental health problems being passed down in the family, your child may need to see a pediatric therapist. To help you determine whether you need to call for an appointment or not, you will want to explore the following signs.
Regression
Regression is when a child is perfectly fine medically speaking, but they suddenly begin to wet the bed or their clothes during the day. Even though they are fully potty trained, they suddenly need a lot of your attention. Bedwetting quickly grabs that attention because there is a big mess that has to be dealt with immediately. Your child could also start throwing toddler-like tantrums or sucking on their thumb. If you are noticing signs of your child regressing, you will want to schedule an appointment with a therapist.
Self-Harm
If you notice that your child is self-harming, you need to get them into counseling right away. You may also want to consider in-patient mental health treatment if the self-harm has become dangerous, such as cutting. Other forms of self-harm can include hair pulling, punching their own head, refusing to eat or drink water, scratching, and even simply talking about wanting to self-harm.
Defiant Behavior
All children experience some sort of defiance at home. It can be a healthy part of growing up. However, if you have noticed that your normally well-behaved child is suddenly acting out in extreme ways, you will want to try to get to the bottom of it. They might be suffering from depression, anxiety, bullying at school, or they could have a lot of big feelings that they simply do not know how to handle.
The first thing you may want to do will be to call your insurance company to find out whether therapy sessions are covered and if they are, which therapists in your area take your insurance plan. You can then call around to see who has room on their schedule to get your child in the soonest. Do not be surprised if the initial appointment cannot happen for a month or so. Many therapists tend to end up with schedules packed full of client appointments.
For more information, contact a local pediatric therapist.
