Diversion Therapy

We learnt very early in our child raising career that of the many times children scream and holler in seeming agony, much of it is fear and uncertainty. When Ariel was very little she fell down some steps and was crying loudly. We picked her up and then pointed to a bird on the neighbour's roof. "Hey. There's a bird on the roof. What's it doing there?"
Ariel looked and stopped crying. We had discovered "Diversion Therapy". Many times we have quickly checked to make sure there was no blood or broken bones and then tried diversions to distract the child.
The other important factor was to not panic ourselves. As soon as a disaster occurs - such as allergic reactions to medicine, broken teeth (Clare), broken teeth (James), broken teeth (Peter), severe internal pains, a breakdown away from home or super glue - there is no point showing panic or else the child begins to panic too! It's our job to stay calm and sort through the problem at hand. Later we can think back and consider what type of calamity we have just been through (or avoided) but panic just raises blood pressure and threatens to mislead our decision making.

(By the way - the photo is of Lana as a baby. She's being pretty cute, but I wonder what would have happened if the bucket slipped, or she caught her finger in the faucet, or even just tripped and banged her head!)