“How to help child who is having trouble sleeping?”

First, let him verbalize his thoughts about what is going on as much as possible. Discipline his routine of bedtime and wake-up time without electronics is of utmost importance. Spend more time with school work with distant learning in the morning as best possible, not late evening time. I treat my patients at this age individually because there are so many variables in every child's case of insomnia. I use Richard Ferber's principles in his book "Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems" as a foundation in my counseling. It is rare that I would recommend any medications at that age, maybe low dose melatonin but usually work on Ferber's principles the majority of the time.

Better to find out underlying reason. If it’s psychiatric illnesses related or just because doing something else. Lack of a structured life may also contribute.

Make sure that he is not doing distance learning in the bedroom. The bedroom should be equated with sleep only and Not home work or school. Secondly, how much school work is there, lots? Thirdly, boys are active, he needs to have time to be outside and run and play. There has been lots of changes with the new distant learning.
Thank you for being a great parent!!!
Hope that helps.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many people are having sleep problem--our sleeping patterns are off. Here's what I suggest: 1. stick to a consistent bedtime even though the child is not attending school 2. wake the child up at the same time each day as if he or she is attending school 3. shut down all devices and TV one hour prior to bedtime 4. provide a relaxing environment to allow his / her senses to shut down. Good and bad sleep habits have to develop so consistency plays a big part.

Thank you for your question at FATD. Generally speaking distance learning involving a computer based learning experience exposes the child to a lot of computer generated energy which activates the child making it hard to sleep. You can control that by ensuring computer time ends at least two hours prior to bed time. In addition, home-bound conditions lead to less than the normal levels of physical activity. To that end you can ensure that your child stays active daily for at least an hour, by engaging in a safe physical activity, which will allow built up energy to be released. I hope this helps, thank you, Dr. Dodd, MD