Simple ways to nurture calm and wellbeing in children affected by today’s tech-heavy lifestyle.
Today’s high-tech world is not without cost — our children’s health is suffering from over-exposure to technology, and it is time to take a natural stand. Are we raising a generation of overtired, emotionally frazzled youngsters? With behavioural challenges, hyperactivity and learning difficulties on the rise, many parents are rightly seeking balance. Fortunately, small, natural changes can help restore calm to our children’s lives.
What is happening to us? Are we rearing a bunch of uncontrollable, noisy, impossible little monsters? Why do one in five children today suffer from behavioural problems, ADD, hyperactivity, or learning difficulties? Is the age of technology, the contemporary culture we have created, impacting on our children’s development and well-being? Have we gone too far? Yes we have.
Our children are showing us this in temper tantrums and ‘heightened alertness’. Cell phones, the flickering screens of TVs, computers and iPads keep their developing minds too taut and strained. Researchers are finding growing evidence that cell phones may rob and suppress the sleep hormone melatonin, and computer games are now proving to be dangerous to child development. So let’s look at a handful of ways to bring a little balance into the lives of our children.
LET’S LOOK AT FOOD
Choose organic produce whenever you can. Ideally, eat from your own garden. Grow your own vegetables, fruit and herbs organically. Don’t allow fast foods, sugary or salty snack foods, sweets or chocolates.
Go back to the basics, namely lots of fresh-fruit, salads and vegetables. There should be an absolute minimum intake of five fresh fruits and vegetables daily, although eight is better, and 10 is better still.
Cook nourishing stews, soups and casseroles without using packets, bottles or instant flavourings. Delete all ‘instant’ products from the diet of the whole family, and reduce salt intake by using herbs such as basil, thyme, origanum, coriander and celery to replace some salt.
Don’t have bowls of sugar around! Sugar is one of the modern world’s greatest downfalls, and winds children up. Rather use small quantities of honey and fructose. Dates, raisins, nuts and dried fruit can replace chocolates and sweets, and fresh fruit juices should completely replace fizzy drinks.
Make your own muesli
Replace store-bought cereals with this delicious mixture. Serve with warm milk, plain Bulgarian yoghurt and a dribble of honey. This amount will serve up to 8 or 10 people and can be stored safely in the fridge in a sealed container for quick nourishing breakfasts.
Ingredients
4 cups large-flake oats (non-instant)
2 cups chopped pecan nuts and almonds or cashew nuts (NOT peanuts as these can start an allergy)
1 – 2 cups chopped seedless raisins or sultanas (always choose sun-dried fruit)
½ cup sesame seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped dried apple rings, or better still add a fresh peeled grated apple as you serve it. You can add sliced strawberries, blueberries, banana, papino or pawpaw. This is like tiger’s milk – it will sustain your child for the day!
Healthy calming snacks
Have bowls of pecan nuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds around for easy nibbling. Apple rings, dried mango strips, raisins, sultanas and dates will satisfy the sweet tooth.
Make cheese straws, thyme fritters and have little tubs of sweet-milk cheese squares in the fridge for hungry snackers.
Have jugs of diluted unsweetened fruit juice in the fridge or fill individual juice bottles with your own juices from your juice extractor.
Invest in a home dehydrator to make dried apple rings and peach slices, and dried strawberries which are chewy and delicious. Remember sugar revs children up, making them frenetic!
In addition to implementing the above dietary principles and practices, consider too the importance of sitting together at the table as a family and eating healthy happy meals together. Food is your best medicine. We have to change, and change what our children eat. There isn’t time to wait!
Healthy drinks
Invest in a juice extractor, and juice fresh fruit and vegetables daily. Encourage your children to drink water abundantly! Use a liquidiser or blender to make smoothies for your children, and teach them about the goodness in fruit and vegetables.
Nourishing juices
In the juice extractor make a vitamin and mineral-rich drink:
Ingredients
2 carrots peeled and roughly sliced
1 apple peeled and cored
1 stick celery
1 – 2 sprigs parsley
1 medium-sized peeled and quartered fresh beetroot OR ½ a peeled pineapple
Method
Change the fruit and vegetables frequently to keep the child interested, for instance carrots, pineapple and peach, OR carrots, papino and apples, OR carrots, mango and spanspek (melon). Children will soon find their favourite combination, and this health-building drink (the quantity described serves one) can become a good calming ritual to set them up for the day or give them fuel for the afternoon’s activities.
Soothing smoothie
A sustaining, delicious and calming smoothie can be made by liquidising ½ – ¾ cup plain Bulgarian yoghurtwith one banana, a dash of fresh apple juice (about ½ a cup), ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon, and one to two teaspoons of honey at lunch time or mid afternoon.
