How to Panic Proof Your Kids | Ep. 134

Hi everybody, welcome to Holistic Inner Balance. We're so glad that you're here, and I'm Dr. Nicole Kane, and with me, my dear friend and podcast host guest.

I am Happy Healthy Hadlee.

And we are really pumped to talk today about how to panic-proof your kids. And this is a topic that I think hopefully you'll all really resonate with. I know that this is something that I wish that I would have had when I was quite a lot younger. And so we're going to come at it from a perspective that's going to incorporate signs of anxiety in different age groups, how to know if your kid has stress, anxiety, and what to do about it. And of course, Hads is going to bring to the table really cool, natural, holistic Strategies, habits, nutrition from Ayurveda, and we're going to just have a lot of fun.

I am so excited. So this conversation is inspired by Dr. Cain's new book, Panic Proof. And yes, you guys, if you haven't gotten this book yet, I don't know what you're doing because this book is so good. A bunch of my clients, like, immediately bought it as soon as it came out, and they're psyched about it. They're like, oh my gosh, this is like the anxiety Bible or anxiety-proofing Bible. Yeah. And are just like, oh my gosh, like every single person, even if you don't have anxiety, every single person needs to read this. So we're going to bring some of these principles into working with your kids and not just with yourself, though one of the best things that you can do for your kids is mitigate your own anxieties as a parent. But we're going to talk about the nitty-gritty on how to help your kids with this stuff too.

I'm so pumped. And so I'm curious, just to like get real in this conversation, when you were a kid, did you ever deal with anxiety? Because I didn't identify as dealing with anxiety until I was probably more like in high school. Before that, I didn't have any of the language for it. I didn't identify as that.

Totally. I didn't even recognize anxiety really until late college, I would say. I would take my friends who were struggling with their mental health, I would take them to our community counseling services at my university because, you know, they were struggling, whatever. And I didn't even see it in myself at all. Like, I was like, oh my gosh, such a big proponent for getting mental health care and like all of that stuff. But I was like, but I'm fine. I don't need any help. Looking back, I definitely did need that help. But yeah, no, I think that, you know, when I was a kid, it was very much not not a thing that people were talking about at all.

Mm-hmm. And so much has changed too, I think, in what being a child is like since you and I were both kids. And if both of us experienced anxiety and we both look back and see that now, and then we look at how the world has changed so dramatically, it would make sense that that other kids around the world are experiencing too. And that's what the studies are saying. And so big culprits. So let's talk about social media and screens. And we have this amazing anxiety book that's out that's talking about the effects of that, looking at the research of the screens and the social media and the news on the child's brain.

Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's the Probably the biggest difference between when we were kids and now. You know, there are other factors too, but that's such, such a big one, the screens. And I think, you know, that's starting to be acknowledged as like, oh, right, this is actually a bigger deal than we thought that it was. But I still think people are like, oh, maybe it's not like that big of a deal, but it really is impacting The future generations and their anxiety levels for sure. So there are things that we can definitely do to mitigate those things. Absolutely. Yeah.

