Ten Ways to Protect Children’s Emotional and Physical Health During Wildfires

In a previous video, I gave ten survival tips before, during, and after wildfires. That video will be referenced below. Today, we’re going to look at a closely related topic that concerns our most valuable possessions and the most vulnerable—our children. While you are in a mad dash trying to catch all the latest news and protect your home and belongings, you may not realize the impact these wildfires can have on your children emotionally and physically.

So here are ten ways to protect children’s emotional and physical health during the wildfires:

Keep communication lines open and allow your children to express their feelings and concerns. Children may have many different feelings during these times. One minute they might be filled with fear, sadness, worry, and anxiety about tomorrow and the next minute they might be filled with laughter. Fear, worry, and anxiety are to be expected, and joy and laughter are good for the soul. And if a total or partial loss should impact your family, sadness follows. The expression of all these feelings is normal and healthy. Reading a book on feelings and relating it to the wildfires is also a great idea. There are many children’s books that encourage the expression of their feelings. Your children must feel that they can bring their questions to you and express their feelings to you.

Set aside a time each day for a family devotional and prayer. The purpose of this time is to teach your children God’s perspective and the simple principles in His Word. It’s also a time to pray for God’s protection and wisdom and to allow your children to ask any questions troubling them. I strongly suggest my favorite devotional book for young children. It’s called “Little Talks About God and You” by Gilbert Beers. Although out of print, it can be found on Amazon. It takes the basic Biblical concepts and gives God’s perspective on them through stories in His Word.

Michelle Nietert, a mental health counselor, has written several books that may help. The first one is called, “Managing Your Emojis: 100 Devotions for Navigating Your Feelings.” This book is recommended for children ages 8 – 12, but can also be used as a family devotional. Here’s a description of the book.

God calls us to live lives of joy, but sometimes we feel mad, sad, or scared. Managing Your Emojis, a 100-day devotional, teaches kids that God loves them no matter what they’re feeling, and Scripture can empower them to manage their emotions.

And for younger children ages 4 – 8 she has two specific books on emotions, “God, I Feel Scared: Bringing Big Emotions to a Bigger God” and “God I Feel Sad: Bringing Big Emotions to a Bigger God.”

Communicate your safety plans in simple terms. Children feel safe when they know that you have a plan to protect the family. State your plan in positive terms. For example, If the smoke gets closer, we will go to Grandma’s house to keep you safe until the fires are put out. Keep life as normal as possible until the disaster passes. If you panic, your children will panic. Having a plan to keep your family safe minimizes the roller coaster ride of fear and worry for everyone. Children feel more secure when you communicate that you have a plan in place.

Minimize or even prevent your children from viewing the news. This only exaggerates the dangers and sensationalizes the event. You can view the news in the privacy of your bedroom or when the children are at school or in bed. Make wise decisions about what you tell them. They don’t need to know everything, and the news needs to come from and be screened by you.

Help each child to prepare their suitcase with necessities. I’m talking about PJs, underclothes, toiletries, and several days of clothing. Their bag can also include a special toy and a special game. Think of this like you would when a mother is pregnant, and she has a bag packed and ready to go to the hospital when labor pains intensify. You may not need to evacuate, but if you do, you’ll be prepared.

Monitor AQI or air quality levels to determine outdoor activity. When the PM (particulate matter) score is 2.5 or above, it’s best to limit outdoor activities. When PM levels are 2.5 or lower, your children can play safely outside. When air quality is poor, stay inside as much as possible and close the fresh air intake on your air conditioner system to keep outdoor air from entering your home. Keep your indoor air as clean as possible by also avoiding smoking indoors, using toxic cleaners, burning candles, and spraying toxic aerosols. Clean air is essential especially for young children.

Purchase a high-grade respirator mask for everyone in your household. When the wildfires are near, use this when going outdoors. Then use these during and after the wildfire when the air is very toxic. The smoke released by wildfires contains a mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and soot that contains a cocktail of chemicals such as sulfur dioxide, benzene, styrene, heavy metals, dioxins, acid gases, nitrogen oxides, aldehydes, and polycyclic hydrocarbons—just to name a few. Coarser particles can deposit in your upper respiratory system, but the finer particles can penetrate deep into your lungs and throughout your body. Once in your bloodstream, these particles can trigger widespread inflammation impacting the young and the elderly and those with underlying respiratory conditions. If your child has lung issues such as allergies and asthma, you might want to consider relocating them to a trusted friend or relative until the air is clear again—especially if schools have gone to online learning. Check with your doctor if any of your children have respiratory issues.

