When should a child begin to train, and why the old fear was wrong
Most parents think lifting weights is dangerous for children. Twenty years of paediatric consensus disagree, and the reason has more to do with the nervous system than with muscle.
Issue 2
More Than Just a Bad Day: When Bullying Looks Like Trauma, And How You Can Help Your Child
New research reveals that bullying can actually cause post-traumatic stress in children. If your child can’t 'bounce back' from being bullied, they aren't weak. We explain the biology of the hurt, and how to help them heal.
7 min read
When we discover our child is being bullied, our initial reaction is usually a mix of heartbreak and urgent practicality. We want to know the facts. We ask who said what, where the teachers were, and how we can stop it from happening again. We tend to treat bullying as an external problem - a conflict that needs to be resolved so that life can return to normal.
But for many families, "normal" does not return. Even after the bullying has stopped, the child remains different. They might be quicker to anger, unable to sleep without a light on, or seemingly unable to concentrate on schoolwork that used to be easy. Parents in this situation often feel a deep sense of confusion; they worry their child is being dramatic or perhaps lacks the resilience to "bounce back" from a difficult experience.
A significant new piece of research published this year suggests that these lingering changes are not a flaw in your child’s character. They are the symptoms of a physiological injury.
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Read next
When should a child begin to train, and why the old fear was wrong
Most parents think lifting weights is dangerous for children. Twenty years of paediatric consensus disagree, and the reason has more to do with the nervous system than with muscle.
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