And so this is, this is the component of environmental causes of autonomic arousal. This is looking at what's happening in the environment, and the environment could be what's happening in the household, school. It could be Is the TV on? Is there a lot of stimulation? Is there a lot of chaos? Is there clutter? Or is it the opposite where everything is really, really quiet and really, really still and there's not enough stimulation? And so we're looking at how the nervous system is responding to the environment. And what's really interesting that I've read about lately is how it's affecting the filtration system in the brain. And I think we've talked about this a little bit, but when we look at the human brain, it hasn't evolved as quickly as technology has evolved. And so we were just talking about what it was like for us when we were kids, which wasn't too terribly long ago. And then we think about just a few generations back, they got the news one day a week when they got the news. Mm-hmm. The newspaper would come and they didn't have cell phones and they didn't have the internet and they didn't have social media. And so the, the stimuli that was coming in in their realm of awareness was really what was local to them in the cities and villages that they lived in, their communities that they lived in, and then that data. And then if we look even farther back, is then we have pre-Industrial Revolution humans, and then we have people who are more, you know, thousands and thousands of years ago, and the brain hasn't evolved as quickly as technology, especially since the 1980s, '70s, '80s, when tech just kicked up. And so then what the research has been saying specifically is that the brain can get deluged with approximately 11 billion data points a second. I think we've talked about this here, but we can only process 50 data points per second. And so what happens when we're in this situation where we're getting flooded with all of this stimulation is it gets overwhelming for the brain. And so some of us use the language like, I feel overstimulated, I just feel overactivated. And what's happening to the brain is that we have something called the salience network. And The salience network is a group of brain areas whose job is to decide if something is relevant or if it's irrelevant. If it's irrelevant, it just goes outside of our notice. That's how we can survive with 11 billion data points minus 50 data points that we don't notice. Right. And so now we're getting flooded with more and more and more data. And the salience network, when in doubt, send it on. And so it just dumps it to the amygdala. We're completely overwhelmed. We're going to dump it to the amygdala. This is your emotional processing part of the brain. And then the amygdala is getting flooded and the amygdala is like, I can't handle all of this. I'm just going to run from the tiger just in case. So then it dumps down chemicals and then your body goes into fight, flight, freeze, and we see anxiety. And so when we start thinking about the developing brain, we look at the stimulation that's coming into the developing brain, we start to see programming around that stimulation. And so then we have kids who are going through withdrawal when they aren't using their devices. We have kids that are having huge amounts of anxiety. We have kids that are experiencing unprecedented amounts of ADHD and cognitive functioning concerns, and they're struggling in school, and they're struggling socially. And part of it goes back to the environment. So I feel like I just talked a lot, and I would love to hear your take on all of that.

Yeah, no, I think it's— I mean, I think you said it so beautifully. Our— I love that you mentioned that our brains are not evolutionarily adapted to be able to handle the amount of information that we have coming in. And I always talk with my clients about, A lot of times they're like, well, I need to stay informed. And I'm like, well, your brain can't handle being as informed as you are trying to be. Yeah. And, and I do think that part of the, that like idea that we need to be so informed all the time is really just a way of convincing ourselves that like it's okay to be doom scrolling as much as we are. I'm a big proponent of of taking time away from knowing what's actually going on in every single part of the world at all times. And, you know, a lot of times I'll ask my husband what's going on in the world, and we can have like rich, deep conversations that aren't overstimulating us and that actually create empathy and, you know, deep thought and all of that kind of thing. So I think that the same can be said for our kiddos, like really being able to have conversations about what's going on in the world and communicating more effectively is gonna be so, so, so helpful when we're trying to— when we're trying to, like, move away from so much technology. Really being able to create more true connection with our kids is so, so, so much a part of this because it's not just the fact that technology moves faster than the external world. That is part of it too, like where technology is, you know, when we're looking at a screen, when we're looking at a video, all of that stuff is happening a lot faster than reality is in the world. And so that's a piece of it. That's a piece of why we get overstimulated. But it also makes it so that we have— we aren't doing as much of the other stuff. So we're spending so much time on these things, including our kids. And so we're not spending time playing. We're not spending time being creative. We're not spending time problem solving in the ways that kids do when they're just like playing with their friends. We're not being outside as much. All of these things, they all play into it. And so it's, it's technology-based, but it's not only the fact that it is technology because technology is kind of taking us away from all these other things that are, that also build resilience in our kids.

I really love that. And so you're, you're kind of pointing out like having those conversations and figuring out for your kid how to give information to them and to collaborate with them, but in a way that is more controlled, more regulated, more age-appropriate. As opposed to this just input that is all times, always sort of unmonitored. And so I really appreciate that. And so as you're listening to this and you're a parent, you might be wondering, well, how do I know? My kid doesn't— my kid's not telling me that they're fearful. They may not be expressing that they're having panic attacks. Or what if they're really little and they don't have the words yet? And maybe they're playing lots of games on their iPad, but not watching the news and they're not getting exposed to social media. So, so I have some checklists that might be helpful for parents who are listening. And so I'd love to go over that. Does that sound good, Hads?

