Butterflies in the Tummy: Simple Ways to Talk to Kids About Worried Feelings

By Terry Morgan · October 4, 2026 · 4 min read

"My tummy feels funny." It's one of the first ways little kids tell us they're worried. Before they have words like nervous or anxious, the body speaks first: a new classroom, a thunderstorm rolling in, a parent traveling for work — and the butterflies show up.

Name the feeling out loud

Kids settle faster when a feeling has a name and a picture. "Sounds like the butterflies are visiting" turns a scary mystery into something small, familiar, and temporary — and once the butterflies have a name, you can talk about what helps them settle.

Three small tools that help

• Flower-and-candle breathing. Smell the flower (slow breath in), blow out the candle (slow breath out). Five rounds is usually enough to feel the shift.
• A quiet corner. A cushion, a stuffed friend and a favorite book turn "go calm down" into a place kids choose for themselves — a clubhouse for one, where breathing slows and listening to a story does the rest.
• Draw the feeling. Give the worry a face on paper. Once it has googly eyes, it's a lot less powerful.

Stories open the door

Reading about a character with the same wobbly feeling lets kids talk about "him" long before they're ready to talk about "me." Ask what the character should do next, and listen — you'll often hear exactly what your child needs.

Two of our own picture books live in this world — one about the tummy butterflies, one about a quiet-time club — and they're linked below if a story would help at your house.

A gentle note: every child worries sometimes, and that's normal. If worries get big, frequent, or start getting in the way of sleep and school, your pediatrician is a great next step.

From our shelf

Enjoyed this post? These are the Pooshop101 books that go with it — tap any cover to take a peek on Amazon.