Health Tip: How Your Kids React to Bad News

(HealthDayNews) -- Last month''s devastating tsunamis in Asia are saturating the television airwaves with images that can disturb children.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development says parents should monitor what their children are watching, and avoid allowing them to see the same unsettling pictures repeatedly.

It''s a good idea to watch the news with your children and to help them understand what they are seeing. Talk to your child''s doctor, teacher or a mental health professional if you notice one or more of these behavioral changes in your child:

• Clinging to one or both parents.
• Fears that won''t go away.
• Nightmares.
• Bedwetting.
• Difficulty paying attention.
• Jumpiness, edginess.
• Behavior problems in school.
• Sadness or being less active.
• Always talking about or acting out a disaster.
• Changes in eating patterns.
• Decrease in academic performance.

-- Anne Thompson