Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Children’s Sleep Still Disturbed by Quake : Stress: Panel of pediatricians say they are treating a large number of youngsters who remain too frightened to go to bed alone.

Earthquake aftershocks may be tapering off, but area pediatricians say they are still treating an unusually large number of young children too frightened to sleep normally.

Key to resuming normal sleep patterns and easing children’s post-quake stress is quickly settling back into normal routines, according to several doctors who attended a panel discussion for physicians in Encino on Wednesday.

More than a dozen pediatricians took part in the support panel, which was sponsored by the University Children’s Medical Group. Many of them said they’ve been getting frequent calls from parents concerned that, more than two weeks after the fact, their children still seem reluctant to sleep alone.

“They ask, ‘Are they going to be in my bed forever? How do I get them out?’ ” said Susan Brauner-Tatum, a licensed clinical social worker at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles.

Brauner-Tatum was one of a panel of mental-health professionals who advised the pediatricians on ways to handle a deluge of new earthquake-related problems in children, including stomachaches, nightmares, increased insecurity and fears of returning indoors.

Young children are particularly likely to suffer emotional problems weeks after the quake because they are less capable of understanding and articulating their fears, the panelists said.

Most of the advice they gave was grounded in common sense: Return as quickly as possible to normal patterns of life; listen patiently to children’s fears, and remember that children’s behavior will often reflect the emotional strain they detect in their parents.

Several of the doctors said the quake has prompted them to alter time-honored parenting advice. Toddlers too scared to sleep alone shouldn’t be made to tough it out, they said. “This situation calls for a little more sympathy,” said Tarzana pediatrician Howard Mendelson. “The fears these kids have are not unrealistic. They’re real.”

Panelists told the doctors to tell parents to gently ease their children back into pre-quake sleeping habits--waiting by their bedsides until they go to sleep, for example, or actually sleeping with them in their own rooms until the child is comfortable enough to be left alone.

“They should still try to exert pressure to get them back to their own beds. There’s a delicate balance between sympathy and indulgence,” said Mendelson, adding that he has been getting about four calls a day from parents concerned about children’s sleeping habits.

Panelists stressed that parents should not be too quick to assume their child’s problems following the quake will persist.

Nightmares, clinginess and earthquake games are all normal reactions, and don’t necessarily mean that a child is showing signs of post-traumatic stress and in need of treatment, they said.

Only if the symptoms seem to preempt normal functioning and persist for months should parents assume their child needs psychiatric help, they said.