The Paediatrician's View on Emotional Health
Dr. James Okoye shares what he's learned about children's emotional health from years of practice.
Dr. James Okoye is a paediatrician with a special interest in child mental health. We asked him what parents get right — and what they miss.
'The biggest thing parents get right is loving their children,' he said. 'That foundation is everything. But what they sometimes miss is that emotional health isn't the absence of difficult feelings — it's the ability to feel them and move through them. Children who never experience sadness, frustration, or disappointment don't develop the tools to cope with these feelings later.'
His advice? 'Don't rescue your child from every difficult emotion. Be there, name it, and help them through it. That's how emotional resilience is built — not by avoiding hard feelings, but by learning that they can be felt and survived.'
Larry Says
"Every challenge is an opportunity in disguise. You've got this — and so does your child."
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