Consider using supplements to boost your children’s immune system. I’m talking about proven supplements such as:

Vitamin C – which is a powerful antioxidant proven to minimize airway irritation and improve the health of our lungs after smoke exposure.

B Complex – which reduces inflammation effects caused by smoke inhalation. B vitamins also protect the body during stressful times. It’s known as the stress vitamin.

And

Vitamin D – which boosts their immune systems and helps them to fight secondary issues. If you have a sunroom, allow your children to play where the sunlight can hit their skin through the glass windows, yet protect them from the smoke and toxins when it’s too hazy to go outside. Because the wildfires may prevent natural exposure to the sun, supplementation of vitamin D may be necessary.

I highly recommend Mary Ruth’s Organic Supplements which are specifically made for children.

Allow your children to see your faith in action. Teach them that stuff can be replaced and that this world is not our home. The Bible tells us in Philippians 3:20: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s so comforting to know that we’re just passing through and Heaven is our true home where there will be no hurricanes, fires, cancer, sadness, or pain. Praise God. When you are calm in the middle of a crisis, they take their cues from you!

And if you should need to evacuate and you return to a total or near total loss:

Teach your children the practice of gratitude and the promise of God’s provision. Even if a total loss, set the example for expressing gratitude that each of you is alive and allow your children to draw or list all the things that have to be thankful for. As a teenager, my mother learned that God would provide for her needs. My mother, her sister, and my grandmother barely escaped a fire that consumed every row house on their block. In fact, they were the only ones who survived. With no insurance and only their PJs on their backs, they’d lost everything with nowhere to go. They were homeless. When a nearby town heard on the radio that the three of them had miraculously survived and that my grandmother worked at the grocery store in their town, the mayor called the town leaders together. As a group, they brought the entire town together to provide food, clothing, and shelter for them. My mother never forgot what they did and as a result, she was always the first to pay it forward and help others. When she was elected May Queen, she had no dress to wear for the event. A woman in that town who owned a dress shop, allowed her to pick out the dress of her choice.

After Hurricane Helene flooded and destroyed Western NC causing many families to lose everything with no insurance, God has provided through His people and different organizations to meet many great needs. It’s the tough events in life that make us stronger and draw us closer to God.

God instructs us to give thanks in all things and Romans 8:28 tells us not that all things are good, but that He uses all things for our good. We need to protect children from too much information in a situation like this. But they, too, can see God at work and learn to give thanks, look for the good, and depend on His provisions.

View this message on YouTube:

Ten Ways to Protect Children’s Emotional and Physical Health During Wildfires

Related YouTube video:

Ten Survival Tips Before, During, and After Wildfires

For Your Health,

Ginny

Ginny Dent Brant is a speaker and writer who grew up in the halls of power in Washington, DC. She has battled cancer, ministered around the world, and served on the front lines of American culture as a counselor, educator, wellness advocate, and adjunct professor. Brant’s award-winning book, Finding True Freedom: From the White House to the World, was endorsed by Chuck Colson and featured in many TV and media interviews. Unleash Your God-Given Healing: Eight Steps to Prevent and Survive Cancer was released in May 2020 after her journey with cancer and was recently awarded the First Place Golden Scrolls Award for Memoirs, a finalist in Serious Writers Book of the Decade, and Second Place in both Selah Awards for Memoirs and Director’s Choice Award for Nonfiction at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference. It recently received the Christian Authors Network’s (CAN) Gold Award for Excellence in Marketing for reaching 62.5 million people with a message of cancer prevention and survival. It was written with commentary from an oncologist and was featured on CBN’s Healthy Living Show, Atlanta Live, and CTN’s Homekeepers along with over 75 media outlets. Learn more and cancer and wellness prevention blog and book information at www.ginnybrant.com. Ginny is on YouTube