Yeah, that sounds great. Let's do it.

Okay, so we're going to start with anxiety for babies and infants. And so this is, this is interesting. And so anxiety, we've redefined anxiety as autonomic arousal. So we're getting activated, we're getting stimulated, and that is paired with the sense of a lack of personal agency or power. And so then we can develop anxiety, as opposed to I'm getting really excited and stimulated because I'm going to a Taylor Swift concert and I'm just like excited, right? It's a similar physiological response. But the way that we label it is really different. So anxiety, we have this fear, this lack of personal power component to it, which is, you know, babies and infants, they don't have control. They're at the mercy of their caretakers. And so they also can't tell us with words how they're feeling. They communicate in a lot of other ways. And so this checklist that we're going to go over is to help you maybe a little bit better understand some of their signals, and then we'll, we'll work our way up to the older kids. So this is an infant anxiety checklist, and it's for ages around 6 to 24 months. And so the first set— so we have 2 categories, behavioral symptoms, and then the second category is facial symptoms, and then the third category is physical observations. So behavioral symptoms, you know, a baby may be scared and anxious if you see crying, whining, whimpering, screaming, The cry could be a little different. There's people who are experts in this, and they, they help you decode baby cries. And so I want you to listen for that kind of loud, harsh, sudden cry. That could be a sign that an infant is really frightened. Clinginess to a comfort object or caregiver, and then self-soothing. And so you may see that the infant is thumb sucking. Mm-hmm. Or doing small repetitive movements, that can definitely be a sign of stress. And avoidance behaviors. And so, for example, maybe you're bringing your baby and you want to show your baby a dog. You're like, this dog is so nice and so cute, and the baby doesn't know what it is. And so you may see the baby recoil or try to turn their head if they're able to, or cringe, or attempt to move away from the source. And so that could be a behavioral sign. And then avoidance of eye contact is another sign of a lot of stress or anxiety in babies, is if you have a child who's at the age where eye contact is age-appropriate, and if you're— if you've seen that and then they're now avoiding it, that's an indicator. Withdrawal. So they're not engaging, they're not interacting with with you, with other people, with their environment. They're more in a flop or a freeze, like they're closed off. And then 2 other behavioral symptoms would be if they're issue— they're having issues falling asleep, or they're waking up more frequently than they should, and they're not hungry, and you've tried to figure out, do they need changed? Are they uncomfortable? Are they hungry? Restless sleep patterns is another sign. And then the last behavioral symptom Is back arching. And so we've seen some babies do that where they arch their back. And so we call this genu pectoral in, in medicine. And so that could be reflux. That's a really common cause, but stress can cause that too. So those are, those are 8 different behavioral symptoms.

Well, and the reflux also could be due to stress as well.

Totally right. Yeah, because cortisol or cortisol hormone goes to that lower esophageal sphincter and it can affect its ability to properly close. So then that stomach acid can get up. So that's totally true, Had.

Yeah. And it's also, especially if your kiddo has more of like a pitta, which we can talk about, but like a pitta-leaning anxiety. where they have more fire in their constitution and maybe more of a fiery anxiety, that could also contribute to the gastric distress.

Yeah. Behavior-wise, what are some specific pitta behaviors? So we talked about crying, clinginess, avoidance, withdrawal, back arching, screaming.

It's the kids that look mad. They're not just crying sad. They're angry. Their face gets all red, like they are pissed. Yeah. That's going to be more of the behavioral, how they kind of show that. Whereas for vata, it's going to be more seeming like fear, timidity, like being timid. Pitta is more like they're angry.

Yeah. That arch in the back and the balling of the fists. What about— so what about a baby that tends to be a little bit more on the kapha side? Would it be like kapha moving into vata or kapha moving into pitta?

