Sensitive Child

I have an eight year old that has always been sensitive and still is. He is just like me and can become very dramatic. Some things that have helped over the years are, 1) me not feeding it to his emotions as much. 2)We put him in soccor for fun and it taught him winning and losing and gave him a sense of something to try for. I think this would work with about any pee wee sport. 3) The harsh realities of school make everyone a little tougher.

Hope this helps.

I would be very careful. As you well know being sensitive is a gift and accepting himself for who he is, is the most important thing. We don't want our children to be hurt but the best thing we can do for them is to help understand. I am a deeply sensitive person and was told to buck up and get over it, it did not help it made me not embrace who God made me to be. Now as a 50 year old I embrace it. He will make a wonderful father and husband someday with who he is. There is a good book out there if I can find it I will respond again with the title.
From a fellow sensitive person,
K.

Well, I think if you try to explain the feelings to him that he is haveing might help. My 4yr old is more on the I don't care side. She let's everything roll off her back! I've talked to my MOM as well as other parents and the main thing that I have heard is consistancy is key. Hope this helps.

I believe that your son will always be sensitive, no matter what you do. I have a son that is the same way. He is now 15 years old and still more sensitive than most anyone in the house. I try to honor him, in that I do not repremand him in front of others-including other members of the household. It embarrasses him on top of everything else and adds to his spiraling emotions. Since I am aware of his sesitivty, I have learned to approach him in less threatening ways and have managed quite well.
Children are just little people. They feel all the same emotions that we do, but do not have the vocabulary or self knowledge to be able to express those feelings, so I believe that every emotion they feel-they feel it more intensely. It will calm down somewhat and even out.
It would be a tough situation to try and curb what comes naturally to him. On the one hand he should be free to feel safe expressing his emotions with you, on the other hand teaching him to be able to control his emotions around other people has huge benefits. How do you teach him that without making him feel like HE is WRONG to feel the things he feels? You provide the safe place for his little body, mind, and heart-he'll figure the rest out.

My son is 11 and can STILL be pretty sensitive. What I learned is to get as many books on feelings as I could, and try to name as many feelings with him as I could, to encourage him to talk things out instead of falling apart. We also had lots of talks helping him identify the sensation that the falling apart thing was coming on, to take deep breaths and talk it out. To this day I'll see him start to breathe deep when he gets upset. He's much more in control now. Part of the problem, I think, is that the drama makes all the attention focus on him, so, naturally, the more drama, the more attention. I started telling him to go to his room and breathe until he calmed down enough to talk.

I really don't know to much, but I think you should talk to your child and go thru his emotions let him know it is ok to be sensitive to a degree. And somethings children over-react to something that is new and/or unknown to them. Just take the time and go over his feelings to see what is really making him react that way. :)

My daughter is VERY sensitive. Things bothered her a lot when she was younger. They actually still do, but it has turned into anger. She asked me recently if I could take her to counseling. We have been seeing a free counselor and this has seemed to help her very much. She is 13 now, and I might add that she is a gifted child, so she thinks on things long and hard.

They call it tender hearted and though fustrating at times not such a bad thing to have in the world that is changing to cold hearted so fast. Just an opinion.

H. my son was the same way and still is too a degree, he is a boy and as he matures some male attributes will highten and he will not be so outwardly emotional. I used to tell my son all the time to not let things bother him so much, and now he is 14 and I hardly see a tear out of him, sometimes I wish that little boy would shine through.....enjoy his sensative side because he will hide it before too long....

My daughter and my best friend's son are very sensitive children. It is a wonderful gift to have. He will be a very wonderful husband/father one day. Just let him know you love him anyway he is and don't try to change him.

I have a 6 year old boy that is the same way. Check out the website www.hsperson.com. There is a quiz you can take to see if your child is "highly sensitive". If so, there is a great book called The Highly Sensitive Child by Elaine Aron that will give you insight into your son.

H., i feel for you because i myself was and now have a VERY sensitive child. he's only 18 months so i don't know if i can give any good advice - you probably know like i do that it hurts being sensitive, and "toughening up" only really happens after you've been hurt. that stinks! but i always try to look on the bright side - my husband and i have become very conscious of how we treat my son (and each other!) because of his sensitivity. when we are upset with him or each other he picks up on it immediately (i call him my ESP child) and is always quick to "feel" when i've had a rough day or whatever. i just make sure to be sensitive to how he feels, and validate it. i always tell him if daddy and i are disagreeing, "it's okay baby, we're just having a disagreement", and then we settle it quickly and cordially as best we can, and make sure to spend a little time reassuring our son (playing with him as a family, cuddling, tickling, laughing, etc) to let him know that even when he feels uncertain or uncomfortable, we'll always still love each other, and him. don't know if that helps but i do know how heartbreaking it can be to see a sensitive child get upset. (although i try to tell myself eventually he will have to deal with the real world so i try not to coddle him too much, too).

It sounds to me that he is alot like my little girl, and she is alot like me, when I was young I cried alot too.
We are just a person that can not control hurt very easily.
I dont hardly cry now, but as we grow older we do learn to let things roll off a little better.
Being young is such a learning process, dont do this and dont do that, and if I remember correctly, when I was scolded for doing wrong I cried alot, and only cause I felt that the person was dissapointed in me and didn't like me any more.
He'll learn differenlty and cry less as he gets older.
I have learned with my daughter to tell her that what she did was bad, and not tell her that she is bad, and no matter what she does I love her, she cries alot less now.
good luck

My son is now almost 20. He was (is) very sensitive but as he matured he learned how to deal with it. As he gets older he will learn to hide his feelings