My DS7 tends to be very sensitive and when something really traumatic or scary occurs, he tends to dwell on it...we went through a bit when he was a few years younger where he was running his hands through something that had spilled on a shelf at Lowe's - I saw that it was a spilled bag of ant poison and I had him go to the bathroom and wash his hands - I was very low key and didn't make a big deal out of it - he on the other hand, got very upset when he saw what it was and then read the bag about not coming in contact with the contents and we went through about 2 months of him asking every 2 seconds if he was "okay" and whether or not it was okay to touch this thing or that thing....it about drove us bananas and we used a great anxiety book that had some workpages that talked about how to conquer the "worries" and the whole thing disappeared after about 2 months.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago - we were using a Chemistry set where we had done the flame test and burned different kinds of salts to see the colors change in the flame and then we burned 2 chemicals that came with the set...we then moved onto where you mixed plaster of paris and then placed it onto your hands to make a mold of the top of your hand. He read that while mixing the plaster of paris they said you should wear rubber gloves because it could cause a skin irritation. So, I wore gloves while mixing and then the minute I started applying the gauze soaked in plaster of paris to his hands, he turned sheet white and fell face first onto me and passed out. I got him revived and tried to figure out what happened when he passed out again and he gave me the fright of my life - he was passed out on the floor, sheet white with blue lips and wouldn't respond so we dialed 911. By the time the ambulance arrived he was back on his feet but was scared out of his mind about what occured, asking me if he was "going to die" and was just really shaken up. We had no idea if he reacted to one of the chemicals we burned or what...so at the ER they did a million blood tests along with other things and after 6 hours everything came back normal. The next day we spoke with DS and he said he had gotten really, really scared about putting the plaster of paris on his hand after reading the warning about wearing gloves when handling it....we met with his doctor later that afternoon and he said that we may never know if he had a reaction or he just go so scared that he passed out.
Since that event he has had reoccuring nightmares about passing out and the whole ordeal in the ambulance/ER and just hasn't been himself. We have talked about dreams/nightmares and it seemed to help when he would share ideas at bedtime about some cool/fun dreams he could dream about and we have talked about what happened.....and we seemed to be turning the corner only to have an occurance today where he told DH that he felt dizzy and then DS7 started to get really anxious which just made the situation worse. I didn't want to ignore the fact that maybe something is going on...an ear infection or something else that could affect your equalibrium but in any case he was really upset that maybe something was wrong with him. I think the whole thing of not really knowing what occured that day has caused an issue and left him wondering if something was "wrong" with him since no one could really tell us what occured. So we went in to his doctor where she gave him a complete check up and said everything looked fine - he seemed to be relieved but I can tell that his anxiety hasn't really disappeared.
Anyone else have sensitive kids that over-react to situations? The doctor shared that it has to be really tough for him in that he has a 7 year old body/emotional state and a several year older brain because he is able to understand/read/learn things that most 7 year olds can't even understand...his intellect can handle what he is learning but that sometimes his emotional age has a hard time handling scenarios. Like he is in LOVE with learning about tornados/hurricanes/earthquakes and will research them for hours and share how he wants to be a tornado chaser because it fascinates him but when a tornado warning comes on the tv he gets scared. Anyone have any words of wisdom or suggestions on how to help sensitive/worrying little kids?