Yeah, yeah. So usually what I would say with that, if you've got a baby that's full-on kapha that doesn't have any of the other doshas really present, in their symptoms, they're probably not going to show as much anxiety. But what we could see happen is anxiety becoming kapha. So they could be doing more of the— like you were talking about the self-soothing stuff. That would be like a kapha response where they're like sucking on their thumb and they're, they're trying to maybe do some of that avoidance stuff, though that can also be a little bit of vata. But Maybe they are eating more than they necessarily need to, though, you know, we never really want to deprive our kids of eating the amount of food that they need to eat. But they— that might— anxiety might create a kapha response that is like, I need to self-soothe on top of the anxiety. And that would be a kapha thing happening there.

That's great. And so for those listening, we'll get to some solutions. In just a few minutes. Sure. We just went over 8 behavioral symptoms. For the research that we're doing is if we checked 2 or more boxes, then we would move over to the second category. If there aren't at least 2 of the behavioral, then it might be less likely. Category B is facial expression changes. An anxious infant may frown, their eyes may be really wide open, you may see furrowing of the brow or the forehead. Raising their cheeks, right? So they lift their cheeks up, wide square mouth. Hadlee, you were just talking about facial color changes, and so red, purple, pale, or blue. And so actually, this might be a great way to differentiate doshas. So pitta is more red, right?

Yes. Yeah. And I would say the pale would probably be more of a Like a vata or kapha, because both are colder. But the, the red and maybe purple would be more pitta, and the, the pale ones are going to be more vata-kapha.

And then we also might see the change specifically in the tongue or the face or the lips. And then we also may see flaring of the nostrils. And so that's— I've seen this a lot in Lycopodium-type personality. So somebody is in imbalance and they would benefit from the homeopathic remedy Lycopodium. So they may get stomach upset or reflux, anger, anxiety, irritability, and then the nose, the nostrils will flare. And so I've used that quite a lot.

Pitta.

Very Pitta. Yeah.

Same with the furrowed brow. That's very Pitta too.

Yeah. And Lycopodium. Yeah. The vertical angry 11s between the eyes is very Lycopodium. So Lycopodium, maybe it's a very Pitta kind of remedy. It's interesting to merge the 2 modalities.

Yeah.

And then, so more than 2 boxes checked in those 8 that we just went over, we moved to Category C. And so physical observations. And so baby's heart, is baby's heart pounding, tachycardia, which is where it's going really fast? Do they have a fear posture where the arms are pulled to the side of the body, the elbows bent? Are they really stiff and tense? Are they breathing really quickly, rapid, shallow, or are they holding their breath? Is the baby really sweaty? Are they hot and sweaty? Are they cold and clammy, especially the head, the forehead, the feet? And you also may change— see changes in salivation, so they have a really dry mouth. Or they have excess salivation, but it's in the absence of teething. And then looking at their pupils, pupil dilation could be a sign of fear. Tremors and trembling and shaking can be a sign of fear. And then of course digestive changes that occur with other signs of stress. So those are 8 more. And so, you know, print this list out. So write it down. I'll try to include it on the show notes here if there's room in the In the show notes. Otherwise, you can send us an Instagram and we'll message you. But print these signs out, and if you really resonate with this, circle them and bring them to your pediatrician and say, you know, I'm wondering if there might be something going on, if my baby is stressed, and start talking to them about what you can do. And so in terms of what you can do, I would love, Hadley, if you had some ideas of things that we could do with infants and babies depending on stress, anxiety. Vata, pitta, kapha.

Yeah, one of the things that immediately comes to mind is the practice of self-massage, which we've talked about before. But obviously, for our babies and kiddos, it wouldn't be self-massage. It would be literally like massaging our kids. And sometimes kids are not like super thrilled about us like touching them, right? Like, you know, if you've tried to put sunscreen on your kid's face or on their body or whatever, they're like, Like, um, but the younger we start doing that, the younger we start to just like, you know, putting like oil basically on our baby.

Yeah.

Um, that is like the most regulating thing that we can do for ourselves and for our babies. Like, and if you want to learn more about like why that is, we talked about it in our therapeutic self-massage podcast episode a while ago, so you can, you can check that out. But that, that's like the very first thing that I would say. Start, start oiling up your, your kids and just massaging. It doesn't have to be a super long massage or anything, but that, that sense of touch is magical.

