3 Healthful Ways To Prepare Your Child For Summer Camp

DETROIT (CBS DETROIT) - If you're child is going away to camp this summer, there's a chance they could get homesick. But you can try packing some healthful techniques to help.

If it's your child's first time going to an overnight camp, it might be a good idea to practice first says WWJ's Dr. Deanna Lites.

• Have your child sleepover at a friend or relative's house to get them used to sleeping in a strange place for a night or two.
• Visit the camp ahead of time if possible so you child has an idea of the surroundings.

Child psychiatrist Joe Austerman says talk to the camp about letting your child call home as needed.

• "You talk to the camp and you establish a lifeline, and just knowing that there is a lifeline if the child is upset they can talk to their parent - does a tremendous amount in soothing that child's nerves," said Austerman.

Dr. Austerman says the camp experience can provide a life-lesson for kids. If they learn to work through anxiety, like homesickness, they can apply it in other situations that make them upset or anxious.