Advice & Support

From inattention to disruptive behavior, many symptoms have multiple causes, leading to mistakes when kids aren't carefully assessed

Excessive anger can be caused by many things. Understanding what's behind it is the first step to helping the child, and behavioral therapy has been shown to be more effective than diet or supplements.

Kids who seem angry and oppositional are often severely anxious and unable to express themselves.

Dr. Matt Cruger discusses how learning difficulties can lead to impairing anxiety in children if they don't have the right supports. The key is to help them experience success so they can tackle problems with confidence.

Kids—usually teenage girls—hurt themselves intentionally to alleviate some other form of pain in their lives. The behavior is hard to comprehend, but understanding plays a big role in treatment.

Melissa Ortega, PsyD, formerly of the Child Mind Institute, discusses how intensive intervention for children with selective mutism can turn around lives in really stunning ways--for all involved.

One panic attack does not suggest a disorder, but if the nightmares are frequent enough to be impairing, it's worth discussing with a pediatrician or mental health professional.

Children with anxiety disorders like OCD rely on parents to help them avoid what they fear. But cooperation only makes the fear worse. In therapy parents learn to help kids fight back.

Unless your doctor's worried about nutrition, what's important is helping kids feel good about trying new tastes

When kids are so averse to foods that they're malnourished, or avoidance is seriously limiting their lives, they may need help. Often the culprit is anxiety.