Helping Your Tween Cope with Ulcerative Colitis

Getting diagnosed with ulcerative colitis is never an easy thing to deal with. With the diagnosis comes fear, anxiety, anger and often sadness. This range of emotion is difficult to handle for many adults, but if the person receiving the news of a diagnosis is a tween, the coping process may even be a bit harder than normal.

A tween may not always be able to fully understand and deal with this new part of their life. While they may be very intelligent and able to understand most things, it can be hard to mentally digest what this means for their lives. Most people between 10 and 13 don't have much interest in health as a concept, and so internalizing this idea that they are less than healthy can be a strange thing to face. When helping a child through this diagnosis, it is important take care in helping them understand what is happening to them and also helping them understand that ulcerative colitis is certainly not the end of the world.

The tween years can be very tumultuous for a child, especially with concerns about fitting in with their peers. Their ulcerative colitis will make them feel "different" than the other kids. They won't be able to eat the same things that other kids eat, and they may face social issues because of the contents of their lunchbox. It sounds trivial to us, I know, but kids that age get made fun of for anything and everything...including their food. Be prepared to help your UC ridden tween deal with feeling different and ostracized. Help them come up with some good comebacks to combat lunchtime bullying, and remind them that everyone is different in some way.

Your tween is also very likely to encounter a great deal of embarrassment regarding the frequency and intensity of their trips to the bathroom, and these can be especially difficult to deal with at school. While I was in school, I pumped myself full of anti-diarrheal medication just to try and avoid this situation on campus. This is not a healthy thing to do, nor is it actually very effective. Tell your child that they shouldn't be embarrassed by their condition, but that you understand wanting to hide it. Explain that if it makes them more comfortable, they should try to find a bathroom at school that is out of the way or doesn't get very much traffic. Tell them that they can turn on a water faucet to cover their noises, and possibly purchase a small spray bottle of cologne or perfume to give them to cover the odor.

Adding a chronic digestive condition to an already awkward stage of a child's life only makes things harder. Above all, be sure that your tween knows that they can talk to you about anything, and that you are always there to love and support them.