Yeah, it's so good for bonding. And we know when we look at Apgar scores and Babies and how well they do if they're in a neonatal environment. Are they getting hugged and touched and held? Touch is really important, and it's so good for bonding between you and baby. Yeah, I love that. I really love that.

I mean, contact naps. I do not have kids, but I have a nephew who I am totally obsessed with. And when he was a baby, just Like, holding him on my chest was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Like, it was just so, so magical. And I told my dad about it, and he was like, oh, that's like the best experience ever, is when a baby takes a nap on your chest. I'm like, yes, Dad, it totally is.

Oh, yeah.

The more you can do that, the better.

Oh, that's amazing. And the type of oil— we talk about the different types of oil, so for sure check that out, check out the podcast. And I really like that as opposed to doing something internal. And, you know, with, with babies and infants, you want to be really mindful about diet and nutrition. And, you know, we have a little bit more leeway as they get a little bit older and we do more food introduction. And so I think something that's really tangible and really basic is You can put a diffuser in the room with a little bit of a relaxing essential oil and turn the lights nice and dim and play some musical David Bowie, just musical soundtracks with no singing. And then just massage and hug your baby or rock your baby. And then, of course, talk to your doctor and make sure that everything is okay because there could be different root causes. It could be environmental, which is— we started with But it could be, you know, babies could have differences in blood sugar. It could be hormones, it could be thyroid, it could be just lots of different things. You want to make sure you get your, your baby to a pediatrician if you think that they may be struggling with anything, anxiety or anything else.

Totally. Yeah.

You want to go on to a little bit older?

Yeah, let's do it.

Okay, so this is for toddlers and kiddos. And so there are different tests that if you were to go to a pediatrician that they may do to screen that. And so these are just stress inventories and checklists. And so there's the Screening for Child Anxiety-Related Disorders, that's called the SACRED test. So you might ask them about that. There's also the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, it's called the STAI test. And so this can help if, if you think that your kiddo's really dealing with some pretty significant anxiety and fear, that may be something to ask your doctor about. And that's good for getting a baseline test, like what are our baseline measures And then when you do treatment, you could go back and retest it and make sure that your numbers— the numbers are improving. And so, um, signs of anxiety in kids and toddlers can be really similar to what we saw in infants and babies, but you may see more words, right? So they're starting to talk, they're starting to express themselves. And so you may still see the crying. Mm-hmm. The screaming. You may see clinginess to a comfort object, self-soothing behaviors, thumb sucking, small repetitive movements. I see a lot of kids when they're dealing with anxiety is they get very fixated on having things just so, and they need to have their routine and they need to have it just so. And if something gets interrupted or is different, that can be really stress-provoking for them. You may see issues with sleep similar to babies. You also may see similar physical traits. And so you may see rocking, you may see raised cheeks, the furrowing of the eyebrows, the facial color changes. Particular of interest is if you see redness on one side of the face and not on the other with anger, like you were saying, that pitch-up. Is that, that those symptoms of like anger, screaming, one side of the face is red and back arching is a great— those are great symptoms for chamomile, homeopathic chamomile anxiety. And I've used that quite a lot, and that's really safe. I like to use that with kids. So similar, but then you have— they may be able to speak and tell you a little bit more to give you some hacks. So. Thoughts?

Yeah, the control thing is very Pitta. So that need for control is related to— is that fire element of just like wanting everything to be just so. And that is definitely a piece of anxiety for so, so many kids. I've witnessed it. I was a nanny for a long time, and so I witnessed that in kiddos for sure. And, you know, there are the other things. A lot of them are vata. But again, that self-soothing piece is more of a, more of a kapha response where it's like, I need— my kapha needs to come in and protect me from this anxiety. It needs to protect me from this fear. And so those are the, those are the self-soothing things.

