6 Ways to Help a Child With Neuroinflammation Navigate Summer
For children living with neuroinflammation, summer can be challenging.
Posted July 17, 2025 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
In my last post , I introduced the term Neuroimmune Reactive Avoidance (NRA) (Gertel Kraybill, 2025)—a pattern of extreme distress and avoidance that arises when neuroinflammation disrupts a child’s capacity to tolerate everyday demands. When the nervous and immune systems are inflamed, even routine tasks can feel overwhelming and threatening.
In this post, I want to focus on what that actually means for daily life during the summer months. As both a therapist who supports families in the most complex cases and a PANDAS /Autoimmune Encephalitis mom, I know firsthand how challenging this season can be.
Summer can feel like it should be easier—more relaxed schedules, more chances to connect. But in reality, this is often a time when we need to do less, not more. As painful and disappointing as it may be, you may find that your family simply needs to stay home most of the summer. Camps, concerts, water parks, the pool, movies, and even restaurants might not be options right now.
Here are some key considerations and practical tips for navigating summer with a child experiencing NRA:
1. Simplify Expectations and Redefine Summer Plans
Many parents feel social pressure to fill summer with camps, outings, and enrichment. But when your child is living with NRA, over-scheduling or trying to do what "other families" do can lead to exhaustion and escalation.
Sometimes, the most loving thing for everyone is to do less, not more.
2. Focus on Predictable Routines
When school is out, the lack of structure can increase dysregulation. Even a simple daily rhythm helps your child feel safer.
3. Prioritize Sensory Safety
Neuroinflammation can amplify sensory overwhelm and social fatigue. Demands—even fun ones—can feel like threats.
4. Minimize Transitions
Transitions can be especially triggering when a child is already dysregulated.
5. Maintain Medical and Nutritional Supports
Even when life feels unpredictable, consistent medical and nutritional care matters.
6. Notice Guilt and Comparison
It’s natural to grieve the summer you imagined. Feeling frustrated, sad, or angry about limitations is normal; we all feel this way sometimes.
Parenting a child with Neuroimmune Reactive Avoidance requires a different lens—and often, a different pace. Summer doesn’t have to be about productivity or elaborate plans. Sometimes, the bravest and most loving choice is to slow down, stay home, and create an environment in which everyone has the space to keep things calm and begin to heal.
Parents often ask me how I manage these painful years with so much complexity around parenting children with NRA. I try to be as honest as I can with myself and acknowledge that it is painful and often feels draining to the core. I remind myself that this is a challenging time, and it will not always be like this—just as it wasn’t always like this before.
When things are easier, I remind myself and my children to notice and remember those moments, so that when the harder days return, we can hold on to the evidence that there have been good times—and that there will be good times again.
I recognize the pain and exhaustion it takes to parent a child with NRA. It is complex and requires ongoing support to weather this season.
You are not alone in this. And you are already doing the best you can.
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Odelya Gertel Kraybill, PhD, LCPC, is a psychoneuroimmunology and trauma therapist, scholar, and neurodivergent parenting expert.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.