Expect that the child may temporarily regress (go backwards) in their behaviour or become ‘clingy’ and dependent.Avoid exposing the child to reminders of the trauma, where possible.Avoid any unnecessary separations from important caregivers.Spend time just being with the child, giving them your full attention and letting communication flow.Offer a calm atmosphere and soothing activities.Maintain the child’s routines around being held, sleeping and feeding.Reduce the intensity and length of the initial stress reaction by helping the child settle and to feel safe and cared for as quickly as possible.Learn to recognise and manage the child’s signs of stress and understand cues for what is going on for them.Get information and advice on how the baby or toddler is going.Seek, accept and increase any support you need to help you manage your own shock and emotional response.There are a number of things parents and carers can do to help their baby or toddler cope with and recover from trauma: Structure, predictability and nurturing are key to helping a baby or toddler who has been traumatised. What parents and carers can do to help babies and toddlers cope with trauma slipping back in their physical skills such as sitting, crawling or walking and appearing more clumsy.being more unsettled and much more difficult to soothe.loss of playful and engaging smiling and ‘coo-ing’ behaviour.giving the appearance of being numb and not showing their feelings or seeming a bit ‘cut off’ from what is happening around them.a kind of ‘frozen watchfulness’ – the child may have a ‘shocked’ look.unusually high levels of distress when separated from their parent or primary carer.When babies or toddlers are exposed to life-threatening or traumatic events, they become very scared – just like anybody else. Common reactions to trauma in babies and toddlers
If the family or primary carer is affected, the baby is probably also affected.
If any of these things are happening, it is important to think about the effect on the baby.
These may include relationship and bonding with parents, as well as foundational development in the areas of language, mobility, physical and social skills and managing emotions. Trauma can seriously disrupt important aspects of child development that occur before the age of three years. Traumatic and life-threatening events may include incidents such as car accidents, bushfires, sudden illness, traumatic death in the family, crime, abuse or violence in the community. In fact, anything that affects older children and adults in a family can also affect a baby, but they may not be able to show their reactions directly, as older children can. Many people wrongly believe that babies do not notice or remember traumatic events. Trauma can have a serious effect on babies and toddlers.