And so let's move on to what we can do next. So we've been talking for the beginning of this conversation about Okay, what are some root causes? We talked about environmental, and we talked about some signs. And babies, we spent a little more time because babies are trickier. Yes. Because they can't just tell us. And so then the next question is, what do we do about it? And so there's, there's different schools of thought. So if you bring your anxious little kid into the doctor, Oftentimes they'll do an exam and they'll make sure that everything health-wise is done. Depending on the doctor, they may do blood tests. Some do, some don't. And I'm talking so much that I'm like losing my breath here. I have so much to say.

We need to hear it.

I have so much to say. So your doctor may order blood tests. They don't always do that though. In fact, most of the kiddos that I've had come into my practice with anxiety, they haven't had any blood work done. And so where we often will start is what are we doing in our environment? And so what can we do to help calm anxiety in our kids? And so environmental strategies, I'd love to kind of hear what your thoughts are.

I mean, the number one thing is reducing technology. That's the thing that comes to mind. Well, besides having a safe home and not having a lot of really intense interpersonal conflict within the home and that kind of thing. But if we've got that down, having the TV on at all times is going to be Even if it doesn't really seem like it's impacting the kids that much, it does, especially when they're really, really young. You know, the younger they are, the more it impacts them. And so that would be the number one thing. I know that's not always so easy. So, you know, I don't, I don't make any claims to say that that's going to be like, oh, it's just so easy. Just stop, you know, giving your kid the iPad or stop having the TV on or whatever. But the more we can reduce that, the better it's going to be.

Yeah. And so environmental. And so reduce the amount of stimulation that's coming into the brain. Where can we change that up? And so if we're taking away iPads or we're taking away stimulation, what can we replace it with?

That is such a good question. I find that the more kids don't have that stuff, the more they will entertain themselves. Like, it's like wild to watch kids figure out what to do and to be bored. Like, it's— I think we have kind of demonized the feeling of boredom. And I know I did. I like did for a long time where it was like, well, I— And I still do. Like, I'll, you know, I'll find myself if I have a moment of just like nothingness, like, oh, reach for the phone. That's just like the first thing that you do if you are quote unquote bored. And it's really, really, really good for our kids to be bored. It's also really good for us to be bored. It's really good for our creativity and problem-solving skills and all of that kind of thing. But kids, kids can, can find things to do. The other thing that I'll say, though, is a lot of times, a lot of times we will, you know, try to make sure that the kids are not doing a bunch of things. And when we can actually allow them to explore, allow them to do things, even if it's with like the pots and pans in the kitchen, even though it's going to be kind of maybe a pain for you to clean it up afterwards. Instead of just being like, these are your toys, you can only play with these toys. That's going to be really helpful to also like have a little bit of your own free time while your kid does that exploring. Obviously making sure that these things are safe for them and they're not playing with like sharp objects or knives or anything like that. But having, having things in the house that aren't just these are the kids' toys will help them to To have more of that creativity and stuff as well.

I love that. And things that are going to be stimulating for the brainstem. So when we think about combating panic, one of the best ways is to stimulate touch and sound and sight and smell and all of our senses. And so I love— I kind of was getting the image of banging pans.

Yes.

There's— that's stimulating, but it's— it can be— well, for mom, it's probably not grounding, but for baby, it's like, I'm feeling it and I'm sitting on the ground and I'm touching these things and I'm feeling them.

Totally. Yes. Yeah. The more we can— because babies also really do need stimulation as well. You mentioned before that you were talking about how sometimes it's actually a lack of stimulation. Like, the environment is so still and calm that that can be stressful as well. And that would maybe be more of like a kapha thing where it's like you start getting stir crazy because there's just so much calm. Yeah. And so babies really, in order to develop, in order to have an appropriate developmental experience, different developmental stages, they do need that stimulation. And so when you can bring in the senses, music, Is amazing too. Like, that sensory stuff is just so great. And touch, physical touch, anything that can stimulate even babies, like, really, like, infants can— you can do that with touch and stuff too.

