Signs the stress of isolation is getting to your kid

This is my family’s third week of self-isolation. It’s, well, isolating and sad and scary, among roughly 5,000 other emotions. While I’m an adult who is prepared to deal with the mental health challenges I have and will face during these weeks, I’m deeply concerned with how all this solo time will affect our children’s mental health.

As psychologist Genevieve von Lob told reporter Caroline Bologna, “None of us do well with uncertainty, and this crisis is a lot for our children to process. Just like us, our children are experiencing a great deal of loss of their normal lives right now.”

With this in mind, what signs of distress should parents look out for in their kids? “When children are stressed, it is often expressed in physiological changes and changes in mood and behaviors,” Duke University psychiatry professor Robin Gurwitch said. “Sadly, we don’t have a parenting manual that allows us to turn to Chapter 4 on children and pandemics to know what to look for in our children or even for ourselves.”

So Bologna spoke with a variety of experts to learn about some of the key indicators to watch out for as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.

Be well out there, and remember, if you need me, you can find me at katea@huffpost.com.

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For when your kid is keeping you awake...

Both of my children have celebrated birthdays while self-isolating. I feared the worst, but they actually both seemed to have a great time. Because I often use my job to help solve personal questions, we asked the HuffPost Parents community (Join us!) for some fun tips to help make my kids feel extra special (gotta love a good scavenger hunt!). So if you need some ideas for a quarantine birthday party, look no further.