How To Use

Lavenderbuddy loves to be introduced as a friend.

Let him pop his head out of the backpack and prompt your child to explore all of his beautiful textures, colours and scent of lavender.

Curiosity and exploration self led is wonderful to watch.

Over the weeks or when you feel it is suitable, connect with your child and take each element and introduce how to use this on the Bear

1. Fabric- let them stroke the fabric back and forward to receive tactile feedback.

2. Embroidered Breath Focus points- Let them find them with their fingers and eyes closed so they feel the change in the tactile input.

3. Name the colours

4. Count the points

5. Open and close the Velcro across his tummy for Auditory feedback, let them remove the inside bag and ask what else do they think they could put in there.

6. Let them trace their fingers on the LOGO at the back and then the same on the backpack. This lets them find their Bear and Backpack amongst others by tactile feedback , especially helpful for Visual Impairments.

   Now the features become familiar you can now introduce Breathwork.

Start slowly practicing a breath in and a breath out when their fingers move down these points.

Start at the head or the bottom and work up.

Continue making this a familiar task and then move onto taking a breath and a long one out.

This type of breathing downshifts the nervous system and brings a calm balance.

Let them take it with them to trips outside the house, when needing a nap, and bedtimes.

This brings consistency and familiarity that their new friend is always around.

The Scene has been set, usually in a few weeks and this is where the magic happens next.

When you as a parent see that overwhelm about to land in their little bodies, this is when Lavenderbuddy comes into his best work.

The child will feel, smell, see and hear the velcro pull apart- 4 of their senses getting feedback.

The Lavender scent sends a signal to the Brain like a little Hello and the Brain responds, again downshifting the Nervous system responses which have caused the overwhelm.

Hugs give proprioceptive feedback and raise Oxytocin levels.

If you missed this moment because you are a parent with a lot of responsibilities to carry or because that overwhelm has went from 0-100 is 2 seconds, that is okay, let them release all the emotional responses and Lavenderbuddy will be there when they are ready to have their Thinking Brain come back online.

Asking anyone to use their Thinking brain in times of overwhelm and alarms going off inside their brain and body, rarely works.

That shift from one to the other is not easy for us grown ups even after years of practice so, we need to acknowledge some patience and understanding is needed.

Lead with a Hug from Lavenderbuddy to you then leave next to your child to let them choose a Hug also.

Our children learn from what they see and connecting with them in times of distress is easier with a Tool and not our voice or our emotional responses.

Prompt some finger movement up the breath points and add the breaths in too.

For clarity- When we have an Emotional response to something, it lasts 60-90 seconds, what we see after that is the energy of this emotion looping from the body back up to the brain, over and over.

Lavenderbuddy being used closes this emotional response with signals from all of the senses and the hug back up to the alarm in the brain and says," its ok, you are safe."

without a word even been spoken.

Another reason Lavenderbuddy can be useful is that all of us carry old emotions stored in our alarm system and can be triggered. We can be tired and overwhelmed to as parents and when battling with screams, kicks and your child's thinking brain off, it can be tough to try and manage our own responses as well as them.

Using Lavenderbuddy also gives you space to step back and breath or do it alongside your child.

Sleep Support using Lavenderbuddy to bring the body into rest and digest, where they can then sleep. This is tough because if their brain is busy and their body has excess energy to move- sofa cushions are bounced upon, the constant needs being proclaimed- I need a drink, a wee, a poo, a hug......

You Know!

A little tip is you can take an item of yours as a parent and place inside the velcro pouch or let Lavenderbuddy wear it and this brings your familiar scent, alongside a Hug for you to be able to learn them independent settling skills for the times you cannot be there or you need to sleep alone just for one night.

Using for naps or rest times and then follow with sleep support at bedtime, because by this point, their brain and body recognises all of this sensory input and the signal of safety arrives automatically.