Yeah. And so really severe panic and anxiety is change the scene. If you're inside, go outside. If it's cold outside, bundle up and go outside. And feel your feet on the ground and touch the snow or touch the dirt or whatever's outside. So ground the body. And if you can't go outside, then changing the scene, going into a different room or changing the lighting or changing the music or changing their clothing. Or you may try temperature change where they sip some cold water or you put something cool on their chest or their forehead. Or maybe they want something warm like a cuddly animal or a blanket, or maybe we put them in the tub and they get a little bath time. And then you could have fun with that. You can put Epsom salts in the tub and a little bit of essential oil or some herbs and some petals and some toys and bubbles and things like that. And I'm thinking about taste, and so we know that Fruit, bright kind of sour flavors like organic juice can be helpful. Or some kids— my nephew loves lemons, and that can be helpful, could stimulate vagus nerve. And you can teach them breath. We could teach little kids. There's such good research out there about little kids who are practicing yoga that are learning about breathing.

Or just blowing bubbles. Like having your kid blow bubbles and just, you know, you're not even telling them like, okay, we're doing this breathing exercise to calm you down. Like, just, okay, let's just blow some bubbles. Because the only way to get the bubbles out is you can't breathe too forcefully into it. You can, you can only do it if you do it slow enough.

I have bubbles in the panic pack, so that's brilliant. All, almost all ages. Oh yes.

Yeah, all ages. Yeah, everyone loves bubbles.

Who doesn't love bubbles? And let me interview them. I need to know why. Okay, so that was kind of rapid fire. And so, um, the other thing people often ask as we're coming to the close here is supplements and herbs for kids. Mm-hmm. Is always talk to your doctor first, but I'll tell you what I've used and then you can figure out what's right for you and your family. But for kiddos, I love passionflower. Passionflower is really gentle. It's sweet. It's usually pretty palatable for most kids, and it could be kind of relaxing, but it's not going to be like giving them a Xanax. Although I wonder if sometimes we feel like just giving our kids a Xanax.

Don't give them a

Xanax.

But

passionflower— talk to your doctor about passionflower. I really like that. I like chamomile for kiddos. chamomile tea, that can be wonderful. And if they don't like warm beverages, a lot of kids for some reason, they're all Pitta, right? They don't like warm beverages. You can do cool, you can make it iced, you can make cold chamomile, mix it with a little bit of juice to make it sweeter. And so those could be really good. And supplements that I've used with my clients have been the Happy Sleepy Powder ingredients. And so amino acids that the body naturally takes in and produces. Mm-hmm. So theanine, inositol— inositol is kind of sweet tasting, and so kids really like inositol. It's just naturally kind of sweet. And taurine and glycine, those tend to be really good. And so it depends on why the anxiety is happening. Make sure you prioritize behavioral environmental changes, and then if your doctor greenlights it, supplements could be good to hold space while you're working on the, the personal skills. And then of course, I always recommend if we have a kiddo who's anxious is go to counseling, get them in with a really good therapist, play therapist, art therapist, trauma-informed therapist. Therapy is amazing. Get them started young.

Yes. And I would say also not just getting the kid into therapy, but also you might want to consider also going to therapy because a lot of times, um, our kids can pick up our energies. Also pick up Panic Proof because that's going to help you a ton. So yeah, the more calm and relaxed you are, the more it's going to translate to your kid. And that's not to say that like it's your fault or anything if your kid isn't, uh, is, is anxious or whatever. And The more you have the tools and you can build the resilience for yourself, the more that's going to help your kiddo out.

And some of you may be wondering about diet and nutrition. And so Panic Proof has a ton of information about that. There are foods that will make us more anxious and there are foods that will combat anxiety. So definitely take a peek into that and let us know what your questions are. Is there something about panic-proofing your kids that we didn't talk about that we didn't cover? We'd love to hear from you.

Yes, let us know. You can DM us, either of us, on Instagram and leave a review for the podcast if you've been enjoying it. We love, love, love to see all of your reviews. If you can leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts, that would be incredible. And we are so grateful for all of you.

Thanks for being here, my loves.

Yes. Thanks, everyone. Bye.