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If you are a parent, you must know the struggles of raising a functional and mentally-sound child. You need to overlook a lot of things for yourself and make them available for your child. The reason behind this is the fact that children need constant care and nourishment from their loved ones to become a responsible member of society. You want to do the best you can to keep your child safe. Taking them out on trips to foreign lands can be an amazing way to teach your child what the world has to offer. Foreign trips can be an awesome, fun-filled, educational, and a great way to relax. But sometimes, due to unforsaken events, there are car accidents that you might suffer in foreign countries with your children. This is not something that you can erase from your child’s memory.

As a parent, it’s your job to help your kid deal with the trauma that comes with meeting an unwanted car accident.

Reaction to Expect From a Child after A Car Accident

Honestly, there is no right or wrong reaction. Every child will react differently. Even though younger kids tend to recover much quicker, there are still some side-effects that come in the first few days/weeks of the car accident.

The most common reactions that children are prone to show are:

• Initial fright at the time of the car accident but get normal after a while unless they sustain car accident injuries. Severe distress for the first few days and then gets back to a normal routine.
• Sometimes in kids, depression can continue or worsen for weeks and months after the accident. At first, a relatively small percentage of children would appear normal, but occasionally months after, they will exhibit signs of anxiety linked to the crash.
• After the accident, children can experience nightmares or insomnia, and it can lead to sleep disorders and exhaustion that may affect their routine.
• It can also cause other social interaction issues like getting extremely clingy, being shy to socialize, and even remain in a prolonged time of distress. 

Even though these reactions might sound a bit peculiar to people who don’t have kids, these are considered normal because children are quite sensitive to abnormal events. Whether your child has sustained any physical injuries or not, you still need to take them to a doctor and get neck pain treatment from a professional doctor.

Symptoms Your Child Is Distressed After A Car Accident

As discussed above, there are several different reactions that your child might experience. Some of the symptoms that you need to notice in your child after the accident are:

Kids between Ages Zero to Six

There are different symptoms that infants, toddlers, and preschoolers can show:

• Distress in their drawing patterns
• Remembering the event in cartoons or drawings
• Fussy attitude and severe tantrums
• Baby talk
• Phobia of dark or going to bed early

Kids between Ages Six to Twelve

There are different symptoms among children from primary to middle school.

• Nightmares
• Difficulty sleeping and thinking about the accident
• Avoiding the incident by not talking about it or leaving the scene
• Aggressive behavior towards friends and family
• Anxiety about their safety and their loved one’s safety
• Avoiding vehicles and phobia of being/sleeping in the car

Kids between Ages Thirteen To Eighteen

Among teenagers, the reactions are a bit different. Since they are growing kids, they are expected to drive sooner or later. You might want to talk to them a bit more as compared to younger children. Some symptoms that a teenager might show are:

• Talking about the accident a lot
• Difficulty in focusing
• Problems concentrating
• Sleeping issues
• Mood swings and abnormal reactions like rage
• Difficulty keeping up with the regular schedule
• Problems studying and performing at school
• Social anxiety and avoiding social events

Reaction While Being Abroad

Children’s responses to a car accident can change with time. For example, shortly after the accident, they will have dreams that can lead to sleep issues and exhaustion, which might influence their performance.  

Note that acute and short-term symptoms such as nightmares, clinginess, anxiety, and depression are very normal. Just a relatively limited percentage of children will develop the long-term consequences of a traffic accident.

Or they may be clinging and upset immediately after the collision, which may affect their coping skills, which may create any problems in their relationship. Getting in an accident abroad means that your child can develop a phobia of being alone or away from home.  

Steps To Resolve the Issues in Your Children after an Accident Abroad

Here are a few things that you need to know if you want to handle your child after an accident.

Focus on Positivity

There could be some bad stuff to cope with following a traffic accident. It is also essential to reflect on positive behaviors and positive coping mechanisms. You need to talk about positivity with your child.

Obviously, they are under a lot of stress following the accident, so you need to make sure that the rest of the trip does not go to waste. Tolerate them for any bad behavior and deal within in a softer and more understanding manner. Reward your child for being at best behavior and give them things they like to distract them.

Talk about how mishaps are there to teach a lesson. Even after a car accident, living without any major harm is indeed a blessing. Just encourage them to see the positive side of the story, and they will be more careful and positive towards the whole situation.

Let Your Child Lead

Your child might seem quiet for the rest of the trip if he is met with an accident in another country. Don’t expect them to immediately forget everything and start having a nice time again. Instead of pushing them to talk, give them an open opportunity to talk about their feelings and fears that they are going through.

If they don’t want to talk about their feelings, you can always let them know that talking about a certain event or feelings will make them feel better, while enclosing them will simply become worse than their physical car accident injuries. 

Continue the Fun

You are obviously abroad to have fun. Just go along with the normal activities that were planned. This will make your child realize that there is nothing to be scared of, and these kinds of mishaps can happen, but it doesn’t mean that life ends. This option is only valid if you have not become bed-bound or on doctor’s advice to take rest for a couple of days. Even if you have to go back with an incomplete trip, just make sure you resume the normal routine.

Conclusion

Children can take an accident as something really major. They might get phobias and show unwanted mood swings. While you are abroad, make sure that you take your child for neck pain treatment even if they don’t show any physical injuries or health issues.

Make sure that they are surrounded by a positive environment and are not pushed to talk about it. Encourage them to express their feelings when it’s convenient for them and reward them for talking about this difficult accident in a foreign country.

Featured Image by denninglove from Pixabay