When interacting with and caring for your Indigo/Crystal child you need to remember that your child is very different to you. What worked for you as a child will not work for them.
The main areas where you will need to adjust are the following:

1. The Indigo/Crystal child is a Right Brain oriented being.
2. The Indigo/Crystal is Super Sensitive to environmental stress.
3. The Indigo/Crystal child is sensitive to food and will often develop Food Allergies.
What does this mean for you?

1. RIGHT BRAIN ORIENTATION
Indigo and Crystal children operate primarily from the Right brain. This means they are creative, intuitive, imaginative and emotionally intelligent. However, our culture is primarily left brain oriented, which means it is linear, rational and logical.
Difficulties arise when the child enters the school system and needs to adapt its way of functioning. A right-brainer learns very quickly and often makes intuitive leaps that demonstrate astonishing intelligence. But the school system is geared for left-brain functioning which is repetitive, routine, organized and linear/cumulative. This "slower" approach means that the child becomes bored very quickly- and loses interest. It generally then seeks other ways to stimulate its interest. This leads to many Indigo Children being labelled as ADD and ADHD, and often given Ritalin, when in fact there is nothing wrong with them other than boredom.

Also, because of their intuitive intelligence, they can often "busk" their way through several years of the school system before it is ascertained that they cannot read or write "correctly". This leads to the child being labelled "dyslexic", another stigma.

This is damaging because your Indigo Child has a strong sense of being "perfect", and is here on a "mission". If it is told that is is dysfunctional or that "there is something wrong with me", it will become traumatised and seek to either heal or disguise this wound. This can lead, in the adolescent years, to drug abuse and eating disorders as ways of healing or hiding the trauma.

It is vitally important that the Indigo or Crystal Child be recognised as different but not dysfunctional. If the difference is honored and managed, the child will grow up in a balanced way, but if not, it will lead to dysfunction and problems.

SENSITIVITY TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS
Your child is also far more sentitive than you were or are. Its hearing, vision, and senses are far more acute than yours. This is part of the evolutionary shift, as humans become more open and sensitive.
What this means is that your child will be stressed and distressed by loud noises, crowds of people, blaring music and television sets. Its response will either be to become withdrawn and depressed, or to allow the stimulus and become hyperactive and destructive.

The Indigo/Crystal child therefore needs a quiet and tranquil home environment with a minumum of electronic toys and gadgets, and certainly not television sets as the babysitter. There is an almost direct correlation between the amount and type of TV that is absorbed and the behaviour of the child.

Environmental stress also includes the relationship of the parents. If there is either overt or unstated aggression in the home the child will pick it up and will develop either dysfunction or defense mechanisms. You can hide nothing from the Indigo/Crystal child, it "reads" your field of energy and understands exactly what you think and feel even if it remains unstated.

FOOD ALLERGIES
The Physical body of the Indigo/Crystal child is also very sensitive. They often cannot tolerate processed food and food additives. They also respond badly to sugar and caffeine.
This means that sweets, artificially coloured drinks, biscuits, pies, hamburgers and choclates will create dysfunctional and hyperactive behaviour in the child. Feeding and Indigo or Crystal Child a chocolate and a coca-cola is literally the equivalent of giving the child a drug. Its system will respond by becoming overactive - producing hyperactive behaviour followed by a "crash" or tantrum when the effecst wear off and the child comes "down" and suffers sugar and caffeine withdrawal symptoms.

This can also mean that a "normal" diet will not be tolerated by many Indigos. Chicken and meat are filled with hormones, anti-biotics and chemicals, and most tinned or processed foods that are bought in supermarkets also contain chemicals that may not be tolerated. In addition, the child may be wheat and diary intolerant, producing symptoms such as eczema, digestive problems and sinus and ear/nose and throat disorders.

Guidelines for Dealing with these Problems
EDUCATION
Your Indigo/crystal child will respond well to an education system that balances right and left brain and that includes creativity in the form of music, art, dance and drama.
The best system for an Indigo/Crystal child is probably the Waldorf system which initially maximizes the right brain element while developing the left as a support. It also focusses on "grounding" the child into the body, since many Indigo children deal with their trauma by becoming "spaced out" or escaping from their bodies.

If you have your child tested for ADD or ADHD, be wary of putting the child on Ritalin, which is a drug (with side effects and withdrawal symptoms), which is designed to help parents and teachers to cope rather than assist the child. There are homeopathic and dietary alternatives that are less harmful and more effective.

ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS
In the early years, minimize noise and stress. This means minimize television, electronic games and "violent" activities.
Encourage play, imagination, reading and books, colouring in, and stories.

Create a calm and tranquil environment, as far as is possible.

FOOD
This is the most difficult to monitor, as convenience shopping and peer pressure means that the child will be exposed to the "glamour" of junk food.
Try to focus on natural, organic and healthy alternatives.

If the child suffers from mood swings or allergies you may need to identify the food problem and create a more balanced nutritional plan.

Celia Fenn
www.starchildascension.org