TISSUE SALTS
I call these precious minerals ‘coping salts’! I could not have raised my three very active children and managed my own busy life without the calming influence of these easy-to-take minerals. Get to know them. There are twelve, and they are available from your pharmacy.
For example, for erratic, wild behaviour I recommend No. 1 Calcium fluoride, No. 2 Calcium phosphate, and No. 6 Kalium phosphate. One tablet of each sucked every two hours, or even every hour, will soon settle and calm. No. 6 is excellent for hyperactivity, autism, dyslexia, anxiety and frenetic behaviour, and can be safely taken daily. It is a natural tranquilliser and one tablet of No. 6 taken even three times a day, sucked not just swallowed, will have a wonderfully soothing effect on the child. By the way, No. 6 also helps with night terrors, tearfulness, tempers, insomnia and bad moods!
Take one tablet of No. 6 and one of No. 8 Magnesium phosphate for prolonged stress, burnout, over-activity, and for lack of concentration (and take some yourself to help you cope!).
For bedwetting and nightmares take No. 8 Magnesium phosphate with No. 2 and No. 12 Silica, and for restless sleep numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 are a wonderfully soothing combination and can be crushed and mixed into warm milk.
No. 2 Calcium phosphate is a superb salt for children who cannot follow the teacher at school, who lose concentration, and who show moody anger and aggressiveness, and with No. 8 you will see a quieter, happier and more tolerant child. The usual dose is to suck one tablet three times a day.
HERBS TO CALM
The following are simple herb teas that will soothe and calm a restless child. Fresh fruit juice can be added to make the teas more interesting.
Melissa or lemon balm tea
This is an amazing herb. It has a refreshing lemon flavour and makes a delicious tea that can be cooled and added to fresh fruit juices. It calms, lowers blood pressure, relieves over-stressed anxieties, lifts tearful moods, calms tempers, and soothes indigestion and colic, especially in children and even in tiny babies. It relieves heartburn, quietens hyperactivity and eases panic attacks, nervous irritability, despair, fear, anxiety and nervousness and is excellent for restless legs, growing pains, headaches and ‘flu with muscular aches. Melissa is safe for tiny babies and little children. This is one herb no mother should ever be without.
Pour one cup of boiling water over ¼ cup of fresh Melissa leaves and sprigs, allow it to stand for five minutes, and strain. To ease colic, give a teaspoon at a time (warm) to a baby every two to five minutes. Add one to two tablespoons to ear and two tablespoons if under two years old) for all the above ailments. Give ½ a cup to a child from one year onwards.
Chamomile tea
This is the much-loved old-fashioned calming tea that has been used since the 14th century! It is worth growing your own and it does well in the cooler months – so sow some now.
To make chamomile tea, add one tablespoon of flowers to one cup of boiling water, let it stand for five minutes, strain, and add cooled tea to juice or bottles for babies.
Chamomile is calming and soothing and acts like a natural aspirin in the body for a feverish cold. It is also good for tension, headaches and restlessness.
In the case of hyperactivity, anxiety and insomnia, ¼ cup of chamomile tea immediately calms and soothes the restless child, and babies easily take teaspoons at a time. I love to use fresh chamomile flowers, but as it is a quick annual I dry my organically grown chamomile for summer use. Never be without it as this is a superbly helpful herb.
Herbs for bath time
I grow rose-scented geranium and lavender under the bedroom windows. To make soothing calming additions of these herbs for the bed-time bath, fill a large bowl with four cups of fresh leaves and sprigs of rose geranium (do the same with lavender flowers and leafy sprigs). Pour at least two litres of boiling water over the herbs. Leave this to cool, then strain and add it to the bath. Alternatively you can tie a bunch of fresh sprigs of either rose geranium or lavender in a cotton cloth and hang it under the hot water tap. Let the hot water release the soothing oils, and use the whole bundle with soap to wash yourself.
Like chamomile and Melissa, rose petals are soothing and calming. These herbs all make beautiful soaps and bath additions. Use them fresh, organically grown and frequently in the bath to soothe and calm that busy, restless little child.
CALMING EVENING ROUTINES
- Remove all electronic equipment from children’s bedrooms.
- Line curtains with light-blocking fabric to promote sleep.
- Play soft classical music with a slow beat at bedtime.
- Share calm bedtime stories with positive endings.
- Introduce your child to poetry and regular library visits.
- Provide a soft nightlight if your child fears the dark.
- Create loving bedtime rituals: talk quietly, share about the day, touch, and hold.
- Share family meals free of distractions and loud noise.
- Talk as a family about history and ideas.
- Slow your own pace—you set the tone for your child’s wellbeing.
Recommended reading
- Roberts, M., Tissue Salts for Healthy Living. Spearhead, 2003.
- Palmer, S., Toxic Childhood. How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do about It. Orion, 2006.
Editor's note: This article on The 5 Most Effective Ways to Calm a Screaming Child is also very insightful.
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