To ask for advice on how to deal with a sensitive child?

[starhamster]

My DS is 4.5, he's a lovely sweet boy but cries so much! We went to a party yesterday and he cried 4 times in the first half an hour about various injustices. This morning he cried because his sister started brushing her teeth before him. It's quite exhausting! And whilst I don't want to dismiss his emotions I do feel like he needs to be a bit more resilient. He's also self conscious and if someone laughs at something cute he does (in a kind way not in a mean way at all) he gets very upset.

Anyone have experience with this at all? Will he just grow out of it?

It's not dismissing his emotions to tell him that his reactions are completely over the top and he needs to get a grip.

Our eldest is sensitive too. First we tried to talk to him about the emotions he's feeling, so that we could name and recognise them together. This normalises them, so the kids are not getting freaked out by freaking out IYSWIM.

The next stage was to help him to anticipate these feelings in his body - what does it feel like when you get cross etc. Making images, like feeling hot in your tummy like a volcano.

Then finding strategies to cope with these, e.g. making a nice cosy space for quiet time.

It's worth checking if there are any specific triggers, if your kid isn't sleeping well, or feeling well. Or if there are particular sensory inputs that are too much.