Parents need to keep medication records of prescriptions given to their mentally ill children. Recording the medications children with mental illness take will allow parents to track the benefits and side-effects of medication for their children and will allow for a continuity of coverage should you change doctors or insurance. Trust someone who made the mistake of not keeping medication records herself: Learn why you must keep and how to record your child's medication records.

A child's meltdown happens when he goes into survival mode. He can't control himself, and you as the parent may be the only source of safety and emotional regulation. We can teach our children a lot, then, by learning to recognize the stages of our child's meltdown and how to intervene.

Developing open communication with your teen with mental illness can be the difference between successfully treating the symptoms of her disease or not. Open communication about symptoms, fears, and successes can help teens discover what works in maintaining stability and healthiness when dealing with a mental illness. Parents can lead the way in opening communication with their child by following some simple techniques.

Parents can advocate for mental health care improvements for our children with mental illness, and we're in in a unique position to do so. As we travel through America’s broken mental healthcare system, our voices can help shine a light on problems and advocate for mental health care changes that would help our children in their quest for mental stability.

Can you teach self-regulation to children with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) when the inability to self-regulate emotions is the hallmark of the disorder? Anything and everything seems to trigger emotional meltdowns. What can we do as parents and caregivers, especially when we feel so frazzled ourselves? A few strategies for teaching self-regulation for children with DMDD do exist.

The costs of raising a child with special needs or childhood mental illness are a financial burden. In addition to the most obvious financial costs of raising a child with special needs, there are also the hidden costs of parenting our children. These financial costs can weigh upon the entire family and push parents of special needs children to the brink.

The transition from your teen's inpatient psychiatric care facility to home can mark an exciting change for your child. However, without a detailed plan for her transition, leaving inpatient psychiatric care can exacerbate her mental illness issues. Creating a solid plan for the transition period after your teen's inpatient psychiatric care can help your child be a success as she transitions back into regular life (Coping with Life After Residential Mental Health Treatment).

Twice-exceptional children are gifted children with mental illness, and they often get overlooked in school. A mentally ill child's problem behaviors may mask their strengths, or their behaviors may frustrate teachers so much that teachers overlook the child's strengths. These gifted kids with mental illness are twice exceptional and we should recognize them and push them as much as we do the typical gifted child.

Separation anxiety in children is an intense fear of being separated from a loved one. It's considered normal in infants and toddlers. In older kids, it may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. As the parent of a child with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), I often find myself wondering if what he experienced in early childhood was separation anxiety or the signs of the emotional disorder to come.

Putting a child in residential psychiatric care is one of the hardest decisions a parent has to make. Five years ago, I put my teenager into a residential psychiatric care facility for a year. Housing my child out of my home and in a residential mental health treatment center was a very painful decision that probably saved—and definitely changed—my child’s life.