Be wary of the butterfly effect of infants and young children isolating alone

(Image source: Oriental IC)

Yan Yijia / Wen Shanghai In this round of epidemic prevention and control, infants and young children infected with the new crown pneumonia virus have been isolated and isolated, and in the videos circulating on the Internet, it can be seen that a large number of children under the age of 6, as well as babies who cannot walk or speak, have been centrally admitted to the isolation point: there is no family to accompany them, medical care is extremely limited, and children are crying and no one is pacifying. As of the morning of April 4, the latest response of the Shanghai Health Commission is that if the parents of children are also positive infected, they can accompany and care in the children's area and receive observation and treatment together. Children whose family members are not eligible to accompany them, and the child is less than 7 years old, will receive treatment at the Public Health Center.

In addition to the compassion of being a person and a mother, I would like to discuss the butterfly effect behind the isolation of infants and young children from the perspective of psychological trauma: Why can't we implement the isolation of infants and young children as adults without family?

First of all, human response to changes in the external environment and great pressure depends on our brains, and this basic scientific fact determines that the vast majority of adults can adjust themselves to environmental tests and changes. However, the brains of infants and young children are to some extent not fully developed (the average age at which the cerebral cortex is recognized by the academic community to complete the development is 25 years old), and the 1000 days from the beginning of intrauterine embryonic development is the most fragile and fastest-growing period of the brain in a person's life. This means that when we put an infant and toddler in an environment that lacks care and response, on the one hand, they do not have as much flexibility and flexibility as adults to adapt to changes, and if adults feel afraid and bored in the new environment, they can be relieved by chatting about WeChat and the like, but infants and young children do not have such an option. On the other hand, when an infant is exposed to indigestible stress and difficulties, such as crying for a long time without anyone responding, and the body's discomfort for a long time cannot be alleviated, their brain will appear similar to the "short circuit" of electrical appliances: the brain that is difficult to withstand too much pressure will stop learning and developing, and the infant will fall into a state that seems calm but is actually stiff.

The epidemic prevention and control will end one day, but for these young children, their brain and emotional development of the golden period encountered a major obstacle, in the worst case, the brain may change its normal form because of this traumatic experience, the formation of abnormal personalities including antisocial, and experience learning and interpersonal difficulties for a long time in the future, which is the butterfly effect that infants and young children may bring about by isolation alone. Even in optimistic situations, young children who have experienced prolonged separation from their caregivers experience varying degrees of developmental regression when they return home to repair the brain stress and psychological damage caused to them in the process.

Secondly, people's neuroplasticity decreases with age, which means that if a person receives meticulous care in infancy and childhood, and experiences some psychological traumatic events the day after tomorrow, the impact on their neuroaffetic system can be relatively small, and conversely, if an infant and young child experiences a bad psychological trauma experience, then the acquired parenting is good, there may be irreparable effects. This basic scientific fact makes many countries willing to invest a lot of cost and effort in early infant and young child rearing, because from the perspective of economic benefits, every $1 invested in early parenting can produce a benefit of $7 in the adult life of the child. Today's "one-size-fits-all" process of exposing hundreds or thousands of children to early developmental faults and shocks is to pay ahead of time for the social problems they may create as adults. The most direct way to avoid small losses is to allow the child's caregiver to accompany the caregiver or, when conditions are ripe, to allow some mildly ill children to be isolated at home.

The children here refer to children under the age of 7, compared with primary and secondary school students, children under the age of 7 are the most vulnerable to the adaptability of the new environment and pressure, because they have not yet developed enough psychological functions to understand the causes and consequences, they can not clearly express their demands in the absence of care resources, and there is no way to alleviate the pain endured in this process through chat after the event, so when formulating isolation policies, it is very necessary to open up to young children under 7 years old.

Let's not forget that when an infant or young child bears the impact of psychological trauma because of unreasonable policies, their parents also bear great psychological pressure, and the parents are also direct experiencers of psychological trauma, even if the child returns home safely, they may also have a stress trauma response from the parent because of feelings such as anger, worry, self-blame, guilt, helplessness, etc. It is impossible to ask the parents to calm down and help the child to calm down the psychological trauma. In today's gradual decline in fertility has become a new social issue, if the basic physical and mental safety of an infant and young child cannot be supported and guaranteed by the social level, this will only make more people dispel the idea of childbearing, which is also a small policy may cause a butterfly effect.

At a time when the whole country is overcoming difficulties, the infant and young child group, like the old, weak, sick and disabled group, should not become the minimum cost in the dynamic zeroing process, and it is hoped that the relevant departments will provide isolation settings for young infants and young children under 7 years old who can be accompanied by parents as soon as possible, so as to provide flexible and humanized isolation methods for special groups.

Also, if your young child is already experiencing isolation, here are three suggestions that we hope will support you.

First, the vast majority of 0-6-year-old children will have a behavioral regression period ranging from 2-4 weeks after being hospitalized alone, which means that they may have unstable sleep, loss of appetite, crying, clinging, bedwetting and other behaviors after they return home, as if retreating to an earlier state of life, this process lasts 2-4 weeks is very common, what you need to do is to take care of the child's reasonable needs as much as possible in this process, allowing him to "regress" for a period of time, the more the child can release these parts, The more likely it is to achieve self-psychological repair and continue to move forward.

Second, children who are hospitalized alone often unconsciously feel that it is a punishment for themselves, because they are not yet able to relate the cause and effect to their own experience, and they may do a lot of things that make people around them angry when they go home, that is, because they unconsciously feel that they are bad children, and they will constantly verify that they are bad children by provoking people around them. If you are a caregiver for your child, please try to give yourself and your child some time, you have not done anything wrong, hug the child more, encourage and encourage the child, and let the child realize that he is still a good child in your eyes.

Third, if after a month of going home, the child's behavior shows no signs of improvement and is getting more and more serious, or the child's development seems to be suspended, such as the weight and height of the small baby is not long, it looks wooden, or the child who was originally very outgoing is now doing nothing but staying in the room and has no curiosity about the things around him, then please be sure to seek the help of the child's psychological professional to assess whether the child needs more external support to do a good psychological rehabilitation.

(The author is a psychological counselor)