7 year old depression?

[Rincat]

Hello, I haven't posted on here before but I thought this might be a good place to ask for some advice. I'm worried about my daughter who is 7. She has always seemed quite unenthusiastic about lots of things in her life, eg. play groups when she was little, school, friends etc. Recently she has become extremely irritable, frustrated and wakes up grumpy for no apparent reason. She has also developed a fear of death and keeps worrying about car crashes, fires and falling down the stairs. I am wondering if she is depressed but she is only 7. I'm not sure what to do and am hoping that someone might understand and offer some advice!
Thanks in advance.

Hi Rin
No real experience of this & don't know if I can help at all but didn't want to read & run. Your poor LO . Has anything happened recently to make her feel down? Death in family/ friends/ pet? Or even things she may have seen on the news? There have been some really awful car crashes reported recently, thinking M5 crash amongst others. Have you spoken to her teacher about it to find out how she is at school? I'd say there is probably a difference between being unenthusiastic and being depressed and maybe playgroups aren't her thing, are there any activities she does enjoy or is she down all the time? Is she looking forward to Christmas, even if you do not celebrate it, holidays from school?

Thank you for replying, the only recent event was when her little brother had an accident at school and needed to go to hospital in an ambulance. She says she thought he was going to die which must have felt awful to her. Her teacher tells us she is just very quiet at school and doesn't approach other children, but is happy when other children want to play with her. We try not to let them see too much tv, but I guess other people may talk about things on the news like the m5 crash. I don't know, she just seems so down! Christmas doesn't seem to be exciting her much this year either. She really loves making things so I keep getting her to do Christmas decorations for the house, and she is happy when we are doing that together.

Oh poor thing, & your poor DS, must have given them both a fright. Is he ok now? Even if he was all ok you never know what another child at school might have said to her- you know how children exaggerate things & this could have left her feeling very afraid for her brother.
Have you got a partner? If so what do they have to say about your DD? I wonder if it's 2 seperate things, maybe your DD being a bit withdrawn/ shy as part of her personality and her brothers accident being a separate one. What does she say about how she feels/ if she is happy? Sending you a hug as this must be tough on you

DS is ok now thanks, it was quite dramatic and she saw the whole thing as it happened in the playground. He basically cut his head open so there was a lit of blood so I know that must have really frightened her, and still does I imagine. My husband is worried about her too but yes she has always been shy. However this part of her personality has never affected her daily mood before, but maybe her brother's accident is. She says she feels sad a lot but doesn't know why, so when we chat about it quietly she then starts to talk about her fear of dying. She seems to be feeling vulnerable so this may well have stemmed from DS's accident.

Poor little thing. How long ago did it happen? Im not sure of any other practical advice/ things to try but you could give your health visitors office a call, maybe when your DD is out of ear shot asking them if there is anything they can suggest. There may also be some kind of counselling/ support she can get through school, it sounds like she is having some deep thoughts and can't really move on from them or process them.