baby trauma | Trauma-ties

Trauma can hurt babies and toddlers. Many people think that babies do not remember or notice traumatic events. But the truth is that anything that affects older and adults in the family can also affect a baby.

Trauma can disrupt many aspects of child development. If the family member is affected with trauma the baby is probably also affected.

How trauma affects babies and toddlers?

Babies and toddlers are helpless. They depend on their families and parents for a sense of safety and security. They need emotional care through loving and reassuring interactions and coping in an ongoing and consistent way. That is the way babies and toddlers develop and grow.

During their early months and years, children are sensitive to:

Problems affecting the babies’ parents or caregivers, which may include fear and sadness.
Separation from their parent or caregiver, for instance, absence due to injury or other factors related to the trauma. That can have a double impact: distress of the separation itself and insecurity of managing without the safety, understanding, and nurturing of their caregiver provides. It can slow the recovery process.
What is happening in the environment , toddlers and babies are greatly impacted by distress, and the negative energy and noise. In those situation, they are not sure what is happening around them and can negatively impact babies’ growth.
Disruption in developing a bond with parents or lack of understanding, trauma can sometimes get worse and make the bond formation even more difficult. Thus, babies tend to have stress and trauma in this situation.

If any of these things are happening, it is crucial to think about the baby’s effect. If the family member or any caregiver is affected by any trauma, the baby is probably also affected.

Reactions of babies in trauma:

When babies have exposed to life-threatening incidents they become scared. Some most common reactions of babies include

High level of distress.
The child may give you a shock and serious look.
Giving the appearance of being numb or being cut-off from everything around.
Loss of happy, engaging smile.
Loss of eating habits
No eye contact
Slipping back on their physical skills.

How can you help your baby cope with trauma?

Love and care is a vital key to help a baby who has traumatized. There are some activities parents can do to help their baby to cope up with trauma:

Seek and accept the help you need to manage your shock and emotional response.
Reduce the initial stress by helping the child settle and to feel safe and loved.
Maintain the proper child’s routine of sleeping, playing, eating.
Offer a calm and peaceful environment.
Avoid unnecessary separations from caregivers.
Avoid expressing the child to reminders of the trauma.

Traumatic events can affect how a baby’s mind development;

It can have lifelong consequences. There are different ways to help your baby cope with trauma.

Many Blessings to you and our children. God Bless.

Let’s see, how could this happen? Well, there could be, like in my case, a very violent and neglectful father, who got my mother pregnant and was forced by my grandfather to marry my mother in a real-life “shotgun marriage.” As my mother told me this story, she later loved my father and had eight more children from him. I say she loved him because she put up with his drinking, beatings, and cheatings in their marriage. I, being one of the older ones, remember a lot of the unfortunate times.

One of my siblings was having a hard time in her life and said she went through a past life regression at her church and relived her life as in our mother’s womb. She remembered, our Mom crying a lot. She was in pain and very sad. Suddenly, my sibling started crying uncontrollably and was awakened out of hypnosis. As she related this story to me, I did recall my Mother telling me horrifying stories about my fathers’ abuse. But, yet I remember my Mother being a strong woman. She had children whom she loved more than life. I remember my Mother telling us she wanted more for her children. She died at an early age of 52 years old from a car accident, that only my father survived. (Just our luck.)

I felt I was born with trauma along with some of my other siblings. Hearing and witnessing my father viciously assaulting my Mother, the effect of the stress and our terrified mother suffering while pregnant, her hormones secreted past thru her umbilical cord to her terrified unborn children. All this is passed on to the unborn child.

I was talking to one of my brothers and he stated I was born “mean” and” heartless” since I was a little girl. I remember I was always angry, scared of being separated from my Mom. I hated my brothers and sisters.

I asked my Mom, “Why did you have so many kids?” Mom said, “You were all a gift from God”. Now at my age, I know what happened, no need to blame God… Imagine hearing your father constantly yelling “What! Another useless girl! And later Raping this little girl, at age of 5, “because that’s all they are good for!”

I made bad choices in marrying the same kind of men as my father, repeatedly. Later, I woke up and wanted something more for myself and my children. I could have winded up on drugs, mentally ill, or in jail, or prison. Believe me, I still have issues and am trying to work through them. Trauma is something that is with you whether you know it or not. It attacks you and those you love. Checking on yourself is a 24/7 job. It is not easy.

Trauma… (sigh…) Today, I have worked with the chronic mentally ill for over 23 years and gathering information, pieces of training, and experiences in healing. I also volunteer at an all-girls program for sexually molested girls from the age of 5 to 18 called Camp Victory.

If you want more information about how you can help or volunteer can be found at “campvitoryforchildren.org”

You, empowered to help others is a good way to “survive” and help other victims cope and have hope for a better life.