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A Little Stressed
Does Family Stress Affect Toddlers?
By Keath Castelloe Low
Changes can create stress. Mark Pryor from Austin, Texas, notes that his daughter, Natalie, who is almost 3 years old, experienced stress related to a move to a new home in addition to a move to her own bedroom and a new daycare classroom. These three changes were very hard for Natalie. Previously, Natalie would sleep through the night staying dry for months. However, now she can only go to sleep with the light on in her bedroom and is wetting the bed almost nightly.
"We actually took her to the doctor ... but we were assured that it is nothing physical," Pryor says. "I think it is mostly the stress of the new house, new daycare and new room."
Stress can have a very profound impact on children. Sarah* from Mississippi says that her 4-year-old son's life was turned upside down by a two-year period of "non-stop stress." Smith's second pregnancy was very difficult and resulted in long hospitalizations away from her son.
A beloved grandmother, who was up and down in a struggle with cancer, cared for her grandson during the hospitalizations and initially after his twin preemie siblings came home. This grandmother was in and out of the hospital herself during this time due to the cancer and she eventually died. The loss, on top of all the other uncertainties, was devastating.
"His depression hit about six months after her death," Sarah says. "He had always been an active kid and a real handful, but he was always very 'happy' and energetic, loved to meet new people and be around other kids. He lost interest in preschool and toys, wanted to sleep all the time and had frequent periods of intense anger and lots of extreme sadness and crying over things that would not have bothered him before."
